Tag Archives : Fall Themed Activities

Fall Speech Language Activities

Fall Speech Language Activities

Hey everyone. I am excited to tell you that I created a new bundle of my Fall Speech Language Activities. I use these activities frequently in therapy sessions to increase my students’ receptive and expressive language skills. 

First, there is a fall themed word associations activity that will help kids practice Tier I basic level vocabulary. I have 2 sets of learning cards to elicit naming word associations. One set has text on fall photographed scenes and the other has text with smarty symbol pictures to help kids recall related words.

My Fall Themed Multiple Meanings: Homographs packet has 3 activities included for you to further differentiate instruction. Kids can match words to definitions on learning mats from a field of 6 choices, answer multiple choices questions when given cloze sentences to identify the correct homograph meanings, practice orally defining the vocabulary, or stating 2 sentences for each term.

My students love using the dry erase marker on laminated sheets to answer the multiple choice questions. They often play the included fall themed game board with this activity as well. 

                                 

Next, there is an activity to practice identifying fall words when given attributes or verbally defining words with attributes. Kids also have an opportunity to practice identifying English/Language Arts vocabulary by attributes (definitions) and orally defining them as well. I recommend that kids may earn bingo chips to cover up words on their vocabulary mat when they get a question right. The kid that answers the most questions correctly is the winner! I have included SLP question prompts so you can easily read the attributes/definitions.

In addition to this new Fall Speech Language Activities Bundle, I created a FREEBIE wh questions check for one of my favorite autumn stories, Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie. Enjoy this complimentary digital download available in my TPT store!

Thanks for reading the blog today!

Tamara 🙂

September Book Review {Pirate Theme}

September Book Review {Pirate Theme}

Hey everyone. I hope you are enjoying pirate themed activities in your speech-language therapy lessons this week in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day on Saturday. 

This year, I read aloud a new story that I heard about to my speech-language kiddos. The media specialist at my school and I are good friends and she is always recommending great books to me. It helps that my speech language room is across the hall from her office. 🙂

My students and I now LOVE the fiction book: No Pirates Allowed Said Library Lou!  The story line is awesome and so are the illustrations!

The main characters are Pirate Pete, his parrot Igor, and the librarian Library Lou. The story opens with Pirate Pete loudly bolting into Seabreezy Library looking for treasure. The folks in the library are quite alarmed and down right scared of his intimidating demeanor. Ms. Library Lou is definitely not impressed by his lack of manners and strong smell of the outdoors. Ughh!

This story has a great twist as Library Lou looks at the treasure map and declares that she knows how to find the treasure. Pirate Pete reluctantly listens to her as she guides him through finding the treasure. 

I definitely recommend this book to elementary school aged kids because I know that they’ll love it. Plus so many of them need practice with answering wh questions, story retell, and understanding the meanings of tier 2 vocabulary words from the story. Speech-language pathologists can also pick out articulation words from the story as an extension activity for kids who need to practice pronouncing specific sounds. 

Here is a freebie WH questions worksheet with a field of 4 choices for each question. Feel free to carry your pirate theme on to next week if you’d like. I’m sure your students won’t mind! Argggh Matey! Thanks for reading my blog today.

Tamara Anderson

October Children’s Literature Reviews

Here are my children’s literature reviews for books to use during the month of October. The first two books are ideal for addressing listening comprehension and vocabulary skills with children who are learning everyday Tier I words. 

A is for Autumn, by Robert Mass is a colorful book with great photographs that display nouns and adjectives of the season. The language in the book is simple enough for students in preschool and grades K-2. SLPs and teachers may lead students in an auditory memory activity to recall facts from the book or practice naming vocabulary associated with fall. The targeted vocabulary are: apples, birds, colors, daylight, exercise, frost, games, Halloween, ice cream (great for any season!), jacket, kayak, leaves, Monarch butterfly, neighborhood, owl, pumpkins, quilt, rake, scarecrow, Thanksgiving, umbrella, vegetables (gourds/squash), X (train crossing), yellow, and zipper. 

