The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie Preview

This is seriously my most favorite week in November!!  The kids love this book.  I have a ton of fun prepping the materials for the week.  It's just fun!  We have fun talking about all the Thanksgiving food that is we will be eating in the next week.  I love to hear from the kids about what they eat on Thanksgiving.  It's always an interesting conversation.  When I was a kid, I only ate the macaroni and cheese (and it had to be a certain kind!).  So you can say that I tend to relate with the kiddos who have mac and cheese with chicken nuggets!

To go with our book this week, we have a slew of activities such as the kids' favorite, the dot sheets!  I made two for the week but I am not sure if we will use both in therapy or if one will be given for homework.  I have a school age kiddo working on understanding the concepts of "before" and "after" so, I developed a worksheet to help teach "before."  Since I am trying to teach a new concept, I prefer to teach it one at a time.  A few other kiddos are working on using pronouns.  I developed an activity to work on using he/she in sentences.  I made 2 boards-an old woman and an old man.  The kids placed food cards on them and tell who "ate" the food.

For my little ones, I made a book to help teach basic food vocabulary for Thanksgiving.  There is also a matching playdough SMUSH mat to go along with the book.

 

If you are lucky enough for this to be your last week of therapy before the holiday next week, have fun!  If not, you can still have fun!:)

 

Until next time, keep 'em talking!

Melissa



Wee One Wednesday-Turkeys and Tots

Using turkeys this week has been fun with the little ones.  For starters, I am teaching a new vocabulary word-TURKEY.  Most young kids do not know what a turkey is or looks like.  Plus, it is super cute to hear a 2 year old try to say "Gobble, Gobble."  I wasn't really happy with my book for this week so I made one for the little guys.  It is similar to the "Brown Bear" format.  The kids picked up the rhythm of it immediately.  For some of my little guys with Autism, I saw their faces light up as if to say "Hey I know this one!"  I call it "Red Feather, Red Feather, What Do You See?"  It works on colors as well as answering "what" questions.  I kept it short so that it would keep their attention and not give too many words at once.  I also made a "SMUSH" board that goes with the book to work on colors.

The kids saw their favorite activity make a return this week-SMUSH boards.  I call them "SMUSH" boards because the little ones love to say "SMUSH!" as they smush playdough on the pictures.  This week my primary target is food!  I started with fruits last week.  Those appeared way too easy for several of my little friends so I added vegetables this week.  That should stump them!  You can also use these boards to work on goals such as describing qualities.  An example would be "What vegetable is red and grows on a vine?"  I added a simple category board as well to some of the sessions.  It was just recently added to the TpT store.  

Another favorite with the kids is the sensory bin.  I added seasonal vase filler balls (glittery orange and green), small fake apples, acorns and corn and a few feathers.  Then I added the plastic fruits and veggies we have been working on.  If you don't have the plastic ones, you could add laminated pictures of the foods you want to address.

The craft we do at the end of the week is similar to the articulation take home activity.  Except we glue the feathers onto the back of the bag.  Little ones must use words to make requests of the items they need.  Most of my little guys are seen at home.  They aren't in daycare so they don't crafts everyday.  They enjoy the actual process of making something.  The looks on their faces when we are done is enough for me.  They are so proud and SO EXCITED to show mom, grandma, dad or the babysitter!  Which of course ignites more expressive language!!!

Until next time, keep 'em talking!
Melissa

Thursday Thoughts on Language-OWLS

So by now we have covered the books, articulation and preschool speech activities all centered around the owl theme.  Though I use several of yesterday's ideas in therapy for language, some of my older kids don't care for them as much.  So I am bringing you some of my "school age" therapy ideas to use in the owl theme.

"Little Owl's Night" is still age appropriate.  I used it up to about 3rd grade (depending on the child).  For my language kids, I like to ask questions while we read.  These questions will be VERY SIMILIAR (aka almost the same!) to the ones I ask after the story.  But I like to use this time to discuss what is happening in the story and keep the kids engaged.  After we finish the book, we play "Little Owl's Night" Story Comprehension board game.  (You can find it in the book buddy.) Pretty simple-at each turn, have the child answer a question about the story.  You will need a die and pieces to play.  Whoever reaches Raccoon first wins!

Another language activity we have is the Irregular Past Tense Match Worksheet.  (also in the book buddy).  I like to teach irregular nouns and verbs in patterns if I can.  Some don't fit and I categorize them as the "Just Memorize Me" verbs.  The worksheet in the book buddy focuses on the "ew" verbs such as "blew, drew, flew, etc."  The fun thing with this worksheet is you can print 4-5 and laminate them.  The kids can use dry erase markers which they think is more fun anyway.  Then just wipe away and use for the next session.  After they have matched up the verbs, have them write sentences using the past tense verbs.

