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.

To make your own, go to http://www.cryptogram.com/hearts/

I’ve made some pages of “r” and “l” Valentine’s Day words on hearts for you to print.

L Valentine’s Day words on hearts

R Valentine’s Day words on hearts

Enjoy your week!
Becky

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

• Use a tongue depressor to gently hold the tongue tip down while the child produces the /k/ sound.
• Use a lollipop to gently hold the tongue tip down.
• Have the child hold his tongue tip down with a clean finger.

We’ve got /k/, now what?

Once you’ve got /k/ in isolation, I find it easiest to work on /k/ in the final position, starting with the next smallest unit of production – syllables.  I work through each vowel sound with visual cueing for the /k/ sound.  Allow the child to put a pause in between the vowel and /k/ at first if necessary.  Print out this page of k final syllables and trace the dashes with your finger or a marker while the child produces the sounds.  If you laminate the page, you can use a dry erase marker to draw a line between the vowel and /k/ and then erase it and use it again.

Ready for words

Once the child is successful at the syllable level, move to short words like those in my k final picture cards.  Go through them so the child knows what each picture represents and practice them one at a time, cueing as necessary. 

Games

For practice and repetition, print out a second set of cards and play games such as “Go Fish” or “Memory” with them.  Or, clip a paper clip to the pictures and give the child a magnetic fishing pole and have him “catch” each word and say it.

Moving on

Once the child is producing /k/ words successfully, move to short phrases and sentences.  Play with nursery rhymes that are /k/ loaded, such as “Hickory Dickory Dock”.  Have the child help make up stories with /k/ words, write them down and send them home for practice.

Printables

Once again, here are the links to the free printables included in this post.  Print them out and enjoy them!  Let your friends know about them too!

k final syllables

k final picture cards

Believe it or not, there is a simple way to add some spice to your students’ papers.  With a bit of variety and details, even the most basic paper can come to life.  Teach these techniques prior to planning and writing papers or as you proofread a paper together. 

Stop the “then, then, then” train:
The first transition word students tend to add to their papers is “then”.  But when each paragraph is so weighted down with “then”, it gets to be a drag.  So, give them some substitutes, such as…

• After that
• Next
• Following that

By simply using these words instead of “then”, the paper will instantly have some variety and interest.

Details:
Have students add words, phrases, or sentences that answer the following questions…

• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How?  How many?  For how long?

For example, if the student wrote, “We went to New York.”  Have him answer these questions to expand on the first, basic sentence. 

• Who did you go with?  Who did you go see?
• What did you do there?  What did you see?  What did you eat? 
• Where in New York did you go?  Where did you stay?
• When did you go?
• Why did you go there?
• How did you get there?  How long did you stay?

With so many details, the reader will get a much clearer picture of what the writer is trying to express.  What a difference some details can make!

You can even make reminder notes for students to stick to their desks or inside their notebook, like these cards.  Print them on standard business cards or on regular paper and cut them apart.

Remember to sign up for my email list before the end of the month so you can get the next monthly email.  It will include instructions, ideas, and free printable materials.  Just visit the FREE page, enter your email address, and click on the link in the email you receive to activate your email address.  If you do not activate your account, I won’t be able to send you the free materials.

While word problems can be intimidating to any typical student, they can seem downright impossible to figure out for the student with language disorders.  But what can we do about it?  Is math really something we should address in our language sessions?  Absolutely!  And here’s why… it’s about decoding the language of math.

I teach students how to decode the question and figure out what it is asking them to do.  The calculating is up to them and their teachers to work on.  Once students know what to do with the numbers, the battle is half won.  To work on the specific vocabulary, you can make flash cards with the students, make reference sheets for their desks, make posters to hang on your walls, or play math word bingo.  Do whatever you need for them to learn the following words and what they mean.  Then, do example word problems from their math books to help them practice decoding the questions.  Have them look for the “key words” in the question and figure out what to do.

I recently printed out business cards with these words on them for my language students in third-fifth grades to have on their desks.  All of their teachers asked me if they could have some for the rest of the class too.  Of course!  You can have them too!  Print them out on standard perforated business card paper or on plain paper and cut them apart.

Let’s face it- data is important. We need it to know how our clients are doing and when their goals have been achieved.  It’s also important for our clients to know how they are doing and when they will have reached the “finish line” for that goal.  We need it to chart progress for ourselves, for our clients, and for their caregivers.

The key for easy data collection is to work in groups of ten. Whether it’s a list of “r” words, pictures of verbs, or a set of vocabulary words, work in groups of ten.  This makes it so much easier to calculate percentages.  (For those situations when ten trials is not enough, you can work in groups of twenty and multiply the number correct by 5, or do twenty-five trials and multiply by 4.)

1. If you are working with pictures or cards, use those to keep track for you.  Simply place the correct cards in one stack and the incorrect ones in another.  When you are done, count the correct ones, add a zero, and that is your percentage (e.g., seven cards in the correct stack = 70%).

2. Give the child a sticker or token or some other object (e.g., piece for a Cootie Bug) for each correct answer.  Again, the number of objects they have at the end corresponds to the percentage correct.

3. Have the child move ahead one space on a game board for each correct response.  Count how many spaces he/she has moved after ten attempts.

4. Have the child color or glue a picture on a reinforcement activity page.  If you want the child to be able to color after each attempt, give him/her a certain color to use when the response is correct.

5. Keep tally marks on a scrap of paper.  Ok, really basic, but in some situations, this is just the best way to keep track.  You can use any markings you want.

Use this simple graph for keeping track of data.  I draw a dark line across at the target percentage (e.g., 80%) to make it clear where the “finish line” is.  For children that are old enough to color in the lines, I outline the area that represents their percentage for that session and let them color it in.

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Who is Sam?

“Ssssam” is my new best friend for working on the “s” sound with children.  He is simply a sock puppet that I made with my sons and recently took to work.  And he was a hit!

What do you do with Sam?

I use Sam is different ways depending on the child I am working with. 

• For the child who is stopping “s” as “t”, I use him to get production of the “s” sound in isolation.
• For the child who is “lisping”, I use him to demonstrate keeping the tongue “put away” by tucking Sam’s tongue underneath him.  The child helps “teach” Sam and can “catch” Sam with his tongue out, which works on awareness.

The beauty of Sam is that the children put him on and demonstrate the therapy goal.  And they have fun doing it!

How do I make one?

This is the easy and fun part, and can even become a therapy activity.

Materials:
Sock (ladies’ socks are a good size)
Eyes (googly eyes or paint)
Red felt (very little is needed)
Scissors
Glue (fabric glue is best)
Decorations, optional

Steps:
1. Cut the red felt into a forked tongue shape, leaving a long base for gluing to the sock.
2. Glue the eyes (or paint them) on the “top” of the sock near the toe end.
3. Glue the tongue underneath the toe end of the sock.
4. Decorate with paint, thin ribbons, or other decorations, keeping in mind that the sock will stretch when put on the hand.

There you have it!  A fun, inexpensive therapy tool!

For a printable download of step-by-step directions with pictures, click on the link below.

sam_the_snake_directions_with_pictures