 Here’s a snapshot from one of my favorite pages:

Word Bird’s Fall Words, by Jane Belk Moncure is a book that introduces themed vocabulary to early learners. This is a simple text that teaches kids words associated with fall such as leaves, red, yellow, orange, football, acorns, squirrels, caterpillar, cocoon, Columbus Day, wild geese, pumpkins, Halloween, jack-o’-latern, trick or treat, turkey, Thanksgiving, Mayflower, Pilgrims, Indians, and tepee. Preschool and elementary school aged children can practice identifying and naming the key vocabulary. This is a fair book for kids with limited semantic or vocabulary skills. I use this book with kids with moderate intellectual disabilities and co-occurring language impairment. It can be used with a variety of children with language difficulty. 
My speech students love the books The Saturday Triplets in Lost in the Leaf Pile and The Saturday Triplets in The Pumpkin Fair Problem by Katharine Kenah. In the first story, the siblings decide to make a game out of raking leaves and in the process they lose their kitty, Boo. In the other story, the triplets go to the fair with their parents. They are so excited to be there, but can’t agree on what to do! The illustrations are fantastic in these stories and provide a great opportunity for kids to practice basic level verbal narratives. 

It wouldn’t be a new season without using one of Lucille Colandro’s books. I definitely recommend There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly! Yes, the children you work with will probably be grossed out again by the things this silly old lady eats. However, these books are an engaging and fun way to allow kids to practice identifying the correct sequence of the story events and verbally retelling the fiction story. Of course, you should always ask “wh” questions to check for comprehension. Although these books are at a second grade reading level, I think they are appropriate for a read aloud for preschool-3rd grade kids with language impairment or in a general education class as well. 
Enjoy the month of October! What are some books that you use this month in your classroom or during speech-language therapy sessions?
Tamara Anderson
Fiction Book Series # 1 {Pirate Pete}

Fiction Book Series # 1 {Pirate Pete}

Apparently tomorrow, September 19th, is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Say what?! This is certainly news to me because this day has always been and will forever be my dad’s birthday! Happy Birthday to an extraordinary man, a.k.a. Mr. Retiree, who I love dearly! 

This week,  I decided to introduce pirate themed fiction stories because I love literacy! Plus, I figured my students would get a kick out of  knowing that there is such a holiday that celebrates pirates. 

There are three books in the series by the author, Kim Kennedy and
her brother and illustrator Doug Kennedy.  I used the first 2 books in the series this week in speech language therapy with my students. I have read them in the past, but not in honor of this holiday. I was lucky to have the audio CD for the Pirate Pete books that the kids love! 

The First in the Series by Kim Kennedy is Pirate Pete. In this story, he travels to Mermaid Island in search of treasure. He is guided by the map that he mischievously took from the Queen.  Pete gets side tracked on his voyage and visits other islands along the way. His loyal parrot gets him back on track to finding the treasure! 

Then, there is Pirate Pete’s Giant Adventure. This time, he travels to Thunder Island in search of a Sea Fairy’s missing blue sapphire. On the island, Pete meets an unexpected antagonist who is determined to ruin his adventure. 

There is also Pirate Pete’s Talk Like a Pirate. In this book, Pete eagerly recruits new crew members to begin another voyage. He is convinced that they must all know how to talk like a Pirate! Arrrr matey! 

These books are great to use in speech-language therapy sessions, reading activities in the classroom, and to read with your child as well! Here are some ideas of children’s activities to address speech language objectives and literacy skills: 

  • articulation practice of /r/ words in the text
  • answering literal and inferential questions
  • verbal story retell
  • written story retell
  • compare and contrast the stories in the series 
  • context clues for unknown vocabulary
Thanks for visiting the blog today! Enjoy International Talk Like a Pirate Day tomorrow! It’s September 19th every year. 
Tamara
September Children’s Literature Reviews

September Children’s Literature Reviews

Hey there! The official beginning of fall will be here in a few days. For you football lovers out there, I am sure that you have happily immersed yourself into cheering on your favorite team on GAME DAY!! I know there are plenty of die hard college football and/or professional football fans. I live in Georgia Bulldog country! Go DAWGS!! I have to admit though that I am not much of a football fan because I attended a HUGE BASKETBALL university!! GO TARHEELS!! 

