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

Rudolph's Crazy Cookie Exchange

I loved those Christmas Cookie graphics so much that I made another game!  This one is called Rudolph's Crazy Cookie Exchange Game.

It's a card game that will work for 2-3 players if you print it as-is, or 4-5 players if you print out an extra sheet of cookies.

The object of the game is to be the first player to share all of your cookies by following the directions on the game cards.  You can read all the rules below for complete instructions, and continue to scroll down for a quick look.

This is what the game looks like when it is set up:

Players start with 5 cookies in their own Cookie Stash.  They choose them from the center pile before the game begins.  Players take turns drawing a card and following the direction on the card.

In the example above, the player drew a card that stated that Granny wants a red cookie.  The player chooses a cookie from his Cookie Stash that matches the description and places it on Granny's plate.  If he does not have one that matches, he finds one from the center pile to give to her instead.

Sometimes the card will tell you that the character DOESN'T want specific colors or shapes of cookies.  The player must remove the cookie or cookies from the character's plate that match the description and place them back in his Cookie Stash.

Sometimes a player will draw a card that gives them special instructions.  Some of the cards direct players to put cookies back in the pile or to trade cookies between the characters.  And some tell you to give two of your cookies away.  The SWAP! cards mean that the player must move all of one character's cookies to the other character's plate, and vise versa.

Play continues until a player shares all of his or her cookies.  It's fun, and not as easy to get rid of your cookies as you'd think!

I've played this game several times already.  It worked GREAT for working on medial alveolars with a third grade girl, and for several others working on /s/ or /r/.  I plan to use it with a child to work on negatives such as "don't" and "doesn't" as well.  How about using it with kids who are working on following directions that include adjectives?  You could make the game more challenging for your language processing kiddos by reading the cards to them without letting them see the pictures, too. There are lots of possibilities!

Do you like this game? You can find it at my TpT store. *Update: This product was offered as a freebie for a short time. Due to multiple difficulties with downloads, I transferred it from Google Drive to my TpT store, where it is now a paid product.


Whew!  I think I'm done making games for a few days!  Graphics credit again goes to Scrappin' Doodles for their wonderful Christmas Cookie collection and Granny Swallowed Christmas.  Credit for the plates goes to my son, Jake!  What will I do when he moves out???

Fa La La La La!

Pam

A Spooky Spooky Story

How about a cute, spooky tale to get you in the mood for Halloween?  I made this cute little book using graphics from Scrappin' Doodles and would love to share it with you!

It's a 7-page rhyming book with a pop-out ghost at the end that is sure to charm your little ghosts and goblins.  All you have to do is print it and cut out the pages and you're ready to go.

The pop-out ghost is the best part of this spooky little tale.  Just fold a strip of paper accordion-style, glue one end to the ghost and one end to the "Boo" page. He will pop right out when the "door" page is turned.

If you'd like to download a copy, you can grab it here.

I've used this little book in lots of ways.  It's great for vocabulary, and perfect for practicing /sp/ blends.  You could also make this a more hands-on activity for your students by letting them make all the pages of their books.  Just enlarge the graphics and text, cut them out individually (not as pages, just graphics or blocks of text) and let your kids glue them to blank pages cut from card stock.  Like this:

What do you think?  Will you use it?  Tell me how!


Pam

Using YouTube Videos in Treatment: A Toy Train in Space

I stumbled upon the most wonderful video yesterday on YouTube.  It's called A Toy Train in Space.

It's a wonderful little video made by a father about his son's favorite train, Stanley.  Together, father and son attach Stanley to a weather balloon and launch him into space.  A video camera captures Stanley's journey to the stratosphere and back to earth, while father and son track him on their computer.  There is very little dialog, if any, but the fabulous video footage and editing/animation tell a very engaging story that's sure to delight kids young and old.  I've used it several times already this week with great results.  After viewing the video, my kids have asked wonderful questions, such as "What is the stratosphere?" and "How did they make Stanley's face move?" which lead to rich discussion and research.  View this video for yourself here:

I can see using this video with my youngest to oldest kids on my caseload.  One way I used it this week  for my older kids working on the /r/ sound was to make a list of words that might be used to retell the story in the video that contain the /r/ sound.  Then, I made a template for them to use to generate the story sequence and to use the target words in sentences.  It looks like this:

You can download my worksheet here.

I've got some more ideas of ways to use this video, but I've got to create the materials before I share them with you.  Check back in a few days!

