It's Only Thursday...

Ever have one of those weeks when you have been super busy but then realize it's not Friday yet?  That's me today.  I've had a busy week.  Basketball Monday night...Online book party Tuesday night...Endless planning, website designing, "social media butterflying" (that's a word-not really but it could be) Wednesday night and(probably) tonight too... Then I realized I hadn't blogged about this week's activities!!!  What??!!  That's one of my favorite things to do!  So I will be giving you the condensed version of "Cookie Week."

Since I have mostly boys on my caseload, we only read "If You Give A Mouse  A Cookie."  No boys were going to ask for "Clara the Cookie Fairy." (boo, I like that book!)

We started out the week with the book and a drill reinforcement activity.  I needed to get the kiddos back in the swing of therapy after the holidays. You can find all of the activities in the blog here.  The second articulation activity we completed was a "Roll and Say" sheet.  The child rolled the die, found the matching one on the worksheet, and produced the word correctly that number of times.  Then the child colored/dot painted a picture in the row.  The kids really loved doing that!  I think we might be adding this one to our usual routine.  

 

As for language activities, we had a couple of school age coloring sheets.  The early childhood kids loved their stuff!!  Language for school age kids included working on irregular past tense verbs in sentences and categories.  We colored chocolate chips on a cookie as the client made up sentences using the irregular past tense verbs.  We also colored cookies when we could name 3-5 items that belonged in a given category.



The little guys had a field day with our activities.  Since some of my clients cannot follow the book of the week, I made a book that could go along with that is more simple (but could be used with it.)  You can find "Cookie, Cookie What Do You See?" on my TpT store as well as the "Mouse has..." board.  We practiced different language concepts using the Melissa and Doug Christmas cookie set and the Counting Cookie Jar.  The last activity we had was a simple category sort using food, animals and clothing.

 

Well, I started this post on Thursday.  It is now Friday at lunch time.  The blog struggle was real this week!!  Here's to a more organized and productive week next week!!

 

Melissa



Thursday Thoughts on Language-Stirrin' Up Some Fun with Turkeys

We've had sooo much fun this week with turkeys!!!  The kids have enjoyed the activities.  More importantly, they have worked really hard on their goals and continue to make great progress!  Several of the language activities I used this week were talked about in Wednesday's post since they were basic vocabulary.  But they do focus on language goals so they are worth mentioning in this post too.  If you want to see what they were, go check out the post.

The category SMUSH board was a good activity for several ages.  I used it to introduce simple categories (such as find the things we eat) with the little guys.  But with my older kids, we follow the directions as listed.  It helps because I have some little friends (that's what I call my clients) that struggle to independently come up with items in a category.  This is just a different way of sorting. 

Some of my elementary age clients are working on developing sentences and using past tense verbs correctly.  One of my little friends is having an especially hard time with formulating sentences with a given word.  However, we completed the irregular past tense verb activity in the book buddy in no time!!  His parents were blown away that he had formulated and written all 4 sentences!!  With this activity, the child colors the irregular past tense verbs RED and the other verbs are blue.  Then he takes the "red feathers" and writes a sentence with each verb.  You can find the activity in the book buddy.  

Also in the book buddy is a spatial concept activity.  Very similar to the one in the owl book buddy, you give a child the picture scene.  To work on receptive skills, give clues like "which turkey is in the tree?"  To work on expressive skills, ask the client "Where is the pink turkey?" You should get a response similar to "behind the wagon."  In this picture, we smushed playdough when he found the correct turkey.

 

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