Math Language

I just found this great website that students, teachers and parents can use to access lots of "virtual" math manipulatives. Math is full of language concepts! Words like before, after, below, around, more than, less than...and don't forget those math word problems!

The website has items arranged by grade level (preK through 4). The "help" button at the bottom of the screen gives a good explanation of how to use the tools. There are a couple of ways that I can see this as a fun teaching/practice tool for language...

 Under the PreK to grade 1 "manipulatives" tab, click on Bears in a Boat. Click and drag the boat onto the work and have your child follow your directions to put bears into the boat. Use position words, "Put a purple bear in front of (next to, behind) a red bear;" or time concepts, "Put a red bear in the boat after/before you put a blue bear in." You could practice following directions with quantity concepts such as, "Make all but one of the bears in the boat yellow;" or "Make some of the bears in the boat green."

Under the manipulatives tab, choose calendar.  Help your child fill in the calendar for the month, clicking and dragging the numbers, days of the week and name of the month.  Talk about the day that is after Monday, or the week after Valentine's day.  Use words like before, after, next, last, first.  Write in special days or appointments with the text tool and then print the calendar for your fridge.  Try some real-life word problems such as, "We are going to the dentist on the last Friday of the month.  How many days until we go to the dentist?"

There are many more ways to use these tools...explore and have fun!

CLICK HERE for the website.

Imagination!

Have you seen this video?  It's about a 9 year old boy in Los Angeles, who created his own arcade out of used cardboard boxes.  It is amazing!

Here's the challenge...

Our first theme when we get back to school in September is "At the Fair."  Now, if you've ever been to a fair, you know that there are lots of games like the ones Caine created.  Your summer homework is to create a game (it doesn't have to be as big as Caine's games) and be able to explain how you made it, and how to play it.  If it's small enough, you can even bring it to school and we can use it in our speech group!

I can't wait to see what you create!

Listening Comprehension--The Rainbow Fish

Here is an activity to practice the skills of listening comprehension and answering questions.  Click here for a link to the Storyline Online website, which is a website that contains videos of famous actors reading  children's stories.  Then at the top of the list, click on The Rainbow Fish, read by Ernest Borgnine.  After listening to the story, click on the "Related Activities" button and have your child try to answer the questions about the story, or to retell the story.  If necessary, you can go back to the story and replay parts to help your child remember what happened.  Another technique you can use to help your child answer the questions is to give him/her choices of answers.  For example, if your child has trouble answering what was special about the Rainbow Fish, say, "Was the Rainbow Fish special because he had shiny glittering scales, or because he was very strong?"

Listening to stories and answering questions such as these are important skills that children need to have in school.  Practicing activities like these at home will help your child to become a better listener, and to improve his/her communication skills.

Did you say Pirates?

If you are looking for a fun way to practice following directions and understanding concept words, you might want to try my Gold Giveaway PIRATE game.  It's best if played with more than 3 players (although it will work with 2).  I have included a printable version and a PowerPoint version.  The links are below...

Gold Giveaway (PowerPoint)
Gold Giveaway (printable version)

I've also added another version of The Krabby Patty game on the My Games page.  You can use it as a motivator and to keep your child's interest in articulation practice (I hope!).

Have a wonderful weekend!

Buggy about Speech

Our theme for the past two weeks has been Bugs.  We have practiced retelling stories and sequencing skills (concepts first, last, before and after) with the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  The kids really enjoyed watching this video of the story.  Try it at home by having them draw or write the words for the items the caterpillar ate on index cards and then retell the story.  Ask questions like, "What did the caterpillar eat before he ate the plums?" or "What did he eat after he ate the strawberries?"  Encourage and model complete sentences with the proper verb forms.

You can also try the same activity with The Very Quiet Cricket

Articulation
Here is a game to play while practicing articulation.  How many butterflies can you catch?

Following Directions
Click here for a PowerPoint activity to practice following directions.  You will need PowerPoint on your computer or PowerPoint viewer.