This is a great way to get to know things about the students that their files won’t tell you.  It also gives you a chance to hear them speak conversationally.  If you can, take notes on a card or page for each student that you can refer to later.

Here’s to a great school year!

Becky Wanca

•    adaptable to any goal
•    fun for big and little kids
•    cheap
•    portable

What you’ll need:

•    pennies (or plastic chips or beans) – enough for each player to have 5-10
•    egg carton or ice cube tray with a number (1-3) written in the bottom of each “cup”

How to play:

The students earn pennies for correct answers or sound productions.  Once each student has had approximately 5-10 chances to earn pennies, it’s tossing time!

Set the carton on the floor against a wall and put down something to mark where the players stand.  Depending on the age of the players, have them stand anywhere from one-four feet away and take turns tossing their pennies into the carton.  A penny only counts if it stays in the carton!  After each player, add up the points earned and collect your pennies.  I can usually fit two to three tossing rounds into a session, depending on the group size and the goals we are addressing.  Reward the winner (with praise or an object) and then start again!

Becky Wanca

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

This craft reuses egg cartons, which makes it a great Earth Day activity. I love that it is perfect for spring, easy for little hands, and adaptable to go along with Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar book. It also makes sessions fun!

I did this craft with my younger students after I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and had them answer questions about the story. There are so many different skills you can target with this wonderful book, such as counting, sequencing, vocabulary building, question answering, and specific sound practice. You can print a copy of my questions now and look for more related ideas and printables in a Basic Set coming soon.  To get this set for free, make sure you are signed up on my email list before the end of the month.  You can sign up at: http://www.SpeechTherapyIdeas.com/free

Here are the directions for the egg carton caterpillar:

Materials:
egg carton (cut into a 3-cup strip)
pipe cleaner (cut in half)
scissors
marker
glue
googly eyes

Steps:
1. Gather materials.

2. Have the child draw a smile and nose, if desired, on one end of the egg carton.

3. Poke small holes where the antennae will be. From the bottom of the caterpillar, have the child put one end of the pipe cleaner in one hole and then the other end through the other hole. Curl the ends and bend them as desired.

4. Glue small googly eyes above the smile.

Here are the printable downloads for this post:

Pictures and directions for making an egg carton caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar questions

-Becky Wanca

Materials:

• 2 paper plates per child
• black crayons for coloring the pot
• scissors tape or stapler
• paper coins – Here is a page of coins for you to print out or you can use a circle paper punch. You can use colored paper or color it yellow or gold yourself.

Preparation:

• Gather the materials.
• Cut a part off the top side of one paper plate to make it resemble an open pot.
• Cut out the coins and decide what the targets are going to be (i.e., sounds, antonyms, etc.).
• Attach the plates together if you want to have this done ahead of time.

Activity:

1. Have the child color the back of the cut plate and the top part of the other plate black. If working with a group, the children can color while waiting for their turns.
2. Tape or staple the plates together so that they create a pocket.
3. Spread the coins out on the table or put them in a bag or bowl for the children to pick from.
4. Have the child pick a coin, practice the targeted activity, and then put it in his pot.
5. If there is time, review the stimuli in the child’s pot.

Again, for a printable page of coins to use in this activity, click here.

Materials:
- a cardboard tube from a paper towel or toilet paper roll for you and each child (decorating is optional)
- stimulus cards or pictures

Use:
Word level – Have the child look through a tube at stimulus cards (or around the room to find objects with the target sound) and then say the word.

Sentence level – Depending on what level you are working on, the child could simply say, “I see a __.” or a more complex sentence such as “The __ is next to the window.”

Groups – Play the game “I Spy” with the tubes and have the children guess what the person has spotted. Be sure to let them know what sound is being targeted.

Extra ideas:
Use this activity in pirate, explorer, and astronomy themes.

Materials:
1. Scrap paper, ripped (letter size paper ripped in fourths works great)
2. Stimuli for what you are working on
3. Bowl or basket for each student (optional)

Directions:
1. Give each student a bowl or basket to hold the “snowballs” (optional).

2. For each production or answer the child gives, a piece of paper is earned. The child can then ball it up and add it to his or her basket or pile. The students want a lot of “snowballs” and therefore are usually eager to have many turns.

3. Clear a space in the room or go to an open space for your “snowball” fight. Position the students around the outside with an empty space in the middle. You can give each child a turned-around chair as a barrier to hide behind if you want.

4. Set a time limit for your “fight” and let the fun begin! The students can gather “snowballs” and throw them back too (see tips below).

5. Make a game out of cleaning up. See how fast all of the “snowballs” can be tossed into a recycling bin.

Tips:
- Only allow two players to be in the middle space collecting “snowballs” at a time.
- Require players to be in their positions to throw “snowballs”. This keeps players from throwing them from the middle space.
- If you think a single student may be targeted by multiple players, make teams.

This is definitely an activity the students will remember and ask for again and again! Have fun!

Welcome autumn!  If you’re like me, you’re ready for some cooler weather and fun, fall activities.  I love to use the changing of seasons to introduce new vocabulary, games, and activities into my sessions.  It’s also a great time to reinforce previously learned skills from a different angle.  Try some of these apple activities or create some of your own.

