It's National Puppy Day!

My Grand-Puppy Murphy!!!

I opened my computer this morning and discovered that it's National Puppy Day! It couldn't have come at a better time, because it's been all about dogs around here at Small Talk.  Want to know what we've been doing? Great! Because I can't wait to share!

We've been playing fun games like...

Puppy Pursuit by Melissa and Doug, which is so versatile with 10 different game possibilities. My kids just love playing hide and seek with the 6 adorable puppies! They never tire of this game!

Another fun game is Diggity Dog, a color matching game great for working on colors, turn-taking, listening skills and following game rules.

I used a great book about dogs with my EET kit materials to work on organizing information from non-fiction text with my older kids:

...and this great pet hospital toy for pretend play.

But no dog week would be complete without celebrating my favorite little furry pup, Bruno!

My little buddy turned 6 years old last Thursday, so I created a whole packet of fun activities in honor of him!

It's got 8 delightfully fun activities that your kids will surely love, including Cariboo cards that can be used with your Cariboo game...

or without it by using bones to cover up the pictures if you leave them as a whole sheet, or by cutting the pictures out and hiding bones under them!

It includes 2 levels of auditory directions to make data tracking a breeze, which is something you don't often find with Cariboo card sets.

There's also a color matching game, a fun hide and seek game, an activity targeting verbs and WH questions, auditory comprehension paragraphs, a take-home book about Bruno's day, a category game and some open-ended materials.  My kids LOVED these activities and I'm sure yours will, too.  You can find it here.

Happy Puppy Day!!!

Pam 

Farmyard Slam!

I've just completed a new addition to my Slam!  game collection.  Introducing Farmyard Slam!  I'm really excited about this one because my games keep evolving, and this one has a couple of great extra features.  And, since this one isn't holiday themed, I can play it all year long!   I can't wait to share!

Farmyard Slam is most similar to Snowman Slam! game in that it has game boards in addition to playing cards.  There are four boards, each with a different farm scene.  Here's an example of two of them:

Aren't they cute???  I used the On the Farm collection from KPM Doodles, which couldn't be more perfect!  

I made the direction cards a little different this time, too, to throw in a little categorization work along with following directions.  They look like this:

Each card contains a symbol for the category, and color or feature symbols so pre-readers can give the directions, too.

So what are the bonus features?  You can use this activity to work on following auditory directions that contain categories and features, but you can also use it for other goals, too. 

This scene is at the top of the blue board.  You could use this to work on prepositions such as in, on, next to, behind and between.  You could have each child tell you three things about his or her farmyard scene using auxiliary and -ing verbs.  Or how about pronouns?  Each scene contains plenty of opportunities to work on these concepts and others.

Another fun bonus feature is a little hide and seek game.  Rascal Rooster is hiding somewhere in each farm scene.  Can you find him?  He's pretty easy to find in this scene, but he's pretty tricky to find in others.  Go back and look for him on the orange game board...you know you want to!  That is, if you haven't already!

I've also included three category cards that can be used for sorting the square picture cards by category. They look like this:

 So many ways to play!  And so many goals that can be targeted in one simple game.  Love that!

You can find Farmyard Slam and all my other Slam! games on my TpT site.  To go directly to Farmyard Slam!  click here.

Let me know what you think!

Pam

Valentine Slam!

 I have had so many requests for another version of my popular Snowman Slam!  and Santa's Cookie Slam! games.  As soon as I saw KPM Doodles' cute Valentine graphics, I knew exactly what that next version would be.  So here it is, Valentine Slam!

It's another great game for following auditory directions, played just like Santa's Cookie Slam.  This one is a little more difficult, however, as some of the directions contain as many as three attributes.  I find it helpful to review both the description cards and the heart features before we play the game, because many of my kids are unfamiliar with  the words "lace" and "checks".

 This is how to play.  The heart cards are scattered face up in the center of the table.  If there are 2 players, players take turns reading a direction card, and then both players race to slap the card that matches the description of the direction card.  If there are 3 or more players, one player is designated as the reader for the entire game.  This player reads the direction cards to the other players, making sure to hide the card from their view.  Again, players race to slap the card that matches the directions.  The player who collects the most Valentine cards wins!   Cards look like this:

You can find this game here.  Be sure to check my Facebook page for an especially "sweet" deal on February 7th (hint, hint!)

Pam

Snowman Slam! Game

My kids and I had so much fun with Santa's Cookie Slam! Game that I made a snowman version with a twist.  This game has the basic same idea as the Santa version, where players race to slap cards that match an instruction card.  The difference is that in the snowman version, each player collects their cards on a game board.

This is one of four different game boards, each with a unique snowman to build.

Players must collect the six pieces that match the ones displayed on their game board.  The game is designed for 2-4 players.  If you only have 2 players, the players take turns turning over an instruction card so both players can see it at the same time.  If you have 3-4 players, one player is selected to play the role of the reader and he or she reads the cards to the other players.  The reader must make sure to keep the card hidden  from the other players' view so the instructions are auditory instead of visual. This player does not collect cards.

Here is an example of the instruction cards:

...and the pieces to slam and the instructions.

Snowman Slam can be used to target a wide variety of goals, including:

     * Following auditory instructions

     * Auditory and visual processing skills

     * Articulation 

     * Language skills:  use of descriptors, colors, winter vocabulary, auxiliary verbs, plurals

     * Early Literacy:  instruction cards include colors and pictures, making it easy for even pre-readers to "read" them

     *Social skills:  turn-taking, winning and losing

This game includes 4 game boards, 24 matching cards, 24 instruction cards and instructions for play.   Here's what it looks like when it's all set up:  

You can download this game here.

Have fun!

Pam

/S/ Loaded Paragraphs for Winter and Christmas

I've been using my /R/ Loaded Paragraphs all week long and have been really pleased with the results.  They are jam-packed with /r/ words to practice, and are perfect for practicing auditory memory skills.  One of my readers suggested that I make a set to target /s/, so I did!  Here they are, four more little stories, two about Christmas and two about winter.

Each story includes targets in the initial, medial and final positions of words, and an open-ended question for expanded discussion and opportunity for carryover.  The worksheet includes four questions for comprehension about each story.  I have used this worksheet in two ways:  one, for my own data collecting purposes, and the other as an assist to the students who need the questions in written format to aid in comprehension.

These great little stories are a FREEBIE in my TpT store!  Grab them here and please let me know what you think. Your feedback is invaluable!


Enjoy!

/R/ Loaded Paragraphs for Christmas

Today I'm sharing my /R/ Loaded Paragraphs for Christmas with you.  I have several kids working on their carryover skills and couldn't find any /r/ packed paragraphs to send home for practice, so I made some!  This download has four paragraphs for you to cut out and use individually or as a set.  Each one describes an event that commonly occurs at Christmas, and finishes with an opportunity for conversation about the event.  I don't know about you, but I find making that leap from saying the /r/ sound correctly while reading to using it correctly in spontaneous conversation is very difficult for many of my kids.  I'm hoping giving them a structured topic will help.

I am also planning to use these paragraphs with my kids who are improving their auditory memory skills.  Each one describes a sequence and is packed with details to remember.  I can think of several who, what, where and when questions to ask about each one!  *Update:  I've added a worksheet for details/sequencing to the download.  I plan to use this worksheet for data collection.

Would you like a copy? You can download them from my TpT store.