Bananagrams for Synonyms

I pulled out an old favorite this week: Bananagrams! I forgot how much this kids like this one and how many different ways there are to use it to target language goals. I'm going to share how we played this week.

First, each player chose twenty letters. I left the letters facing up so the kids could choose the ones they wanted.  The directions were to use all twenty letters to make words, crossword puzzle style. The players could exchange letters one at a time if they needed a different letter to make a word, and add a few extra to complete the final word if necessary.

After the players' words were complete, each player named the words they made. Then, they took turns choosing one of their words and naming a synonym for that word. If they couldn't think of one, we looked the word up on Thesaurus.com.

Next week, we're going to try this again with word associations. Instead of naming a synonym, I'll have the students name a word that goes along with each word.

Do you use Bananagrams in treatment? Tell me how in the comments!

Halloween Eraser Fun

This little jar of Halloween-themed erasers has been my go-to material for the past week.  Who knew that an inexpensive little bag of erasers that I picked up at a craft store was worth its weight in gold?  Let me show you some of the ways I've been using them.

I used them for sorting with some little orange buckets I found at Target in the dollar section.  They were perfect for my little Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) kids working on Consonant-Vowel pairs while we said "in" and "out".  Then we turned the buckets over and put the erasers "on" and "off".  Then I used them with preschoolers for following directions such as "Put a bat on the bucket with a ghost".

I used them with every articulation kiddo I saw, too.  Last year I printed off this great pumpkin from 3Dinosaurs.com and laminated it.  I give the kids a handful of erasers and have them put one eraser on a dot on the pumpkin after they say a target word/sentence a pre-determined number of times.  It's fun to watch them decide where to place their erasers.  Some make patterns, some put them in rows and some just place them randomly.  But no matter where they put them, we get lots of opportunities to practice sounds.

Here's another version of using erasers to track productions.  I use these strips with my younger kiddos who need to work in shorter bursts of time.  Like the example above with the pumpkin, kids put an eraser on a picture on the strip after attempting a target word.  After filling a strip with 5 bats, I give them a new strip with pumpkins or ghosts and fill that one, too.  I don't know about you, but I am always looking for ways to get my littlest friends to give me at least 10 good attempts at saying new words.  This one usually works for me.  I like to change it up a bit and let them select which strip they'd like to cover, so I made four different ones for Halloween.

Gotta love those cute Halloween graphics from Scrappin' Doodles!  I'd love to share these with you if you'd like.  Just click here.

One last way I used them was to hide a bunch in my tub of beans.  It's all kinds of fun!  And speech and language opportunities abound.  What kid doesn't love to dig for "treasure"?

What are your ideas?  I'm sure you can think of a few...

Pumpkin Stew

Halloween may be over, but I am still all about pumpkins!  I love them!  I'm so glad I can use them in my Thanksgiving activities, too.  Guess what I'm whipping up now???  A big batch of Pumpkin Stew!

I made up this little rhyme to use with my S-Blend kiddos, but I think it can be adapted to work for almost any of my kids.  Yesterday, I grabbed a big bowl, a wooden spoon, two plastic pumpkins and a variety of play food items.

Yes, I know they're jack-o-lanterns and it's after Halloween...it's all I had!

We put the pumpkins in the green bowl as we said "Pumpkin Stew.  Pumpkin Stew."  Then we rubbed our stomachs as we said "Mmmm, I like it.  Yes I do!"  Next, we shook the salt shaker and pretended to add salt to the stew as we said "Salt and Pepper".  Then the child chose an item from the blue bowl and added it to the stew as we said (for example) "Pizza, too!"  Finally, we took the spoon and stirred up the stew while we said, "Stir, stir, stir my pumpkin stew!"  The kids loved it!  They caught on to the rhyme very quickly and were eager to put in all the food items I had chosen.

I plan to use this with my little ones working on CVC combos and two-syllable words next week.  I want to make it easy for them to repeat this activity at home, so I that's why I made the printed version.  I recruited my son to draw some the graphics for me (isn't he amazing???? He did the pot, spoon and salt shaker).  It sure is nice to have an in-house graphics designer, let me tell you!  That is, when I can pin him down.  The pumpkin came from KPM Doodles, and the boarders from Scrappin' Doodles.

I will send home a set of picture cards and a copy of the the rhyme and the pot.  The child can choose a picture to put in the little frame on the rhyme page prior to starting the rhyme.  As they recite the rhyme with their parent, they can add it to the soup pot and pretend to stir it in.