Apple activities
Materials:  6 apples (2 each of red, yellow, and green), preferably in varying sizes

Matching – Have the children match the apples by color (then by size, if appropriate).

Comparatives – Pick 2-3 apples that are different enough in size and do receptive and expressive language tasks for big/little, big/bigger/biggest, and small/smaller/smallest.

Describing – Have the children describe the similarities and differences between the different types of apples.

Vocabulary/Parts of a whole – Discuss the parts of an apple, using the terms stem, skin, flesh, core, and seeds.  Cut an apple in half and show them the parts.
There are definitions for each of these parts at
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/samoset/gr2appleparts.htm

and an illustration of an apple with the parts labeled at
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/samoset/gr2applecutawaypopup.htm

Various speech and language skills – Print out this apple game board to use for a variety of skills.

To my friends in the Southern Hemisphere…I hope you are enjoying the beginning of spring.  You can use many of the ideas above using flowers instead of apples.  Silk flowers last longer and may be more consistent in size and color, but you can also just gather up a few from outside.

Look for more fall ideas and printables coming to your inbox soon!  If you haven’t signed up and activated your email address yet, do it now!  You’ll get FREE monthly emails full of ideas and printable materials so you can just print and go!  Here’s what to do…

1. Click on this link.
2. Enter your email address in the box.
3. Check your inbox for an email from me.
4. Click on the link in that email to activate your account.  (Even though the wording says “subscription”, there is absolutely NO CHARGE for this.)

Becky Wanca

Why work on describing?
Describing with details helps a child be specific about the different attributes of an item.  This can help students with comparing and contrasting, using details in their writing, and increasing their vocabularies.

Creativity disclaimer
First off, I must give credit where credit is due.  This wonderful activity is used by the teachers in my sons’ school to improve the details in their students’ writing.  I loved it so much that I had to share it with you.

The set up
Find pictures of three or four dogs that look different from each other and display them.  An easy way to do this is to find a calendar with pictures of dogs and take a few of the pages out.  (These can often be found on sale during the second half of the year or at a “dollar store” at the beginning of the year.)  Have a blank piece of paper and pencil available for each student.

Let the describing begin
Start out by discussing the dogs and what they look like.  Have the students describe the color, size, ears, nose, etc. of each dog.  You may want to write the words that they come up with next to the dog’s picture.

Tell them that the sad news is that their dogs have wondered off in the neighborhood and they need help finding them.  They each need to make a “Lost Dog” sign describing what their dog looks like so that their neighbors will know which dog belongs to them.  When they are finished, have the children read their descriptions to the group.  The group then guesses which dog belongs to that owner.

More describing to come
September’s email will contain step-by-step directions for teaching children to describe, starting with learning the concept receptively and moving to expressively describing features of items.  There will also be additional describing activities and printable materials included.

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Could it be?  Could hanging laundry actually be fun?  With this speech therapy activity it can be!

What you’ll need

- Picture or word cards cut out in the shape of clothing (e.g., shirts, shorts, mittens)
- Yarn or string (and a simple way to hang it)
- Clothespins or large paper clips
- Small basket or container for the cards

How to set up

- Hang the yarn or string horizontally at a height that the child can reach.
- Attach clothes pins (or large paper clips) to the string.
- Put the cards in the basket.

How to “play”

Have the child pick a card and say the word or a sentence for the word.  Then let the child hang it on the line.  You can also have the child repeat the words or sentences when taking down the cards.

Variations

Use this for language activities as well.  Hang one part of a pair on the line and have the child match the other part to it.  For example:

- Write a word on a shirt cut-out and the word’s antonym on a shorts cut-out.  Hang the shirts on the line and put the shorts in the basket.  Have the child match the shorts to the corresponding shirt by identifying its opposite.

- Write a contraction on a mitten and its corresponding word set on another mitten.  Hang the contractions on the line and have the child match the word sets to the contractions.

The possibilities are endless!

Free Printables

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Why are bubbles so great?

They’re cheap, fascinating, low-tech, and a wonderful therapy tool – a must have for Speech-language Pathologists working with young children.  The effect bubbles can have on a child is amazing!  By blowing bubbles, you can quickly gain and hold a child’s attention or calm a fussy child.  You can work on early words and concepts, practice turn taking, and work on things such as air flow and lip rounding – while having fun!  They are also very portable and can be used in any setting.

How do you use them for language therapy?

When working on requests for action, I use bubbles to teach the child to sign or say:  bubbles, blow, more, my turn, and all done.  I also use them to work on basic concepts such as up, down, big, little, wet, dry, and body parts.  For up and down, big and little, I model these by commenting on bubbles I’ve blown.  They can, however, become requests by the child on how to blow the next bubbles. 

For the concept of wet, we feel the table after blowing some bubbles on it, then wipe it off and feel “dry”.  Practicing body parts with bubbles begins with commenting on where the bubbles are landing (e.g., head, hand, finger, foot) and can become requests for where to blow bubbles.  Of course, be careful not to blow them in the child’s face.

Hints:

I recommend getting a no-spill bubble container so that you can hand the bubbles off to a young child without worrying about a big mess.  They are available for a few dollars at many stores and are refillable. 

If caregivers are present for therapy sessions, have them take turns with you.  This is an enjoyable activity that can easily be part of a home program.

Have fun!