Versatile Handmade Magnets

I love magnets!  Sure, cards come in handy but they bend and tear.  Little miniatures are fun too but they get lost and aren’t easily to transport.  I have an unnatural hatred of felt, so unlike felt, magnets are easily moveable and don’t fall off the board when the board is upright.

Rather than spending a lot on supplies, I made tons of picture magnets that could be used during group and individual therapy for many years.  They are useful for everything from retelling stories to articulation practice.  I got most of my pictures from  large photo/sticker books I found in the discount section of Borders.  This was one of them.  Or search for “Super Stickers” or “Editors of Southwater” on Amazon.

Over the course of about a year I cut out pictures, laminated them, then stuck a sticky magnet strip on the back.  If you do a few a day, it actually isn’t that time consuming.  I made hundreds.  I got about 6 years of use out of my magnets before I started the doctoral program.  The main dry erase boards in the classrooms were magnetic, the magnets lie flat, and are light, so these easily traveled from class to class.  I also had a magnetic board in my therapy room.   I grouped mine into various common categories shown in the drawers.  I think I got this drawer container at Target in the hardware section.  It is supposed to be for nails and screws and such, but I think my magnets put it to good use too.  I also liked that it didn’t take up too much room in my therapy room.

 

Thanksgiving Vocabulary

Sorry if my Thanksgiving post comes too late!  When I worked at a school, Thanksgiving break was a great time to rest, relax, and shop.  Now that I am back in school, it is a time to work on assignments for the end of the semester.

This is a write up of a vocabulary lesson I did before Thanksgiving while the class was reading books and preparing projects for the holiday.  I took words that were being used in books and by the teachers.  The children were familiar with the words but did not always use them correctly in the classroom and were not able to define them.  This kind of vocabulary lesson can be applied to other thematic words.

The words were: Holiday, Thankful, Celebrate, Delicious, Peaceful, Harvest, Feast

I worked on one word at a time.

First I wrote the word on the board.  Then I said it and had the group repeat the word all together.  Then we clapped the word all together as we said it.

Then I asked the children to tell me what they thought the word meant.  Usually at least one child had a good idea of what the word meant.  We worked as a group to form a cohesive definition that I wrote on the board.

I said the definition, then had the group say the definition with me.  If you have the time, and a small group, it also helps to have each child say the word and definition by themselves.  Then each child gets more exposure.

After that, I put the pictures you see on the right out and asked the children to take turns finding the vocabulary words.  ”Find a picture that shows people having a feast.” “Find the picture that shows a harvest.”

Finally, we made up sentences using each word.

Oh, here are the definitions that the children came up with:

Holiday – a special day

Thankful – happy for something

Celebrate – do something special for a holiday

Delicious – a food that tastes really yummy

Peaceful – not fighting, being nice to each other

Harvest – when a lot of food grows and farmers pick it

Feast – a meal with a lot of food and a lot of people

Bats and other Nocturnal Animals

Around mid November one of the classroom themes was nocturnal animals with a focus on bats and owls.

It is always fun to put a bunch of items in a bag and let children feel inside without peeking and guess what they are touching.  However, it is nice to have a thematic unit to go along with the activity.  For this game you will need a large bag and several common objects to put inside.  Make sure the objects would be known to all the children such as common classroom items and also make sure they would not be difficult to describe.   I usually did this activity with a large group but it could also be done with a smaller group of children.  I put all the items in the bag at the same time but you could also put the items in one at a time, whatever you think your group can handle.

Show the bag to the children and tell them there are some things inside but they will not be able to use their eyes to see what is inside.  Review that bats do not have good eyesight and live in the dark.  I also turned the classroom lights off to add effect.  Explain that they will have to use their hands to reach inside the bag, pick an item, and guess what it could be.  Let each child take a turn.  To prevent them from pulling their hand out before they take a guess, you can gently close the bag’s opening around their arm.

Have them take a guess by using a full sentence, “I think it is a ______.”  After the child guesses, let him take his hand out and show the object to the group.  The child is usually correct since the objects are common.  If he is correct, say something like, “Yes, you thought it was a ____, and it is a _____.”  If he is not correct, you can say “That was tricky, you thought it was a _____, but really it was a _____.”

