Favorite Games Linky Party!

Jenna from Speech Room News is having a Linky Party for favorite speech therapy games.  I've probably mentioned my top few on my blog before, but now might be the time to get them in one place.

My number one game is:  Race to the Roof

As much as I love my therapy card collection, and covet many additions, I also enjoy doing games that require no additional props. In this game students move through the house and there are entertaining pictures throughout.  The rooms in the house are not attached to the board so the house changes and it can be a different game every time.  If students roll a 1 on the dice they get to pick a special card and have to find the object in the house.

I work on so many therapy targets with this one:
Articulation: There are a huge number of S and R things in the pictures in the house, meaning that I can have sentence level articulation students describe the room they land on or for word level they can find a word in their room to practice.

Fluency & Voice: My fluency and voice kiddos can label objects and describe pictures using good fluency and voice strategies.

Language:  The best part ever!  I love this game for my 1st and 2nd grade language students.  We talk about what's going on in the house.  I get so much language, and even my most uncooperative friends work with me since, from their perspective, all we're doing is playing a game today.  I love sneaking the therapy part in, and that's one of those things that tends to get harder with older students and more complex goals.

*I pictured the new and current version of the game because of how much I want it.  Currently, I have the older version, which I liberated from my parents pile of games that my sister and I had as kids.  I you are going to invest in this one, get the new one.  As we all know, updated pictures are everything.  Someday I will find this in a thrift store or a garage sale, and there *might* be dancing.

Game number two: Feed the Kitty

I know I mentioned this game in my Games, Games, Games post where I discussed easily portable games so I'll be brief about the good stuff.  Super quick turns with a dice roll to minimize game time and maximize therapy time.  My kiddos love it.  I've used it in K through 6th grades, in fact I used it in ESY services today!

This was the hardest to pick.  I have so many games that I love to do with my students that I could have put any of 5 or 6 games here.  Lower to upper elementary is such a wide range of ages and interests that it's tricky to choose! So I went with one that is a standard in my therapy room and that I've used with a variety of grade levels.

Game number three: Cariboo

I'll admit I am not particularly in love with this one.  I just really don't get it, but it is like magic for my students.  They love it, they ask for it, some would play it every day if I let them.  They loved it so much, I made my own cards.  Check out the link for my previous post for my musings on the game and the cards.  The name of the game links to amazon, where the actually have copies in various condition for under $20 if you're still looking for one.

Final note on games for today:
I'm a little bit of a nerd, and I hate to get doubles of things at thrift stores and garage sales, especially since they are non-refundable, so I do have a complete game list I can take with me.  Check it out in Google Docs here.

Targeted Tier II Vocabulary Words - TPT Unit

Well, for some reason, all of the ideas I've had since the end of the school year have decided to come pouring out of me this weekend, so I put in some good movies and decided not to fight it.  I'm most thrilled about finally figuring out a way to do a vocabulary unit!  I've been back and forth on what I wanted to do since March and finally figured it out.  It's on TPT, like right now!

I'm super excited to have a good resource to use with my students, especially since vocabulary is such a huge area.  Also, it's a critical skill for our kids to have.  I think we all know that despite our best efforts, many of our students may never be able use correct grammatical skills or speak/write in full sentences.  By focusing on vocabulary we can give them comprehension skills to help them understand the world around them. 

Word selection!  The source of endless frustration for every SLP attempting to address vocaublary.  Standards vary from state to state (MN has it's own version of the common core) and curriculum from district to district.  I picked the words I did because they fell on more than one list for vocabulary for the targeted grade level.  As we all know, different schools, programs and teachers choose to target different words at different times.  Use your judgment based on the needs of your students and school. Even though there was some consistently, the words may fall different grades on different list.

18 words are selected for each target grade level.  The different grade levels use different kinds of animals for easy differentiation, but can easily be mixed for student needs as needed. The animal picture used with each word is consistent for every animal to help with switching between grade levels.  This also allows for word/definition Match or Go Fish games.

The animals are as follows:
Grade 2 - Sea Creatures
Grade 3 - Farm Animals
Grade 4 - Forrest Animals*
Grade 5 - Wild Animals*
*Categorized the same way the clip art creator Pink Cat Studio did.

 Each animal is only used with two different vocabulary words to (hopefully) help with sorting and resorting, since I'm sure we all know how easily things get mixed up as we rush from one group to the next.

Four Types of Cards are in this unit:

Side note - but seriously, how cute is that alligator!

Four Types of Cards:
Word Cards (color and black and white)
- Vocabulary cards are in color and black and white (not pictured) so students can personalize and color a set to keep.
Definition Cards
Yes/No + Why Question Cards
 - Yes/No question prompts followed by a why question to help you see how your student is thinking.
Antonym/Synonym Question Cards
- Check for understanding of new vocabulary in context.

A word list is included for each grade level so you can find a specific word at a glance.

Writing pages are included for Word and Sentence levels since writing words can be critical to retention of new words.

If you are as excited about this one as I am, head over to TPT to get it now!

Make sure you like my Facebook page so you can say updated on flash freebies as well as new materials.

Flying for Cause and Effect

Cause and effect is one of those skills that many of my students have a lot of trouble understanding.  Cause and effect is so important for cognitive organization and to help students understand concepts that are happening in their classrooms.  I want to continue working on this, and have a variety of stimulus activities to work on with different students. Thus I needed more materials! We always need more materials.  How does that commercial go again? "We want more, we want more!"