Anyhow, I look forward to a new season because I get to introduce new books in my speech-language therapy sessions and I love books! Go LITERACY! Here are my three top picks for the month of September. 
Home-Field Advantage by Justin Tuck is an awesome story about family, forgiveness, and football! The main character is the author, a football player who played 9 years for the New York Giants. He now plays for the Oakland Raiders. This story is about him growing up with his five sisters who always seem to have the upper hand and his brother. One day, his twin sisters decide to give him a haircut that turns out horrible! There are great illustrations of his reverse mohawk or bald spot down the middle of his head and him diving under his covers to hide from embarrassment! Justin forgives his prankster sisters and they all support him through the years as he excels at his craft of football! 
My second pick is Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish. I love this entire series actually. This particular one is a fantastic book to practice story retell, figurative language, and multiple meaning words. The author invites you to experience Amelia as she enjoys the season of autumn. She plays in the leaves at her grandparents’ house, takes a trip to the farmer’s market with her grandfather to buy Granny Smith apples, and lovingly makes her first apple pie with her grandmother. You need to read the book for yourself and with your students. There is a delightful twist at the end that will have you smiling. Plus, the author includes an apple pie recipe as well! Yum!
My third pick is There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves, by Lucille Colandro. I think many SLPs, teachers, and parents are familiar with this series. However, it is definitely worth mentioning. It is the perfect book to teach story sequencing and to give kids an opportunity to practice verbal and written story retell. There are tons of book companion sets that accompany this book on TPT. I have successfully used visual cues with picture and vocabulary cards (e.g. with sequencing terms) to help my students retell the story. Other children just need a quick picture walk after listening to the story to retell it by themselves. 
Here’s a link to my oral story retelling rubric: 
What are you favorite books for September? I’d love to hear. 
Tamara
Oral and Written Story Retell: Turkey Trouble

Oral and Written Story Retell: Turkey Trouble

This year, I discovered a new fiction book, Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano. It is an excellent book that is perfect for students to practice retelling stories in speech language therapy lessons, special education resource classrooms, or regular education classrooms as well. 

Today, three of my groups did a picture walk with the story by looking at the pictures to gather ideas about what the story would be about. Then, we listened to the audio book and each student had their own book to actively engage in the story as it was read aloud. Next, I asked questions about the story and modeled orally retelling the story. After that, each student had a chance to verbally retell the story by expressing the characters, setting, sequential events, and why the main character did certain actions in the story. 

This is a captivating story about a turkey on Farmer Jake’s farm who disguises himself in different animal costumes in an attempt to not be captured, slaughtered, and cooked for Thanksgiving Dinner. There is a delightful end of the story that you will have to read for yourself! 

Here is a picture of my students actively writing their story summaries after practicing their oral summaries. 

I played classical music while they wrote and they were truly working with minimal need for redirection. I was pleasantly surprised that I had 1 group of students with Mild Autism and 2 groups of students with SLI and SLD actively engaged in writing in my speech language classroom! With my ASD morning group, I wrote a written summary while they wrote as well. I believe that it is important to model all expected tasks for students to increase their task initiation and successful completion.

Here’s a picture of the summary I wrote this morning. 

This was definitely an awesome lesson! On their next session this week, they will complete a turkey arts and craft activity on the other side of their summaries. I am going to make copies of their completed work to keep as a work sample. They will get to take their original home for further oral language practice at home …hopefully when they share with their family. 

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Tamara

Fall Snapshots in the Speech Language Therapy Room

Fall Snapshots in the Speech Language Therapy Room

This fall season, I created a game board to use with a multiple meanings (homographs) vocabulary lesson and it was an instant hit in my therapy room. My students have asked to play this game repeatedly over the past several weeks. I used the game board included in my multiple meanings unit and cut out the individual pictures to create a larger board. 

I used this with the multiple choice questions in my language unit as well as a variety of other speech-language questions to target the specific skills that my groups needed to practice. My students took turns answering questions and rolling the dice to move along the game board. Here is a snapshot of 18 out of 30 questions included in this part of the unit.  

Here is a snapshot of the multiple meanings mats that my students used to match vocabulary cards with the correct definitions. I modified this game by placing all the matching mats on the table and then my students took turns selecting a word and searched for the correct definition to place the card on. My students enjoyed playing this as a scavenger hunt activity as they had to take their time to skillfully read the definitions on various mats to find the correct match. I assisted them with orally decoding words that were
difficult for them. I was pleased to see my students improve their independence
with this activity after the initial time implemented in a language therapy
session. 

