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!

SpongeBob goes to Speech

We sure plunged into summer this week!  I hope you were able to find a cool spot to beat the heat.

My two sons were watching SpongeBob the other day, and I thought of a game that you might like.  You can print it and play it at home to practice several different skills such as articulation, vocabulary (synonyms/antonyms), and grammar (plural and verb tenses).   I will also be trying to think of a way to adapt it for the computer.  Hope you like it!

The Krabby Patty Game

The Ocean

Last week most of my groups got to watch a short video that showed lots of creatures that live in the ocean.  After that, they were able to add their artwork to the big whiteboard in my room.  I had already drawn an ocean scene on it, with a few fish and rocks and shells.  This is what it looks like now!  There are shrimp, horseshoe crabs, coral reefs, sea turtles, sharks, whales, squid and many other creatures!  Activities like these help students organize language/vocabulary into categories, which makes learning new vocabulary easier, and helps with word retrieval.

We have had fun sequencing and retelling the story, "There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Shell."  To print out the characters/objects that we used, click here for page 1 and here for page 2.  Have your child try to retell the story to you (hint:  the sequence is shell, crab, fish, gull, pail, sand, and wave.)  After she swallowed the wave she burped and made a sandcastle.  Model complete sentences and have your child repeat, if necessary.

Jellyfish

We have been busy!  My language groups (Kindergarten through Grade 2) made these cute jellyfish.  While working on them, we practiced following directions and used words like: long, short, wide, narrow, half, front, back, decorate, attach and tentacles.  Tentacles, decorate and jellyfish are all 3 syllable words, so we practiced clapping the syllables and repeating them in the correct order.

When they were finished, we hung them up in the room.  As we admired our work, we took turns retelling how we made them, using the words: first, then, next, and last, along with past tense verbs (e.g. "First, I cut the circle in half.  Then I decorated it.  Next, I taped on the tentacles.  Last, I hung it on the wall.")

There are some great simple craft ideas available on the internet.  Here are some links for you to try at home...don't forget to practice retelling how you made your projects.

Seahorses
Rainbow Fish
Octopus

It's Almost June!!

Next week we will start our new (and final) theme for the school year--Oceans.  I have a few activities planned revolving around the book, "There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Shell."  You can work on answering simple "Why" questions by playing the video below.  After the old lady swallows another item, pause the video and ask your child, "Why did she swallow the _____?"  Encourage a complete sentence as an answer, such as, "She swallowed the crab so it could live in the shell."

Articulation
Check out the Crab Safari Game to print and play at home --use it with a word list from the articulation page.  You can also play the game on the computer here.

I think these last few days of school will go by very quickly and before we know it, it will be summer vacation!  Be sure to check my blog throughout the summer for some ideas for practicing communication skills.

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.