Spring is here and the above photo was a picture of my whiteboard drawing as an icebreaker for my students. This drawing above initiated topics among my students such as: "My mother is growing tulips in her garden" or "Flowers need water and sun to grow." These conversations sound like some good language and some good speech sounds all in one.
I brought in artificial vegetables for my younger students to describe and they really enjoyed telling me all about the different types of vegetables. The artificial vegetables I got from Ikea in the children's section.
One of my favorite apps that a lot of my younger students have enjoyed is Dr. Panda's Veggie Garden. This app was very good to tie in all of the information that they have been learning in class about vegetables and fruit and how plants grow. Here is the link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dr.-pandas-veggie-garden/id585512923?mt=8Cost of this app: $1.99.There are 12 different fruits and vegetables that the students can grow and learn about in this app. It also provides some good vocabulary (i.e. plowing, seeding) and the students can put the fruits and vegetables in the correct category. To make it even more engaging, I chose one student to be the farmer.
First the elephant pulls up and is thinking off a fruit or a vegetable. The farmer (a student) can name what the elephant is thinking of in his mind. Below are some of the steps that the students had to take in order to make the blueberries grow.
Open the bag
Put the seeds in the pot
Use the watering can
Sunlight to help the blueberries grow
Keep the bugs away from eating your blueberries
Pick the blueberries and put them in the basket for the elephant
Put the blueberries on the back of the elephant's truck
I have more than one school this year, so I have been on the road in my car travelling and providing speech and language Therapy to different students at different schools. This post is one of my latest additions to my therapy bin, which may become a tradition for the holidays.
"Bulletin Boards on the Go". In this post I added pictures of all of the different items that I included on the board. All of the items were purchased at the Dollar Store including the foam poster board.
Above are the foam shapes (8 in a pack) that I put on the board using tape. Included in the pack were fall items (i.e. pumpkins, leaves, acorns). I wrote the letters F-A-L-L for Fall on each foam shape.
Next, I added a few Fall stickers, the remaining stickers I put in a box and allowed the students to pick their fall sticker at the end of the session. There are 200 stickers in a pack.
Then, I added the Window Cling leaves to the board. There were a few of these in a pack as well.
Last I added the Gourds and pumpkin (three came in a pack) and the big tall scarecrow.
This bulletin board targets so many different goals.
So after adding all of
the additions to the Fall board. Here is the final product.....
All of the students really enjoyed viewing the board and talking about what they saw.
Now, they think I spend all my free time making fall boards too lol.
The Fall vocabulary list is on the back of the board.
I spent $6 and some change (for tax) to create this Fall Bulletin Board. Happy Thanksgiving!
What are some Fall activities that you have created?
In Therapy we did a planting activity, all of my clients really enjoyed this activity. Some of the skills that were targeted during this activity included the following:
- Sequencing
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
- Increasing Vocabulary
- Pragmatic Skills
- Inferencing
- Following Directions
I like to incorporate various themes when planning activities for my sessions. We discussed the plant cycle, the parts of a plant, the tools that are needed to plant, vocabulary words that were related to planting, and a lot of other skills were targeted. This activity can be modified for different age groups, it was functional and fun! Below are some websites that had some activities to go with the planting theme: 
Potting Soil
Seeds
Pot, A Plastic Container to Pour Potting Soil Into, Plastic Trowel
Planting in Speech was so much Fun!
Last week, we went grocery shopping in Speech Therapy. It was so much fun, I did this activity with the younger children on my caseload.
1. First, I showed them a sample shopping list and we talked about making a list before going shopping. We went through our book, "Buying Groceries" Written by Ana Paula G. Mumy and Illustrations by Korey Scott, and we wrote our shopping list of all of the items that we would buy.
2. Each child had their own shopping bag and as we took turns reading the different pages of the story, they got to collect the items that corresponded to that page of the book.
The book that we used is from a series of other books from the GROW! ¡CREZCA! Story & Language Books: Spanish-English Edition.
These books are great for the students on my caseload because a lot of them are bilingual. The books show both Spanish and English with four separate progressive levels, based on the student's reading level.Each student's target goals were incorporated into the session.
All of the students enjoyed going grocery shopping..
Poppa's Pizza Pile Up
Activity: Poppa’s Pizza Pile Up is one of the favorites among the younger children that I work with during Speech therapy. I remember as a child, my favorite food was pizza and a lot of children just love pizza. I modify the activity based on the goals that each child is working on in therapy. For example,
Goals Students are working on During Speech Therapy:
Student #1: Working on producing target /s/ in the initial position at the word level
Student #2: Working on using 4-5 word utterances to communicate
Materials that I Use for this Activity?
-Initial /s/ cards or word list
-Picture Cards
-Poppa's Pizza Pile Up
How is Each Goal Targeted?
There are many different ways to modify an activity to target each student’s goal. Below is a possible option:
Student #1: Says 3 initial /s/ words: sit, sand, sock…SLP models correct production...Then student gets to choose a topping to put on the pizza.
Student #2: Looks at picture card, talks about what they see… Ex. If student says, “Brown dog”…SLP models a sentence for the student, “The brown dog is running.” Then student can take a turn and choose a topping to put on the pizza.
We Have So Much Fun...
We talk about their favorite type of pizza, ingredients to make pizza; below is a sheet that I bring to accompany Poppa's Pizza Pile Up. Before we start the activity we always discuss the parts of the pizza (i.e. the crust, sauce, cheese, toppings) and the pizza toppings (mushroom, cheese, pepperoni, tomato) they can choose to put on the pizza when it is their turn. They make a sentence (i.e. "May I have the _(name of the pizza topping)_) before they put their topping on the pizza.
I Do Not Have Poppa's Pizza Pile Up....
You do not have to go out and buy a pizza game, this activity can be prepared with construction paper.
Ex. Brown paper for crust, Red paper for pepperonis and tomatoes, Yellow paper for cheese...Clip art can be used for the different toppings if you do not want to use construction paper.
Construction paper may not sound as fun, but....Remember it is all in how the activity is presented! Have fun with your lessons. The pizza parts can be in a bag when you first start the activity, you can have them guess what is inside of the bag, have them pull out the different parts that make up a pizza to see if they can guess...Ask them, "What do you think we are making today?"
Enjoy....In the comments box below, feel free to share your experience with this activity or any others ways that this activity could be modified.
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