You can find this resource here in my TPT store available for purchase: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Themed-Multiple-Meanings-Vocabulary-Homographs-919412

Thanks for visiting my blog today,

Tamara 

Wrapping Up October!! Fall SLP/Language Arts Lessons

Whoa! I have been extremely BUSY in the month of October so much so that this is my first post! Yikes! Not to worry because that will change after I finish my graduate degree program for my Education Specialist (Ed.S.) in Curriculum and Instruction. I have 3 more weeks of assignments and then graduation on December 14th! I cannot wait!!

In my speech language therapy sessions, several of my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students have been working on multiple meaning words and attributes activities. Initially, they need visual and verbal cues to help them correctly answer the questions that I ask. It is easiest for them to demonstrate that they understand multiple meaning vocabulary when I ask them multiple choice questions and more difficult when I ask them to use the words in  two different sentences to convey the correct meanings. 

I created 2 additional fall themed products to improve my students vocabulary knowledge and expression. The first targets multiple meanings words. I decided to create three different activities with homographs vocabulary because my speech-language students tend to have the most difficulty with those terms. 

The 3 activities in this learning packet are perfect for differentiated instruction during speech-language therapy groups or language arts lessons. There is a multiple choice activity with 30 homograph questions that require students to identify the correct meaning of the underlined word.This is best used with the included fall themed board game. 

Students may also play a matching game to correctly identify 60 target multiple meaning words with the corresponding definitions. The students should be given “matching mats” that has the written meanings. Then, they take turns selecting words from the table and deciding if the word matches the definition on their mat. The student who finds all the matches for his or her mat wins the game.  

The third activity included are 30 homograph vocabulary cards. First, the SLP or teacher should guide students with verbally stating 2 sentences using the given words to convey the 2 meanings. After that, students may play a memory game to solidify their 
receptive/expressive vocabulary knowledge. 

Students with language disorders, language based learning disabilities, and general education students benefit greatly from direct instruction of multiple meanings vocabulary, especially homographs. Because these words have the same spelling (e.g. light, state, pass), students often have difficulty recalling the correct meaning in the appropriate language context. 

This resource is available in my TPT online store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Themed-Multiple-Meanings-Vocabulary-Homographs-919412

The other resource is great for students with oral language difficulties because it gives them an opportunity to orally define fall themed vocabulary and curriculum vocabulary. Students are provided an attributes cue card to help them orally define the vocabulary. The SLP or teacher can also read the included definitions and have students receptively identify the terms as well.  This is available in my TPT online store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Themed-Attributes-Academic-VocabularyIdentification-Oral-Definitions-938440

Thanks for stopping by! ~Tamara 

Fall Word Associations

Fall Word Associations

Last week, the weather here in Atlanta finally began to cool off a little bit. In the mornings, the temperature has been in the 50’s or 60’s and then warms up to 70’s and 80’s. I am sure for those of you that live more in the north the weather is much cooler than that. Anyhow, the leaves are already beginning to change around here and the colors are anticipated to be the most beautiful in late October to the beginning of November. 

My students and I look forward to the change of seasons because it also means a new theme in my speech language therapy classroom!! Yeah!! I have already displayed a few of my fall themed books such as:

Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish and Lynne Avril    Grades Pre K – 1

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro   Grades K-3

A is for Autumn by Robert Maas   Grades K-2

Home-Field Advantage by Justin Tuck (great football/family theme as well) Grades K-3

Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson  Grades Pre K- 3

Fancy Nancy: Our Thanksgiving Banquet by Jane O’Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser       Grades K-3

I often like to start my seasonal themed units with a word associations activity to get my students thinking about related vocabulary words. I love this activity because it allows my students to freely think of words they associate with the season of Fall. I always let them know that it is okay that everyone does not have the same answers. In fact, I encourage them to think of different answers than those shared by their classmates. 

Here is a preview of my Fall Word Associations activity with photographs that I took. The pictures on the cover page are from my back yard about 2 years ago! I love photographs because they capture so many memories. I hope your students enjoy this activity to jump start the season!

This product is available for purchase in my TPT online store. Check out the link: 
Thanks for reading my blog today! 
~Tamara Anderson, M.S., CCC-SLP