In Spontaneous Speech

Free Trial of How and Why Question Comprehension Cards

14 Mar

March 14, 2015 Cindy 0

I have several students who are answering a how question with a why response. Our students with language delays, autism, and 2^nd language learners often have trouble with these skills. “How” and “Why” questions are question forms that require a higher level of thinking and language skills to formulate responses. The students often need the ability to problem solve or take on another perspective when answering them. When looking through the Language Arts section of the “Common Core Standards” I discovered this would be a skill they would need. Like many of you, I am rethinking what is most valuable to my students as we try to align curriculum with the “Common Core Standards”. I made task cards to specifically address how and why question forms from a given text.

Students may require some direct teaching on the differences between how and why questions. How question have a few variations. It may require a student to tell how something is done in steps, how something is done descriptively, the amount of something, or state of being such as with “How are you feeling?”. The answer may contain an adjective or adverb.

Answering why questions often involves finding the antecedent or cause of an event. The answer recalls facts that happened before an event. For example the question “Why did the dog dig a hole?” He dug a hole because he smelled a bone under the ground. Compare this to the how question. “How did he get the bone?” He dug a hole with his paws and grabbed it with his mouth.

Answers to how question often relate an action and possible steps. These response can seem to be quite similar to a student. For instance, look at these questions and answers. “Why did the lights go out in the storm?” or “ How did the electrical wires get knocked down in the storm?” The answers, “The electrical wire was knocked down in the storm because a branch hit it.” and “A strong wind blew a branch off the tree and it hit the electrical wire which was torn down.” They seem interchangeable except the because is used in response to the why question and how elicits a series of events. Our language learners will shorten their response to, “A branch fell off the tree”, for both questions.

The packet I am posting on Teachers Pay Teachers has 30, 3 inch by 3 inch cards with 3 questions on most cards. In the packer there are 4 cards that deal with how many questions and amounts. 26 cards deal with the variations of how and why listed above. There are 17 cards that also contain a question on vocabulary within the story context. This provides opportunity for students to derive word meanings from the text and verbalize it. You can find them here or by clicking on the picture button at the top of the page which takes you to TPT and also gives a preview.

I made a free trial packet for my readers. You can get it by clicking on the star button.

There are 3 pages of cards for a total of 9. You can see if they are something of value for your students. I have been using them with my 3rd through 6th graders. I try to keep the picture cues meaningful and appropriate for middle school range. I have a lot of boys and they don’t tolerate things that look cute. I make them double sided so they have possible answers available. This helps when I have groups and it is motivating for them to flip them over and see if they got it right.

Adaptive Don’t Spill the Beans

5 Mar

March 5, 2015 Cindy 0

Don’t Spill the Beans is another game that I have used with my language learners. It has always been good for general reinforcement. Many of you probably have the game already.

I often became annoyed by the spilled beans. They were difficult for my students with poor fine motor concerns to pick up and took precious therapy time collecting them. I thought there had to be a better way. Then I remembered my Chipper Chat therapy materials. It is a product from Super Duper which many of you may also have. You can breathe new life into your “Don’t spill the Beans” game by switching out the beans with the magnetic chips. The students are always enthused about using the magnets and it makes it easy to pick up the spilled chips. I usually have the students pick up the chips with the magnets and place them in individual saucers to compare the amounts. You can also vary the game by having students collect specific colors that spill. The magnets have really helped with quick clean up. I added a communication board to practice sentence frames and turn taking..

Have a Heart

9 Feb

February 9, 2015 Cindy 0

Progress reports are in and it is time to get back to planning for therapy. February is a short month so it goes by quickly. I find I still need to keep things simple for my younger folk. We dressed the bulletin board up with heart animals. This activity was more open-ended then the ones I have done in the past. I used a die cut to cut a variety of hearts in different sizes and colors. They used sequins for the eyes. Students were told to put the hearts together to form an animal. I showed them a few pictures from Pinterest and then they were on their own. It was hard for them to get started. When they found they could try pieces out 1st before gluing they got a little more adventurous. It was a good opportunity to practice social skills to ask for tools and materials. We have worked a lot on sequencing and this activity required them to think about the order of gluing. I also listened to my articulation students to see how they were progressing with their spontaneous speech. Quite a few of my students decided to take them home to give for Valentine’s Day.

They came up with a good variety of animals.

