following directions – In Spontaneous Speech

Fun With Angry Turkeys

4 Nov

November 4, 2022 Cindy 0

I am bringing “Angry Turkeys” to the top once again. It is a game that can be adjusted for the needs of different groups of speech students. For my younger students it was a great way to review prepositions. For my older students it was just a good reinforcement activity with a November theme.

This toss game was originally based on the old app Angry Birds. I renamed it Angry Turkeys and introduced it in November. Students may not be as familiar with the app these days but that doesn’t really matter. Basically the app had pigs building stacked structures. The birds became objects to toss at them and break down the buildings when they hit.

I made turkey bean bags from scrap fabric I had on hand. The only other things you need are paper rolls and coffee can lids. I covered the paper rolls to give them color. I made the green pigs from paper rolls cut in half. I printed out clip art of a pig and taped it to the paper roll to represent the pigs.

The directions for the Turkey Bean bags are here.

I started the game by making towers with the paper rolls and lids. I then gave students the pigs and told them where to place them or they told other students where to place them. This gave them practice following instructions and using prepositions.

I then handed out the turkey bean bags. They all tossed one turkey on the count of 3 and hit the towers down. They always requested to do it again. I love activities that are self reinforcing and encourage review of vocabulary.

Follow Directions to Create a Leaf Turkey

17 Oct

October 17, 2019 Cindy 0

Take advantage of the Teachers Pay Teachers Sale

Creating turkeys from leaves was one of my all time favorite speech therapy activities. It was my type of project; easy to set up, materials were easily available and it appealed to multiple ages and abilities. I could address following directions and prepositional vocabulary such as below, above, center, before, and after. I could expand it for the older elementary by using science vocabulary and discussing why leaves change color, and drop.

A walk to look at Autumn colors and changes in the trees, is a good way to start this project. Children can’t resist picking up the different colors of leaves and wanting to do something with them. I found the colors and shapes of Maple leaves work the best for this project. Keep in mind that each student needs two leaves. Pick those that still have a long stem attached. It is always helpful to have extras for those that get broken before use.

I originally posted this activity 6 yrs ago, so it may look familiar. Many of you probably haven’t looked back that far to find it in my archives. I found it recently and decided with some updating it was worth reposting. The original was made with an app called Story Kit on my school iPad and was uploaded to the children’s library here. I have updated it to a pdf file to allow access on multiple types of devices. Click on the button for access.

I originally placed all the turkeys on a bulletin board with signs. This became an introduction to satire. I hope you have as much fun with this as I did.

The Never Ever Dinner Plate for the Development of Negation

23 Mar

March 23, 2014 Cindy 0

You may remember in the original posts of this blog, I wrote about using a push-in model of therapy with Kindergarten students using table games to teach concepts that were measured on the The Boehm Test of Basic Concepts. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this test, The Boehm Test of Basic Concepts is a norm-referenced, standardized test of fifty common language concepts for children in Kindergarten through second grades. The concepts are important for following classroom directions and when acquiring math skills. Children with language delays, 2nd language learners, and those with lack of preschool experience benefit from direct instruction on these. The vocabulary section on this blog has some of the games that we developed and adapted. If you are interested in researching back to the original posts just put Concept Groups in the search bar and you can see how a year of school lesson planning went. I still use the same activities so they have held up over the test of time.

One of the Activities, “The Never Ever Dinner Plate” needed some refreshing. My sets are looking a bit worn after 5 years. The directions are in the vocabulary section but you still need to do quite a bit of work finding the clip art and collecting it together. This can be daunting when you don’t have much time and you are not sure of its true value. I decide to make a new set and preview it here so you could see what it actually is. This game/activity was used to teach the negatives (never, not), the concepts of match, full, half, and categories of food. It is also good for talking about a balanced diet if you have a nutrition program or theme. It was used in our Lifeskills program for that purpose.