Nice chatting with you,

Pam

Nature Scavenger Hunt

With summer quickly coming to a close, how about one more outdoor activity to savor the fresh air and sunshine?  Try this nature scavenger hunt!  With my office being part of my home, we were able to go right in my backyard and find everything on the list.  If you're not so lucky to have nature right outside your back door, you could collect a box of items ahead of time and have your students hunt for them right in your office.  Or you could put them in a texture table, or a large box.  Another idea:  send the list home and have your students hunt for things in their own neighborhood with their parents and bring the items back to you.

This activity was wonderful for working on attributes, but it also lent itself well to other goals.  Some of my early elementary kids need a little help with organization, and following a list to complete a task was more difficult than one would think!  It was also another great EET activity:  we chose three items and used the EET method to talk about them.  We also compared and contrasted the different leaves we collected, and several types of flowers.

If you've been following my Camp Journal posts, you know we are earning badges this summer.  After completing this hunt and the tasks associated with their goals, the kids happily added the Nature Badge to their journals.

I adapted this list from an idea I saw on Pinterest, from thefrugalgirls.com.  If you'd like a copy of my list, you can download it here.

Enjoy these last lazy days of summer!

Pam

Camp Journal: Olympic Champion Badge

Here's an example of the Olympic Champions Badge page of a Camp Journal.

We completed three activities:  Making a torch, painting the Olympic Rings (see previous post) and earning Olympic Medals.

This child is working on naming members of a group and their functions as part of the EET program.  As he collected foil to decorate his Olympic torch, he named 8 things he would see at a birthday party.  As he decorated his torch, he needed to describe two things each item does.  For example, he named "Balloons" as something he would see at a birthday party.  Then he said, "you hold them, you punch them and make them go back and forth".

Our next task was to name 8 items in each of 5 categories; you can find a photo of that activity in my previous post.

Our Olympic Competition was the highlight of the day.  The kids attempted to earn bronze, silver and gold medals by completing a task that contained one of their goals.

I used cards from Jenna Reyburn's Speech Room News Olympic Activity Pack to make my own Olympic events.  I wrote the names of different activities on the back side of the medal cards.  Kids selected a card from the Gold Medal, Silver Medal and Bronze Medal piles to determine what "event" they needed to "compete" in.

For example, this child selected the Amazing Ball Skills card, and had to say one of her target words or phrases before hopping over the block with the ball between her knees.  Once she said all 10 words/phrases correctly, she earned a medal.

The Sandwich Stack event required the child to say her target words to earn pieces of a large fabric sandwich.  After earning 8 pieces, she had to walk across the room and back with the sandwich balanced on her head.  I'd say that's Bronze Medal worthy, wouldn't you?

After completing the tasks listed in their journals, the kids were awarded the Olympic Champion Badge, which they glued on the page.  My little Olympians really enjoyed their speech time today!


Be creative and have fun,

Pam

Goin' Buggy!

We're goin' buggy here at Small Talk this month!

This is one of my favorite themes.  There is so much to do! My office is transformed into a garden, and there are bugs hiding all around.  I bought The Fairy Garden Hideaway from Hearthsong a few years ago and hung it from a hook on my ceiling.  I spread the sheer green netting from corner to corner, making my office feel like we are hiding in and under a garden...like bugs!  The kids all love it and think it's a magical place to be.  One of their favorite things to do is decorate foam butterflies to hang from the canopy.  You can find foam butterflies, flowers and bugs at your local craft store.  I like to use the smaller pieces to cover up target word pictures to work on articulation.  The child removes a flower sticker from the page and practices the word hiding under it.  You can do this activity to work on language goals, too.  When the butterfly is complete, I let the child show me where he or she would like their butterfly displayed.  We talk about the colors of the butterflies on the canopy, and use location words, such as above, below and next to.  The children return each week delighted to find new butterflies hanging on the canopy.

Another fun and easy project to do is to make a bug with Crayola Model Magic modeling material.  Gather up some googly eyes, pipe cleaners and foam leaf stickers and you're ready to go.  Model Magic is a great material if you've never tried it.  It is soft and easy to work with, and yet it is not sticky or messy at all.

I made a set of 6 sequence cards for the kids to follow to create their own bugs.  Several of my kids are working on comparatives, so several of the steps include concepts such as short vs. long, flat vs. round, and large vs. small.   Here is what they look like.

Here's an example of a bug made by a student, using foam leaf stickers for the wings.  This activity lends itself well to creating many language opportunities.  I've learned a lot about bugs this week, too.  I was taught by a second grader that real insects have THREE body parts, not just TWO, like my activity suggests.  Sigh.  They always keep us humble, don't they?