Big kids still like to play with playdough occasionally.  So I made a scene with owls in different places.  You could actually print two copies, laminate and use as barrier games.  You give the direction and the kids have to find the owl you are talking about.  Or you can flip it...have the child give the description to work on expressive language.  (I even use it with my little guys to help them understand spatial concepts.)  This activity is called "Where is Little Owl?" and it found in the book buddy.

The last activity is "Is That My Tree?" is a category game.  The trees are the category names.  The owls have different object names written on them.  Set out the trees on the table.  As the child pulls an owl from the envelope, have him tell where the owl belongs.  At the end, talk about each category and make sure the owls are in the right trees.  This activity is new to the TpT store!

 

Wishing everyone a great end to the week.  Until next time...Keep 'em talking.

Melissa

Talking on a Tuesday: Articulation is a HOOT!

I have struggled with how often to blog, how I wanted to structure posts, and if I wanted "theme-y" posts or not...  I am playing with a format for the next few weeks to see how it goes and if I like it.  Feel free leave feedback if you find a particular thread that you like!   Either Fridays or Mondays (I have not decided which) will be my preview day.  This will include what books I am using for the week, quick overview of the activities, etc.  Tuesdays will be my articulation activity post!  There might be a quick video on how I am using a book to address articulation, the activities we are doing and anything else articulation related.  So that brings us to this week's activities!!!

"Little Owl's Night" is really great for blends.  I noticed this as I was analyzing the book.  At first glance, I did not notice it.  But when you start going through a book, writing down different target words, you notice.  I included an articulation word list in my "book buddy" for this book.  You can find it listed in my TpT store. 

Usually I start the first session of the week with reading the book.  As I read each page (or 2), I ask simple questions to engage the client as well as practice our target sound.  I continue this way throughout the book.  I like to use books to target articulation because my little friends have NO IDEA they are practicing their sounds.  After we read our book, I ask a few general questions about the story.  Then we break out our activity.  Lately, the kids have been into paper sack crafts and dot reinforcement sheets using paint daubers.  I like to drill the first session of the week so we will usually use a dot sheet or a cut and glue activity.  This week we have a dot sheet.  Kiddos put a dot on each owl as we practice their words.  I adapt the activity to phrase or sentence level if needed.  The dot sheet for this week is included in the book buddy as well.  This sheet is set up to get 80 reps alone!

The second session of the week includes a game that we make in therapy for the child to take home and play.  We work on the child's target words as we make the activity.  Then we play it so that they know how to play it at home.  I also try to include directions on the back for the parents.  We made the game "Owls Sitting in a Tree."  I took a brown lunch sack and glued a tree to it.  I cut out several owls.  We practice words as I write them on the owls.  Then we begin to play the game!!  For each word, they can produce correctly 5x, they can put the owl on the tree.  They continue this way until all the owls are on the tree.  Once we are done, we can take the owls off and play again OR place them all in the bag for storage.  Then I can just send home the paper bag with all the pieces in it.  As you can see below this one was added as a freebie on my TpT store!!

"Whoooo" is thinking articulation practice is a "hoot?!"

Until next time,
Keep 'em talking!
Melissa

Monday Preview: Whooo is ready for November?

Good morning everyone!!  Anyone else ready for cooler weather and tons of yummy food?!  Me too!!  To start out November, I added a new theme to my calendar-OWLS!  I've kind of been in an "owl mood" for about a year by adding a few to my home décor.  But then I found a cute owl book at one of my daycare centers'  book fairs and thought, "I have to add this to my themes!"  (Actually I found 2 books!!)  Some of my older kids will hear "Little Owl's Night" by Divya Srinivasan.    It's a precious little book about an owl as he flies through the night.  It is great for talking about nocturnal animals.  (I came up with a "book buddy" to use with this book and it has been added to my TpT store.)  You may be wondering what a "book buddy" is.  It is a bundle of speech and language activities that are centered around a particular book.  It comes complete with an articulation list, comprehension questions, open ended games and other activities.

My younger kiddos will hear "That's Not My Owl..."  It's from Usborne books and I love these!!  (So much so that I have become a  distributor for them!)  I love that my young ones can actually "feel" describing words with these books!!  I am currently working on a set of activities that could be used with this age group.  My little ones with Autism benefit from these books as well.  How can you teach what "soft" is without feeling it?!   This book takes away the abstract thinking and gives the kiddos a concrete example of the describing words. 

 

Hope these give you some ideas to help start your November!!  This theme is wonderful because it is really appropriate throughout the fall.  Keep up with the blog posts this week because I will be adding more information about each activity that we do.  Be sure to follow along on Instagram (speechchicktherapy) and on Facebook!

 

Until next time...

Keep 'em talking!

Melissa