Frenzied SLP's: Treats of Halloween Linky

Helloooooo!!! I am honored to be joining the Frenzied SLPs for this Treats of Halloween Language Tricks and Activities Linky Party hosted by Annie of Doyle Speech Works, Laura of All 'Yall Need and Manda and Shanda of Twin Speech Language and Literacy to share some of my favorites!

We made these darling Frankensteins last week in my speech room. I saw several variations of these posted on Pinterest so I decided to give them a try. They were fairly easy to put together and ALL the kids loved them, from preschoolers to upper elementary. You just cut rectangles from black card stock or construction paper, and then cut out the center to make a frame. Make the top edge jagged to look like his hair. From the scraps, cut out eyebrows, crooked smiles and bolts. Cut circles for the eyes out of white paper and draw the eyeballs in the center. Cut a piece of clear contact paper to fit the rectangle and stick it onto the frame. Cut odd-shaped pieces from green tissue paper to fill in the face.

I used these mostly as reinforcers while working on articulation targets. After the kids said their target words/phrases 3-5 times, I gave them a piece to stick on their Frankenstein. They really turned out cute!

I used Frankenstein as a reinforcer for language activities, too. I paired it with my Halloween Flip Book for Adjectives and had the student make up a sentence using the pictures from the book.  This little flip book is great, by the way, for working on adjectives and talking about if the picture pairs are probable. Can flashlights be scary? Why or why not? And here's another treat: it's a freebie! Just click on the link above to find it.

Another thing I love to do in the week leading up to Halloween is practice trick-or-treating. So many of our little ones really need help practicing this routine, and a play house with characters is the perfect way to do it! The house in the picture is from Fisher Price, and it's really fun.

Another thing I'll be using this week are the Halloween-themed pages from my Fall Find It on the Go flip book. These print-and-go pages are fun search and find activities that kids really enjoy and can be used to target multiple goals. The page pictured above is great for working on finding things that go together. I like to have the children tell me why the items go together after they find each pair. So many great language-learning opportunities! Check out this very flexible flip book at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

One last quick and easy activity I'd like to share is Halloween Block Play.  I attached some cute Halloween-themed pictures to wooden blocks with clear packing tape, and they have been a hit! Here are some ways I've been using them:

• following directions: Great for positional directions (top, bottom, next to, behind, in front, between, etc.) and temporal directions (before, after, first, last, etc.).
• Describing object location: Let the child be the teacher and tell YOU where to place the blocks.
• Storytelling:  Line up several blocks on the table. Have the student tell a story using the blocks as prompts.

And guess what, I have another treat for you...you can find these cute pictures as freebie in my store! You can find it here.

I hope you found a few treats in this post that you can add to your pumpkin-shaped bucketful of language tricks for Halloween.  You can even find MORE treats by heading on over to the other Frenzied SLPs' blogs to check out their tricks and treats. Just click on the links below:

An InLinkz Link-up

Product Review: Halloween Attributes by Activity Tailor

Hello!

Fall just seems to be flying by, and it's already time to start planning for Halloween! I've been searching Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers for a few more activities to round out my lesson plans, and I found this great product for comparing and contrasting by Kim over at Activity Tailor:

Halloween Attributes Game features three different sets of Halloween-themed cards along with a variety of comparing/contrasting activities, several that feature those motivating QR codes that every kid loves!

The first activity includes 8 jack-o-lantern pictures and 16 clue cards. Each clue card features three clues and a QR code. The students listen to the clues and remove the jack-o-lantern cards that don't match the clues until they are left with just one card. Then they check their answer using the QR code.

There's also a costume version of this activity as well as one using witch's hats. So cute and my kids will love the variety!

The second activity that I just love is the set of witch's hat Cariboo cards. My kids never seem to tire of the Cariboo game, and these darling little hats are going to be great for listening for details and for the expressive language skill of describing. If you don't have the Cariboo game, you can still use these cards for the same purpose, just lay them out on the table and hide several plastic chips under the cards.

The last activity included in this set is a chart for comparing and contrasting the Cariboo hat cards. I used the 8 hat picture cards from the QR code activity instead because my Cariboo cards were already mounted on my game, and they worked just fine. You place one card over each column and then you mark off the features of each hat. After completing the chart, I had my students describe each hat using the features checked on the chart. Then I had them compare and contrast the hats based on the features checked. I really liked this activity as it provided a visual way to organize details for comparing and contrasting.

This product is a great addition to my Halloween lesson plans and will provide opportunities for working on comparing and contrasting for at least two sessions. Go to Kim's Teachers Pay Teachers store to grab your own copy: Halloween Attributes