If you'd like a copy of my sequence cards to build your own bugs, you can grab them here.  Don't panic if you find them out of sequence in the document...They are all there!

One last easy little activity I'd like to share is this one.  I purchased this cute bug boarder for bulletin boards at Lakeshore.  I cut a piece in half, and folded the circles like an accordion.  I cut out some circles, pasted a bug jar on each, and stapled the circle to the first bug circle "page".  It looks like this:

 I have used this little book to work on a whole host of different goals.  We've worked on vocabulary (ex. names of insects, body parts), 2- word phrases (black bug, pink bug, yellow bug) and descriptors.  I've used it with my early elementary kids who are using the Expending Expression Tool (EET) with great success, focusing so far on the group name (ex. bugs or insects) and then on "Do" (ex. "What does a ladybug do?).  Next week we'll be moving on to size, shape and color to add to our bug descriptions.  If you're not familiar with the EET, you should learn about it.  It is a fantastic method for improving language skills developed by an SLP.  Check it out here.

There.  That should keep you busy for awhile!

Nice chatting with you!

Pam

My Five Favorite Games

During one of the online continuing education courses I viewed, the presenter showed a photograph of a speech language pathologist standing in front of a WALL of board games.  The caption asked, "Are you THAT therapist?"  I had to respond, "YES I AM!!!!"  I LOVE playing games!  I use them all the time during my treatment sessions.  No shame there!  They keep kids engaged and offer a higher level of difficulty in which to practice their new skills.  Here's my top 5:








1.  Cariboo by Cranium

Kids never tire of playing with this game.  Six colored balls are hidden inside the game.  The child searches for the balls by drawing a card and finding a door that matches the color, number or letter on the card.  The child then opens the door using a key.  If there is a ball under the door, the child places it in the hole that leads to the treasure chest.  After all 6 balls are found, the treasure chest "magically" opens!  Sheer delight, over and over and over again!  I use this game to work on a whole host of goals: plurals, speech sounds, sentence formulation, requests, turn taking, etc.  I've even changed the pictures on the doors by placing my own picture cards over the top of the others.

2.  Richard Scarry's Busytown: Eye Found It!


This one's a large board game that needs to be played on the floor.  Kids take a trip through Busytown on their way to have a picnic on Picnic Island.  Along the way, they stop and search for items hidden all over Busytown.  Some hungry pigs threaten to ruin the picnic by eating some of the picnic food during the journey...can we make it there before they eat it all?!  It's a different journey each time we play.  Great fun, and language opportunities abound!




3.  Froggie Boogie


Blue Orange Games make wonderful, colorful all-wooden games that I can't seem to get enough of!
This is one of my favorites.  Those sneaky baby frogs are trying to make their way around the pond while the mommy frogs are napping.  Kids roll the color dice, find a mother frog that matches the colors, and look under one googly eye.  If there's a frog on the eye, the mother "caught" them and they have to stay on their lily pad.  If the eye is blank, they can hop forward to the next lily pad and take another turn.  I use this one for articulation, color matching, turn taking, and language skills.






4.  Cat and the Hat I Can Do That

This is an excellent game for incorporating movement into speech and language activities.  The yellow "trick-a-ma-stick" is set up on the floor, and a variety of Cat in the Hat inspired objects are displayed on the table.  The child turns over three cards which give him a direction to complete.  The first set of cards state an action to be performed, the second tells which object to use, and the third tells which body part to use.  For example, a direction might be, "Step over the trick-a-ma-stick with the cake on your head."  I adapt this to work on various levels of direction following, from simple to complex.

 5.  Snail's Pace Race

This is another one that can be adapted in a multitude of ways.  Snails race against each other across the board to reach the finish line.  The child rolls the color dice to see which two snails get to inch forward one space each turn.  The unique thing is that the SNAILS are the competitors, not the people playing the game.  There are no winners or losers!  I mostly use this game with my preschoolers, but even the 10 year olds love the suspense of the race!

So there you are.  Fun, fun, fun!

What are some of your favorites?  I'd love to hear, so leave me a comment.  And then I might have to take a trip to Target...

Nice chatting with you!

Pam

The Magical Mystery Box

Don't you just love pulling something out from deep in the closet and finding you suddenly can use it a million different ways?  That's what happened with me this week with the Mystery Box from Lakeshore.   Here's some of the ways I used it:

1.  To elicit contractable auxiliaries:  I placed 5-10 different objects in the box and held the matching picture cards in my hand.  I showed the child the first card and asked him to reach inside and find it by only using his fingers.  After he retrieved the object and set it on the picture, he needed to ask, "What's next?".  I showed him another card, and we repeated the sequence.  This particular child enjoyed this activity so much that we went through all 30 objects, giving me at least 30 opportunities to elicit the target.