Then you can ask, “How did you know it was a _____.”  Have him respond with a full sentence such as, “I knew it was a ____ because it is _____.”   For example, “I knew it was a marker because it felt smooth and long.”  or “I knew it was a piece of paper because I could bend it.”   This was definitely something I had to model for my groups.  Usually they could tell me how they knew, but then needed help shaping it into a full sentence.  Or they could use a full sentence but the reason was not really clear.

If answering how questions is too advanced for your group, you could have each child tell you 2 or 3 things about the object they picked such as the category, function, and an attribute.

Halloween Costume Picture Language Games

Several life events prevented me from updating for a while, but I will try to get several Halloween, October, and fall themed activities up soon.

If you are in a school that celebrates and talks about Halloween then all you need for this activity are some pictures of children in costumes.  I found my pictures in a large children’s picture book that I found at a book store for a few dollars. It was worth the price for all the pictures I have been able to cut out of it.

This activity works best with a small group of children.  Put all your costume pictures in a pile and let the children take turns picking a picture from the pile.  Have the child identify what each child in the picture is being for Halloween.  Have them use a full sentence to practice using full sentences and appropriate pronouns.  For example, “She is a doctor” or if your caseload children need to work on even longer sentences, “She is being a doctor for Halloween.”

If you have caseload children who are more independent with their turn taking and who may need to work on asking questions, have one child pick a costume picture and ask another child, “What is he/she being for Halloween?” or “What is his/her costume?”  

After the costume has been identified, practice having the turn taker say how he knew.  ”How do you know she is being a doctor for Halloween?”  The child will have to look at the details of the costume that led him to his answer.  Some children will answer with 1 or 2 things they see.  You can model a full sentence if they are unable to combine the details. For example, “Because she is wearing a white coat and has a stethoscope.”   This is good practicing for explaining.

When all the pictures have been looked at or all children have hit their target enough times, you can have the group sort costumes by type: scary, jobs, hats, animals, etc.

Greetings

Whenever I would go into a classroom for a large group lesson, I would always greet the children and have them greet me back.  I taught this at the beginning of the year and carried it through to the end.  It is also fun to hear 10-12 voices greeting you all at the same time.  Having the children greet you in a big group also helps those children who have a hard time using social greetings.  Doing it as part of a large group takes the “spotlight” off of them.

I started by saying “Hi class.”  Now when I say “Hi class” you say “Hi Miss Dana.”  Ok let’s try it!

Me: Hi Class

Class: Hi Miss Dana

Then I would of course tell them how great that was and continue with something like:

Me: Ok now if I say “Hello class” you say “Hello Miss Dana.”  Ok let’s try it!

Me: Hello class

Class: Hello Miss Dana

Then practice it a few times.  Each time complimenting them for greeting you all at the same time.  Then try:

Me: Ok now if say “Good afternoon class”  What would you say?

Class: Good afternoon Miss Dana

Me: Great, if I say “Happy Tuesday class” what would you say?

Class: Happy Tuesday Miss Dana

The next time I went into the classroom, we usually had to practice it again, but eventually they all got it by the end of September.  From then on each time I went into the classroom, I would greet the children once and they would greet me back once.  Depending on the theme or the time of year, I changed up the greeting.  It is a great way to practice greetings for holidays (Happy Halloween, Happy New Year Class, Valentine’s Day, etc.).

This can also make a good lesson to practice appropriate volume.  The children do not need to be screaming your name, but should be using a regular “inside voice.”  Sometimes one child would try to be silly and yell or stretch out the greeting past everyone else, i.e. “Hi Miss Danaaaaaaaa.”  I would usually remind everyone that I had a really fun game to play next, and that the greeting needed to be done the right way so we could get to the game.

Learning Friends’ Names

I’m sure you know that one of the hardest things for children with language impairments to do is to remember and use their friends’ names at school.  This blog post will list some activities that can be done in the classroom or in groups to help children improve their memory for their friends’ names.