The original game was played like this: Each child was given a plate mat and 3 pictured food items that match the outlines of the foods on the plate. I make a set of plates for each table so that each child will have a different plate. I made the meals balanced so dairy, vegetables, fruit, proteins, and grains are represented. There are also a set of non food items for each table group. These are items a child would never eat. The cards, including the nonfood items, are mixed and placed face down in rows in the center of the table. Students take turns flipping one card over on their turn to see if it matches a food item on their plate. If it does they can place it on their plate. If it doesn’t they turn the card back over. If it’s a non food item, emphasize that children “never” eat it. It is “not” food. The nonfood item is then flipped back over. They are basically foil cards. While you are playing you can also discuss categories of food and if their plate is ½ full empty etc. The game is over when one of the children is able to fill their plate with the proper food items. I have them swap plates and they are always eager to do it again. There is usually a lot of discussion about what they do like and don’t like to eat.

The full set of 10 plates is available at TPT. Click on the apple for quick access.

Shamrock Bulletin Board

8 Mar

March 8, 2014 Cindy 0

March is here again and it is time to find a new project for the bulletin board. I looked into the supply closet and found coffee filters left from someone elses project. This looked like a possibility for inexpensive fun. I started looking for a shamrock pattern. I was disappointed to find the die cut pattern was too big for my needs. Then the kindergarten teacher came to my rescue. She pointed out it was easy to make a shamrock from hearts. Even though I couldn’t find a shamrock, I found 3 sizes of die cut hearts. The plan was coming together. It would be easy to get this project ready because I already have all the materials.
I saw a project that used water based markers and a spray bottle of water. The water made the markers run into interesting designs. I thought the students would enjoy experimenting with that. They could glue the hearts on top of the colored coffee filters and it would look like stained glass. It would add some color to the board. I found a simile that worked well with the shamrocks; A best friends is like a four leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have. This gave an opportunity to talk about Similes with my older students. The younger students worked on following directions and talking about St. Patrick’s Day. This is what it is looks like so far. More Shamrocks will be added as they get completed.

Directions on StoryKit here.

Have fun and have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Eggs-actly Descriptive Game Cards

3 Feb

February 3, 2013 Cindy 0

I made a set of egg cards a number of years ago that I always brought out in the Spring to go along with Easter Egg themes. They evolved from the barrier game cards that are available for download in the social language section. I decided they could use an update so I increased the number and difficulty and added a BINGO game. There is now a bigger range from simple to more difficult. The full set is at TPT. I put 12 of the cards for download here ( Eggs-actly PDF wordpress) . so you can try them out. I had a fellow SLP that works in the middle school use them this last week.. She said they kept the students interested which is not easy for this age group. They were able to progress into the more difficult ones. I did make some adjustments. I had made multiple color spots and they tried to tell the location of each spot. I thought that was a little too much so changed the spots to the same color.

These cards have been used with 3rd grade to 7th grade students to target descriptive vocabulary and to follow multiple directions. The cards range from two step (make a green star in a red triangle) to more complex directions that require 5 or more steps (draw red lines that intersect perpendicular to each other in the center, draw a red triangle in the upper left corner, a yellow circle in the upper right corner, a green heart in the lower left corner and a blue star in the lower right corner). The following vocabulary can be elicited: inside, parallel, diagonal, end, striped, spotted, across, center, corner, intersect, above, below, vertical, horizontal, half, between, left, right, perpendicular, heart, square, diamond, triangle, rectangle, and star.

I’ve also used them to elicit r,l,s and blends in multi-syllable words in spontaneous speech. They were especially good for practicing the th sound in that pesky word with.

You can use them in the traditional speech therapy games of matching, go fish, following multiple directions, and mystery card.

I also used the cards with a free app called Educreations. It allowed the students to use the iPad for drawing. It seems anything with the iPad is very motivating. I liked it because I didn’t have to deal with markers. I hope you have fun and let me know how they work for you.