2.  To practice using pronouns he and she:  This time I placed a boy doll and a girl doll on either side of the box.  I explained that they each wanted some of the items hidden in the box.  I laid out 5 cards by each doll and modeled, "He wants a basketball.  He wants a key", emphasizing the pronouns.  The child then removed one item at a time from the box, matched it to a picture and said, "He/She wants a ___"

3.  To practice using adjectives:  I placed one item in the box at a time.  The child reached in the box and described what he or she could feel:  long, round, fuzzy, bumpy, squishy, hard, soft, pointy, smooth, rough, etc.  The child then made a guess about what the item was and matched it to a picture.  To make it even more difficult, I had several of my kids make a guess without the pictures displayed.  You could also do this by first having the child guess what the item is and then have them tell you why they think that (ex. "I think it's a snake because it's long and wavy and has a head").

4.  /r/ Sentences/ Carryover:  Instead of using the picture cards, I wrote words that begin with /r/ on little post-it note-sized cards and had the student match the item to a word on a card.  I chose adjectives, nouns and verbs that might describe an object from the set.  Some of the words I used were rough, rotten, wriggly, rusty, red, round, road, rim, and replace.  After matching an object to a word, the student then made up a sentence that included both words.  We made it more difficult by combining two or more sets into a longer sentence (ex.  "The rusty key and the rotten egg were in the road."  A copy of my word cards can be downloaded here.

There are so many more ways to use this set of materials!  I would love to hear YOUR ideas!

Nice chatting with you,

Pam

iPad App Review - Conversation Builder

 One of my favorite treatment tools is my iPad.  It is so versatile and can be used with almost any child. I have several favorite apps that I find myself using again and again.  One of them is Conversation Builder by Mobile Education Store.  This is an app that I use with my elementary-aged social thinking kiddos who are working on conversation skills. It is an interactive app that leads a child through a "conversation" with another child, allowing them to practice the art of small talk.  Let me tell you how it works.

A photograph is displayed along with a auditory prompt in an adult male voice who says, "How would you start this conversation?"  There are three possible statements or questions that the child may select, which he or she does by touching it.  The same adult voice provides feedback on the selection by either saying, "That's right.  Now let's record it." or something like, "That's an unusual way to start a conversation.  Try again."  After the child selects the correct question or statement, he records himself saying the selected sentence.  He can play it back by touching "Play last recording" and hear himself ask the question or make the statement.  Then the child touches the "next" button to hear a child's voice respond to his question or statement.  The adult voice then asks, "What would you say next?" as three new choices are displayed.  If the child chooses either of the incorrect statements or questions, the adult voice makes a statement about why it wasn't the best choice and prompts the child to try asking a question.  After the child selects the correct response, he again records himself saying the question or statement.  He then touches Next, which prompts the child voice to respond.  Then the child touches the Play Conversation button to hear the entire exchange.

After the exchange ends, you have the options of playing the conversation again,  saving the conversation, or moving on to a new conversation.

Here's what I like about this app:

1.  It is a great way to lead a child through those tricky small talk situations and to practice ways to introduce themselves into a group activity.  The photographs are bright, appealing, and sure to elicit questions and comments.

2.  You can go through the exchanges at your own pace.  You can discuss each option if you'd like, or you can discuss why the less-preferred response doesn't work.

3. You can listen to the recorded responses and discuss things that make the response sound unnatural, like intonation patterns and rate.  You can then practice new ways to say it and re-record.

4.  You can discuss the conversation after you play it back and talk and let the child give you feedback about his role.  And you can provide feedback as well.

5.  You can extend the conversation by asking the child what he might say next, without the use of prompts.

6.  The settings allow you to have flexibility.  There are 4 levels of play:  1 on 1 - 4 sentence exchange, 1 on 1 - 8 sentence exchange, Group - 4 sentence exchange, and Group - 8 Exchange.  You can also choose if the student or the "peer" (i.e. the pre-recorded child's voice) will be the conversation initiator.

7.  The app has 40 conversations in the Standard Conversation Module, which is what you get when you purchase the app.  You can purchase additional modules, such as Animal Themed Conversations, Holidays, Playground Conversations, and Conversations with Friends around Town, in addition to several others.

I highly recommend this app and hope that you find it as useful as I do.  Two thumbs up to our friends at the Mobile Education Store!