• Play “I Spy.”  This is a good activity if you go into the classroom for a few children.  It can be done during free play time, snack, or lunch.  You can even incorporate a toy pair of binoculars, toy telescope, or use a paper towel tube.  Model: “I spy with my little eye a girl, her name is ____” or “I spy with my little eye a boy, his name is____.”  If the children need to work on longer sentences try: “I spy with my little eye a girl who is wearing blue, Her name is _____.”   Have the child or children spy various classmates around the room or at the table.  You will probably have to model the name of the child that is spied until the child or children on your caseload have had a lot of practice.  You can have children not on your caseload play along and model as well.

• If you have permission to take pictures of the children in the classroom, make a picture book of all the children in the class for the child on your caseload to use in therapy.  If the class is large, you may need to make the book short at first and introduce more pictures to it over time.  It helps to put it in a binder.  Glue each classmate’s picture on a page and with the help of the child on your caseload write the name underneath.   You and your caseload child can look through the book in therapy and practice naming his/her classmates.  You can have the child find a particular classmate in the book.  You can have him/her practice clapping out the syllables in each classmate’s name.  You can practice social greetings with each picture, “Hi _____.”  ”______, do you want to play?”  And finally, you can cover the picture with an index card and slowly reveal the face while your caseload child guesses the classmate.

• If you have the children in circle time, you can have one child come up one at a time.  Give them a sticker and tell them to give the sticker to a friend.  Then ask, “Who did you give the sticker to?”  They can practice using full sentences to say, “I gave the sticker to ____.”  If they do not remember their friend’s name, they can practice asking, “What is your name?”

• As a transition activity, such as getting up from circle or getting up for snack have each child tell you the name of a friend sitting next to them.  If they do not know their friend’s name, they should practice asking, “What is your name?”

• Sing “Willoughby Wallaby Woo” (by Raffi) as part of a circle time using all the names of the children in the class.  It is really fun if you have a little elephant they can pass around and pretend an elephant sat on them.  Or you control the elephant and place it on the head of the child you are singing about.

Willoughby wallaby wee, an elephant sat on me

Willoughby wallaby woo, an elephant sat on you

Willoughby wallaby Wustin, an elephant sat on Justin

Willoughby wallaby Wania, an elephant sat on Tania

Back to School Ideas

I know, we’re not there yet, but it is getting pretty close.  So the next couple of posts will be about speech and language activities that help with the first few weeks of school.

During the first week or two, we worked on the category of “school supplies.”

Dr. Jean has a song called “I like to Come to School” to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell.”  It’s a great song for those first few days.  I used to change it up and use it to teach functions of the school supplies.  I put out pictures of the various school supplies the children were becoming familiar with.  Keep in mind, these activities are for children in preschool and kindergarten.  In a small group, the children took turns picking a picture and naming it.  Then we sang the item name + the function to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell.

So for example: “At school I cut with scissors, at school I cut with scissors.  Hi ho the dairy-o, at school I cut with scissors.”  Model the actions and have the children act it out as you all sing.

When you are finished singing, ask each child about their favorite item to use at school.

Another game I liked to play I called “What’s in the Backpack?”  This works best with a small group too.  Fill an empty backpack with school supplies such as glue, pencil, crayon, paper, eraser, marker, etc.  Nothing too sharp!  Let the children take turns closing their eyes and feeling for something inside the backpack.  I used to hold it and close the open flaps around their arm to prevent peeking.  Have the children use a full sentence to say “I think it is a ____” before they pull out the item.  Some children will be able to say how they knew what it was when you asked them.  Other children will need modeling.  ”You knew it was a glue stick because you felt how it is round and smooth.”

Or you can put everything in the backpack and give the children clues to guess what each item is.  Once they guess it, pull it out and put it on the table.  You can have them clap out each item once they are all out.

Once everything was out of the backpack, I told the children they needed to help me clean up.  I gave them a direction to get two items to put back in the backpack.  For example, “Get the glue and the pencil.”  Keep giving directions until all the items are put away.