Anyway I broke the cause and effect into two sections.  The first takes out the actual vocabulary "cause and effect" and uses the phrases "what would happen if?" and "what will happen next?"  The idea behind this is to get students to start thinking about how different events are related.  Next there are cards that ask students to identify possible causes and effects.  Both multiple choice and open answer cards are provided.  A cause/effect cue sheet is included!  Check it out on TPT!

Both types of predicting outcomes cards.

"Gotcha" or game cards are provided for the open ended response cards for both levels of difficulty.

Two kinds of cause and effect cards.  Both cause/effect prompts are included in each format.

I also made a flying in the clouds game to go with this activity.  Students roll a dice and go to the next biggest number.  If they land on an airplane space, they follow the dotted line to either go ahead or backward.

If you're interested make sure to check this one out on TPT! 

Also make sure to like my Facebook page.  As of this moment, we're 21 likes until a flash freebie!  Like me and comment below to vote for what it should be!

Collecting Slimy Snails: A Describing Activty (and a summer update)

WOW!  It has been a long time since I have posted anything.  I had most of June off, with some training days for a math class and SIOP (EL certification).  I can't say enough good things about SIOP, especially since it has classroom teachers working on specific language goals with the students in the classroom.   It just happened that I ended up taking time off from blogging and creating as well off work.  I do have a monster pile of laminated materials getting reading to go back to school, and I think that the new laminator can be officially termed "broken in."  I also did a massive rush for finishing some baby gifts for some of my friends (pictured on my facebook).  Now that I'm back in the ESY mode, it's time to go back to blogging and materials!

Of course, the "to cut" pile is not included.

I have a new activity for everyone, because what better way to come back from break than to have a freebie?

I've actually had this one mostly done for some time now, and am finally getting around to finishing touches and, of course, sharing it.

Students need to sort attributes and describing words into pails as they collect snails.  I also included blank Snails and Pails for you and your students to personalize the activity and describe things that your students want to talk about!

This is a freebie on TPT so head over and grab it!

Birthday Sale!

My birthday is Tuesday June 25th, and as usual, I am overly excited.  Since we can't all have cupcakes together, I invite you to check out my TPT Store and enjoy 15% off all items on Monday June 24th and Tuesday the 25th!  So clear out your wishlists and have a great summer!

Asking and Answering Questions Cupcakes

I'm a big fan of using visuals with my students, it lets them start to feel independent and start to figure out things on their own.  There are so many great answering questions units with charts out there,  but not as many for asking questions.  This unit has identical but opposite charts for asking and answering questions to help students make connections between the two.

Asking questions

-          Question word chart formatted from answers to questions

-          How many questions card

-          Keep track of how many questions a student can ask about a topic using dry erase markers or tokens

-          4 and 6 Star Options so you can adjust the level of difficulty

-          Simple sentences for students to ask questions about

-          Some of the sentences might not be true for you, A blank sheet is included so you can add and remove as you need to!

Answering Questions

-          Question word chart formatted from questions to answers

-          Questions for students to answer

-          105 question cards!

Both asking questions and answering questions cards are shown.

Check it out on TPT!

Amelia Bedelia

I have been neglecting my blog lately with all the business that goes with the end of the school year.  I am looking forward to summer, but will be working with a few kids for ESY.  I've been meaning to write this post for a while, but everything else seems to have gotten in the way.  If you follow my blog at all, you probably know that I LOVE using books in therapy, and I also love sharing my favorites with you.  This year, I've been working on getting my collection organized by target language skill to help me plan lessons based on IEP goals.

These are just some of the books I have in the series.  There are tons of them!  You'll have to pick which ones are most practical for the skills you are trying to teach.

 Amelia Bedelia books are some of my favorites for working with multiple meaning words and idioms.  They are a great way to explore your students thinking when you start working on them.  I've had students who recognize that she's doing silly things, but can figure out the right thing to do.  Other students insist that she is doing exactly what is asked, and even though they can identify that some of the things are silly, they can't figure out why other people would get mad a her.  Still more kids can't define the words or idioms and realize that it's funny and why.  I like this peek into my students thinking because it helps me identify where I need to start teaching idioms and multiple meaning words.  Does my student just need to memorize the meanings and practice the words?  Or do we need to add the step of critical thinking to help the student understand that not everything is literal.

When first reading the books, I ask some of the following questions:
Is Amelia Bedelia following directions? Why or why not?
What else could she do when given that direction?
Does that make sense?
What would you do?
Is that funny?
Why is that funny?
Does that seem like something you should do?
Can you think of something that would make more sense?

After we've already done one book, I have students keep track of the words/phrases that Amelia Bedelia is getting wrong.  Depending on the level, my students keep their own list or we keep a list as a group.  Because many of the books were written years and years ago, I will chose some of the words to focus on for practice based on current use of words and practicality in their lives.

I have found that individual books in the series focus more on idioms and others on multiple meaning words.

The original Amelia Bedelia focuses more on multiple meaning words.

The book, Amelia Bedelia Bakes off has a lot baking related idioms, along with some multiple meaning words.

I do the Amelia Bedelia books with my 4th through 6th graders this year.  The reading level makes it easy to access for even my struggling readers.  There are even lower levels than the traditional books that have been written more recently.  These feature Amelia Bedelia as a kid.  I'm planning on doing these with one of my students who is going into 3rd grade next year.

Do you use these books in therapy?  What do you do?