Expressive Activities

Language has rules governing the order of words and how we add segments to add meaning. Putting words together in a planned way in a sentence is referred to as syntax. Children often have difficulty with the subtle changes such as when words like “not” are added making a sentence mean the opposite. Word order can also make some significant changes in meaning such as in the position of “before” and “after” in a sentence.

Although expressive and receptive language typically develop together, there may be reasons why a person lags in one or the other. The activities on this page were originally created for students who had difficulties with expressive and/or receptive language skills and had goals to address them. You may feel free to use any of the materials and activities on this page  for  students on your caseload, in your classrooms, or your individual child.  They are not meant to be  copied for commercial purposes or moved to another site.  I encourage you to refer or link back to this site.

An ASHA (American Speech and Hearing Association) certified speech and language pathologist should be consulted, if you have concerns about a student’s language development. These are professionals who can conduct an assessment and make recommendations based on that assessment. If necessary, a program can be developed to address individual needs. I can not guarantee student progress from the materials on my blog without that professional direction.

Complex Sentence Forms

  1.  Before and After Sentences in text version without pictures.
  2. Before and After with pictures at TPT store :
30 Before and After Task Cards

3. For a Free Sample of 9 Before and After task cards click here.

4. Using When and While in sentences: text version

5. Using which, that, and who in sentences: text version

6. Using because in a sentence.  Silly sentences provide a natural context for producing because in a sentence. You will find more of these in the vocabulary section.

7. Making descriptive sentences:  This spinner activity provides practice adding more descriptive details to a sentence.   This is a free download on Teachers Pay Teachers Just click on the cover button below and it will bring you to the free down load.

Click on the cover for the full set of the Teachers Pay Teachers Listing

Use of morphology or word endings

9. Irregular past tense verb task cards: There are two sets of of irregular past tense verbs in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. They are double sided cards that elicit a verb on one side and provide the answer on the flip side.  The first set of cards  uses bar codes to provide  the answers. The second set are the  same  cards  but  provide  a printed answer on the flip side  and an  electronic  device  is  not  needed to  read  the bar code.

Click on the covers for direct links to TPT . Click here to get a free sample:

  • 10. Suffix practice:  These are cards with pictures to elicit the suffixes er, ly, y, and ful.
  • 11. Dominos:   This is a site that allows you to make your own pictured dominos.  I use pictured dominos to work on plurals and the final /s/ in words.

12. Irregular plurals Interactive Storybook and flash cards. A digital link is provided for an animated version to be used with Google Drive. The original product features a pop up book. You get both with purchase.

Click on the covers above for a direct link to the products.

  • 13. Paper dolls:  Paper dolls are helpful when teaching pronouns.  This site allows for a variety of choices for males and females.
  • 14.  Will it Fit in a Jar? A card game to promote the use of comparisons and suffixes er and est.  This game is also posted in the vocabulary section. 
  • 15.  Sentence Flip Book 1,    Sentence Flip Book 2: These are cards that have subjects, verbs, and objects.  You can use them as playing cards or attach them at the top to make a flip book.  By flipping the cards up in various sequences you can make a variety of sentences.  I use it for developing subject pronouns, object pronouns and various verb tenses.  There are quite a few irregular verb tenses included.  There are 2 files because the upload was too heavy.  I actually put both books together.

Forming Questions

  • 16. Jeopardy: This is based on the game show.  It focuses on producing wh? + do/does questions. It also forces students to think about descriptive detail of items in the same category.
  •   17. Go Fish:   This is a source for “Go Fish Cards”.  This game provides  natural speaking opportunities for formulating descriptive sentences, asking questions, using short term memory, and turn taking.
  • 18.  Idioms of Fortune:  This activity reviews  Idioms or non-literal language.  It is meant to be used like a game show and may be adapted to classroom use.  Any of the cards on this site can be used for the questions or cards can be made as a review of classroom material. The picture is in Public Domain and can be reached here. The link in the download of directions is no longer working.
  •  19. Who questions:   Cards used to practice answering who questions, introduce occupation vocabulary, and elicit adverbial phrases such as (   ________ is a person who___
  •  20 What questions: Cards used to practice answering what questions and descriptive information.
  • 21.  Where do  and What do question formulation.
  • 22.  How questions: These are text only perspective taking task cards that also can be used to answer how questions.  A student can also get practice  using “because” and “or” in sentences, and making comparisons.
  • 22. How and Why Contrast cards:   These cards have a short paragraph with  how and why questions on one side and answers on the opposite side. Click on the cover for a direct link to Teachers Pay Teachers. For a free sample click here

  • 23.  Why questions :   Cards used to practice answering why questions, make inferences, and elicit sentences with “because”.  Pictures make this download take a little longer.
  •  24. When questions: Cards used to practice answering when questions.  They can be used to elicit complex sentences using temporal words. Pictures will increase the download time.

Three words make a sentence

Three words make a sentences:  The student is given 3 words to combine together to make a logical sentence.  The difficulty can be increased by using the descriptive spinner in the Making Descriptive Sentences activity  and adding adjectives and prepositions to the newly formed sentence.

Story Telling

  • 29. Storytelling characters:  These are characters and objects you often find in stories.  By adding magnets or velcro to the back they will stick  to a white board or felt board.

Telling a sequence of events.