It is time to change the bulletin board again. The students really seem to enjoy these projects and ask each month what we are going to do next. I like them because they can encompass so many objectives from speaking clearly with detail to following directions. I think they like using the art supplies since there is not as much time to do art in the classrooms. These same students often have difficulty following directions and get lost in a large group. In a small group they can all be successful.
Leprechaun from hand print
I obtained my materials from a lot of different sources. I found a hat on this web site and shrunk it down to a usable size. Leprechaun_Hat. This site taught how to draw facial expressions.
I used Story Kit to record the directions. This app is no longer available as of 2022. However the directions still work. You may be able to use another program such as Power Point to accomplish the same thing. Students took pictures of the project and made the story sequence themselves. It taught them about sequencing and providing important detail. You can access their directions here. Leprechaun Directions.
It took two sessions to accomplish everything. Not only did it make interesting therapy sessions, I have a new bulletin board for March. Here is a picture of the bulletin board.
It is hard to believe we are getting to the end of January. This is parent teacher conference week for us so it has been hectic getting all the progress reports written. In between conferences I usually have a chance to make changes on the bulletin board for February. I decided the antonym bulletin board worked really well last year so I would do it again. I liked the way the directions for the paper ornaments worked on the Story Kit so I decided to use it again.
Glitter heart
As a relook at this post in 2022 I found that StoryKit is no longer available as an app. However I found that the link is still operating. I thought that some of you may still find it useful. You can find the directions on this link. Glitter Heart Directions
Happy New Year! It is hard to believe we are this far in our school year. I will be putting up a new bulletin board when I get back to school. I thought some of you would like to get a head start too. This is not a new idea for me, but for some reason I didn’t get a picture of the bulletin board from last year.
I will keep to a winter theme by having students make snowmen. We have a die cutter that cuts out snowmen. You could cut out 3 circles small, medium, and large, for the students to stack and make a snow man if you don’t have die cutter. Students can then use scrap paper to make props and clothes for them. Finally I had them make a sign for snowman to hold. This gives them a chance to formulate relative clauses using descriptive phrases. An example for a sentence would be. “I am a snowman who is wearing a striped scarf and black hat”. They get quite creative with this and can usually come up with several sentences that will apply. I have seen flying snowmen with wings and snowmen who look like football players.
A snowman who………
This year I will make sure I take a picture of the bulletin board and post it.
It is hard to keep students focused at this time of year. I continue to search for materials that have speech therapy value and are not time intensive. Schools have also become more culturally sensitive which makes it even more of a challenge for what I can actually put up on a bulletin board. This activity meets many of the requirements.
I often already have a tree from November’s bulletin board. I move the limbs so it looks more like a fir tree. I use the teacher trick of tracing the student’s hands on green paper and having them cut them out for leaves. I can staple these on the tree to provide the fir part of the tree. I then have students make and add the paper ornaments.
paper ornament
I found this great paper ornament that meets the requirements. It is a simple activity that even the youngest children can complete and it allows practice following directions and retelling a sequence. It is found on http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2008/12/paper-flower-ornaments.html I have access to plenty of colored paper and glue sticks so I won’t need to get additional materials.
It is not a surprise that a number of speech students are poor readers and do not like to read. Their lack of the skills takes the enjoyment away from a good story. Their poor reading ability often keeps them at a level of stories that have immature topics compared to their interests. It doesn’t take long before they find themselves way behind their peers. They are stumbling through basal readers when their peers have moved on to chapter books. Yet books are such a great tool to learn new vocabulary, learn story sequence, and develop the ability to make inferences. It is important to still give them exposure to higher level books.
A number of schools in my area compete in a competition called the “Battle of the Books”. Students are assigned books through the year, questions are derived from the stories, and then the questions are used for a type of knowledge bowl competition. The winning team is acknowledged by the school library. Some of my 5th graders I work with are unable to read the books and grasp the material. They have a hard time including themselves in this competition. There are still ways to include them with technology. Text to speech books are available from a number of sources.
This school year I’ve become aware of new tools to bring literacy to my students with poor reading ability. They can enjoy appropriate reading and writing content when their reading skills are low. Two such internet programs are “Bookshare.org” and StoryBird. I have added them to the blogroll. Both programs are free to classroom teachers or mentors who enroll students and are responsible for over seeing the material and content. The material is password protected but available to a core group.
Bookshare is available to students with print disabilities. As stated on the Bookshare site, ” Through an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Bookshare offers free memberships to U.S. schools and qualifying U.S. students.” In this program, the mentor/teacher verifies that a student has a disability that prevents them from accessing literature without accommodations. The books would typically be copywrite protected but are available to be downloaded through this program to assigned students. The student has access to an assigned book on any computer by using an assigned password. Text is highlighted and read to them by the computer. All levels of reading ability are represented and a lot of the books are books being used in classrooms today as assigned reading.
The Storybird site is particularly helpful for students who need visual material to get the creative juices flowing. Artists have contributed beautiful art work that can be dragged and pulled to pages. The students then add text to make their own stories. The students can complete their own classroom libraries. Students can make individual books/stories or collaborate. It can maintain an interest level from low readers to the Talented and Gifted (TAG). What a great classroom project to include everyone on the same playing field.
Please explore these options so that your student’s vocabulary and language abilities do not suffer because of poor reading skills.
