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

Let the Games Begin!

I don't know about you, but I have caught Olympic Fever!  I can't wait for the opening ceremonies to begin!

Today I borrowed an idea from Pinterest, using an Olympic Rings printout, which you can find right here.  I used this handout for a categorization/word association activity.

I wrote different category names in each circle, and got my dot paints out.  I instructed the child to name  eight items in a category, and to paint a dot after naming each one.  To make it a little more difficult, I used my stopwatch to see if she could name all eight in less than one minute.  Easy!

I used this same idea earlier in the week as an articulation activity, too.  We just glued pictures of the target words in the center of each ring, and said each word eight times.


One of the things I like to do each summer is make "Camp Journals" for each of my kiddos.  I plan my summer around Summer Camp Mini-Themes, and the kids collect "merit badges" for completing tasks centered around each theme.

I make the covers out of foam, and add five blank pages to each.  You can download my template for the pages here.   The kids decorate their journal covers with the letters of their names and other fun foam stickers.

I make the badges ahead of time, using my Cricut paper cutter, which can make just about any shape you can dream of.  I cut tons of two inch circles for my badges, and then shapes to match my mini-themes.  Here are some of my badges:

They include Forest Animal Expert, Sports Fanatic, Camping Pro and Olympic Champion.  I'm not sure what I'll name the one with the marshmallows on the stick yet, but I know we'll be making s'mores one of these days with my indoor s'mores maker!  We've got to earn a badge for that, right?

Each week, I write a list of goals on a blank page of each journal, and write the name of the badge at the top of each page.  For example, to earn the Forest Animal Expert badge, the child must name at least 5 different animals that live in the forest, name at least three important features of each, and tell me at least one interesting fact about each one.

I also make special badges for kids who are working on the R sound, and those who are working on establishing correct tongue positioning at rest.  My vocalic R pages look like this:

The symbol on the badge matches the vowel set:  a bear for AIR words, a star for AR words, a fire for IRE, and a deer for EER.  Sometimes I write the target words on each page, and sometimes the kids do it themselves.

The child above was working on vocalic R in single words, specifically the OR words.  He earned his badge because he was able to say the entire list correctly, which was the goal.

The kids enjoy earning the badges and are proud to fill their journal.  I keep them with me until they are complete, but the kids review each earned badge with their parents after each session, and then take them home at the end of summer.

If you're interested about what tasks I'll have my kids complete to earn their badges, let me know and I will post sample pages from their journals.  Next week we are working on our Olympic Champion badges so...

...let the games begin!!!

Pam