Here's an example of the picture cards I will use with my S-Blend kids:

I made these at LessonPix.com.  Do you know about LessonPix?  I came late to the parade and just found out about them last week.  How did I not know about them???  Anyway, it is an amazing site where you can create materials using their graphics in just a few minutes.  It has a sound finder feature that lets you enter in the sound and place in the word and then displays all the graphics that match.  You can quickly choose the ones you want, and then turn them into cards with just a click of the mouse.  Amazing.  However, it is not a free site; you do need to purchase a membership.

Do you want to make Pumpkin Stew, too?  If so, you can download the rhyme and stew pot here.  Just be sure to let me know what you think about our original creations :-)  (Can you tell I'm a proud mama?)


Pam

Halloween Flip Book for Adjectives

Here's an oldie-but-goody that I pulled from my Boardmaker files:  a Halloween Flip Book  for working on adjectives.

It's a fun little book with a stack of adjective cards on the left, and Halloween vocabulary on the right that you flip through to make plausible and silly combinations.

I like to have the kids turn to the first page and say, "I see a scary haunted house," and then have them flip over the next vocabulary card to see if the next item is also scary.  For example, the second card might be a picture of candy, so I ask them, "Is candy scary?  No!"  Sometimes we continue flipping through the whole vocabulary stack and sometimes we just find one more thing to match the adjective, depending on the child.

Sometimes when we turn over an adjective and an object that do not match, such as a yummy moon, I will ask the child to tell me a better word to describe the moon.

There are all sorts of ways to use this fun little flip book.  Would you like a copy? If so, you can download it here.  Instructions are included, and it goes together quickly so you could use it today!  Helpful hint:  print it on card stock or photo paper for better print quality and durability.

Here's a sample of my vocabulary cards:

Have fun and please let me know what you think.  Your feedback is always appreciated!

Pam

Halloween Bugs Book and Craft for Preschoolers

I just love Fall and Halloween, can you tell?  There's so much fun to be had!

One of my favorite books for toddlers and preschoolers is Halloween Bugs by David Carter.  The kids just can't seem to get enough of this little lift-the-flap book!  Even my elementary school-aged kids love it.  Each page features a unique lift-the-flap door with a bug-in-disguise hiding behind.  Some of the bugs pop out, some have crazy hair, and some are just plain silly.  Another feature I love is that it has repetitive-line text.   Each page asks, "Who's behind the _____ door?"

I'm using it this week to work with young preschoolers who are working on building two-word phrases and/or consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.  I can easily change the text to suit whichever goal I'm working on.  For example, instead of using "Who's behind the door?", I might say "Knock knock!" to target a CVC word.  Before I allow the child to open the door, I might have him say "Open door"  or "red door" to target a two-word phrase.  Depending on what we find behind the door, we can say a descriptive CVC word, and we can say "bug".  Before we close the door again, we can say "Bye Bug".

Download this page to make the Knock Knock Paper Bag Book

I made a little activity to go along with this book that my students can take home with them.  It's a book whose pages are made from paper lunch sacks!  This is how I did it.  I cut out the "Knock Knock!" squares and the Halloween graphics from the printout you can grab here.  I used darling graphics from Scrappin' Doodles to make it.

I stacked four paper lunch sacks and cut off the top 3-4'' and then stapled them together.

I glued one "Knock Knock" square on the first paper sack, and a red rectangle door that I cut from card stock on top of the bag bottom, which is like a flap.

I lifted the flap and glued the moon graphic under the flap, and then flattened the flap to close the door. I like to let my graphics peek out a bit from behind the door to give the kids a hint to what they might find when they open it.  Repeat for the remaining pages.  You could change the colors of each door if you want, or you could just draw a door shape using a marker if you don't have time to cut and paste on doors.  In fact, I've been drawing doors on the flaps all week and it's actually worked out better.  You can make the doors "spooky" by letting the child put Halloween stickers on them, too.  That's it!  Super easy, and super fun.

You could do a variation of this book with older kids, too.  Just think up a repetitive line that will work with your goals, and write it with a marker on each page.  If you're working on adjectives, you could let your students make the doors be dusty, sparkly, spooky or whatever you decide.  You could have the kids make bugs to hide behind the doors, just like in the book, and you could embellish them with yarn, paper shreds, googly eyes, etc.  Or, check this out:  I grabbed this cute memory game made by Carrie at Carrie's Speech Corner last week from Pinterest.  Thanks, Carrie!  You could hide these cute trick-or-treaters behind your doors!  Language opportunities abound!