Directions for Fidget Mazes and Happy New Year

4 Jan

January 4, 2015 Cindy 0

I hope everyone had a good holiday break and are refreshed for 2024. This post is dedicated to Baxter who crossed the rainbow bridge just before the holidays. He was a Belgian Malinois, Lab mix (thats our guess) rescued from the dog pound back in 2012. Although he was intimidating to some and took his guard dog job seriously he was a gentle family protecter. Our door bell stopped working and we didn’t bother to get it fixed because he always told us when someone was at the door. He made the family feel secure with his presence. He is missed.

I looked back at my posts of previous years and decided to replay this one on fidget toys. I had several students who had trouble staying focused in class. Keeping their hands busy seemed to keep them out of trouble. Cloth marble mazes are simple to make, functionaal and do not become deadly missiles in the end.

To make them I used textured cloth; fleece and terry cloth. I cut a 9 inch circle for one and 9x 8 inch squares for the others. I then sewed around the edge leaving a gap to turn it inside out. After turning it inside out, I drew a maze leaving 1 and 1/4 inch channel for the marble to move through. I then sewed on the lines with my sewing machine. These can be as simple or difficult as you want to make them.

Here are some different designs to get your creative juices going. I made the circle look like a snail with the marble moving from the edge to the inner circle. Just sew a spiral going to the center. I used a simple stitch first to make sure the marble would make it through and then used a stretch stitch to make it sturdier.

For the square I sewed straight lines.

Remember to alternate the lines from reaching the edge so you have a path for the marble. When you are finished, insert a marble through the opening and sew the opening shut. Students use their fingers to move the marble through the maze.

The teachers gave good reviews on these. They held up well and were washable. Once I got the hang of it, I could make one in 20 minutes.

Free Spinners for Game Adaptations

4 Dec

December 4, 2014 Cindy 0

You may have noticed that I like to use spinners to expand the therapy value of some of my games and teach concept vocabulary. I have some of them as part of my downloads in the vocabulary section. The spinners in my previous downloads are black and white and not very colorful. I decided to update them with pictures and color to make them more friendly for my non-readers. You can access them on TPT for FREE. Just click the button.

The spinners are made from the clear plastic lids you find on products such as whipped cream or oatmeal containers. A pony bead, paper fastener and spinner from heavy cardboard or plastic are added. The lids are clear so that the paper form can be placed underneath and still be seen. The paper can be replaced from one activity to the next and the same spinner stays intact. Look below to see my showcase of spinners and the games I use with them.

Left and Right Spinner.

This spinner is used when playing Blockhead or some other block stacking game. It targets the concepts of left and right. The spinner has the directions of Left or Right with a handprint for cuing. Students take turns spinning the spinner and use the hand that is indicated to pick up a block and stack to make a tower. Point out to the students that when their hands are flattened on the table their left hand will form an L shape with the pointer and thumb. This is another cue they can use to distinguish their left hand from their right hand. I have used this as a table or center activity with table groups of 6 students in a Kindergarten class.

Size and Shape Spinner:

You need bean bags or soft balls that can be tossed, plastic pails and boxes of various sizes and shapes, and spinners with the vocabulary words printed on it. Have the students make a big circle with the containers placed in the center. Instruct the children on how to toss the ball or bean bag safely so no one gets injured.

The spinners travel around the circle. Students spin the spinner and toss the bean bag or ball as required trying to get the bean bag in the appropriate container that matches the word on the spinner.

For the Amount Spinner, I use a game I made up called “Don’t Fall Through the Ice ”

Use the amount spinner, one 2 lb plastic coffee container. A rubber band that fits around the mouth of the container, tissue paper, marbles, cup to place marbles in water, spinner with vocabulary words. Instructions: Put one sheet of tissue paper across the opening of the 2 lb container. Fasten it down by stretching the rubber band around the top of the opening. You may need an extra set of hands to accomplish this. It should look like a drum. Put marbles in the cup and fill with water. Children take turns spinning the spinner and taking the number of wet marbles indicated.

The students place the marbles on top of the tissue paper top. The wet marbles will weaken the tissue paper and eventually fall through. The wetter the marbles the faster they will fall th rough. If you are using this activity with table groups they can count the marbles and compare who has the most or least marbles.

Don’t Spill the Beans is an other game that can be used with the spinner.

The conversation spinner can be used with any board game that uses a typical number spinner. It works well with games such as Snakes and Slides or Chutes and Ladders. Students try to follow the prompts on the spinner and give an example.