I hope you find this idea as much fun as I do!


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

App Review: Trucks HD by Duck Duck Moose

 I just downloaded this app today and I can already tell it's going to be a winner!  The name of this app is Trucks by Duck Duck Moose, creators of several of my favorite apps for little ones, and was just released on May 1, 2012.  I am so glad I found it...and so was my three-year-old friend that I used it with this morning! Any truck-loving child is sure to be delighted with the colorful, appealing graphics and the actions the cars and trucks perform.  It is easy to use and is very engaging.

The first thing you do is choose a scene.  You can choose the car wash, the tow truck, the garbage truck, traffic or the construction site.

We chose the car wash, and this is what we saw:

First, you roll your car through the mud until it's nice and dirty.

Next, you take it through the car wash.  Touch the brushes to make them wash the car.

 Then touch the devices above the car to rinse it...

...and blow it dry.  Your car is now clean and ready to roll!  This activity was perfect for working on new words with my little friend with CAS.  Words we practiced include mud, dirt, dirty, wash, water, on, off, brush, blow, clean and go.  It was also great for following directions.

The construction site was next.  The dump truck dumps dirt, rock or sand for the backhoe to scoop and take away.  Watch out for a few sneaky squirrels who visit the site!

The last scene we tried today was the tow truck scene.  We placed sharp objects in the road to pop the tires of unsuspecting cars and then sent a tow truck to help.

The tow truck brings the car to the tire shop, where we get to change the tires.  We raise and lower the car by touching the arrows, and choose new tires by touching the tool.

I haven't tried the other two scenes yet, but I'm sure I'll be just as enchanted!  This app was definitely worth the cost of $1.99.  The activities generated lots of spontaneous language from my little friend who is just building his vocabulary and beginning to combine words.  He was eager to imitate new words and excited to see what would happen next.  We'll definitely be trying this activity again soon!

Is There a Doctor in the House?

Feel Better Frog from Manhattan Toy

We're learning all about doctors and nurses here at Small Talk this week, so what better time to bring out another one of my favorites:  Feel Better Frog!  If you're not familiar with this toy, let me fill you in.  This poor little frog is not feeling well, but has all the accessories to help him get better in no time!  He sneezes or blows his nose when you hold the tissue to his face, slurps soup off the spoon, and tells you if he has a fever or not when the thermometer is in his mouth.  He even tells you when he's hungry!  Kids and parents alike find this toy hilarious and engaging. I usually add my Fisher Price Doctor Kit to the mix, and then we can check poor Froggie's ears, give his a shot or two and listen to his heart.  Playing doctor is a great way to introduce new vocabulary and practice lots of language goals!

To go along with this theme, I made a Patient Chart using Boardmaker.  We talk about who the patient is, what happened to him, what we did to make him feel better, and what instructions we gave him to do at home.  I help the child complete the chart by showing him a page of choices for each question on the chart.  We review/name each of the choices and select one to put on the chart.  When the chart is complete, I have the child tell about the patient he treated, using the chart as prompts.


For example, the child might say, "Teddy Bear came to the doctor today.  He fell off his bike and hurt his knee.  I put a bandaid on it.  I told him to go home and rest."

If you'd like to download my charts and choices, you can find them at these links:  Chart Choices, Chart Choices 2 and Patient Chart.  Sorry for the multiple downloading, but I posted these before knowing how to link PDF's together in one file.  Oh well, they're free, right?

Another great way to work on sequencing, vocabulary and language skills is to make an interactive story of the child pretending to be a doctor using your iPad or iPhone.  There are several great apps that allow you to take photographs within the app itself and then use them to create a story, but the one I used today was Stories 2 Learn by MDR.  It's easy to use and a story can be completed quickly.  Check it out in the App Store.

Just take a picture of the child using your iPad or iPhone, or import a photo from another camera.  Add the text by typing in the text box, and audio if you desire.  Save your page, and add another.  Your story can be as long or as short as you want it!  The pages of the story look like this:

Kids just love to be the stars of their own stories, and this is a great way for them to work on their speech/language skills, too!

Nice chatting with you!

Pam