Tag Archives : Summer Themed Activities

Launch into Literacy

The beginning of the school year is an ideal time for speech language pathologists, teachers, students, and parents to intentionally launch into literacy. We are surrounded by the four essential areas of literacy on a daily basis: listening, speaking, reading, writing. I wonder how many moments a person could be observed engaging in one of these four domains. I’m sure the number would be quite high. Imagine what it would be like to have a literacy pedometer that counts how many “literacy interactions” you have everyday. Hmmm…something to ponder! Ha!

Anyhow, I love assisting my students who have speech language disorders and other special education needs improve their literacy skills. I love using children’s literature in my students’ speech language therapy sessions as they practice their receptive and oral language skills. Books are a great way to target most if not all speech language areas of need. I also encourage my students to practice their oral story retell abilities with fiction and nonfiction narratives. 
The first week of school, I always ask my students to tell the language group about an exciting or interesting event that they experienced over the summer. I encourage them to describe the event using as much details as possible. A SLP or classroom teacher can gather baseline data of students’ oral language abilities during their story retell. You could use a rubric to determine the level of mastery of specific skills.  Here is an example: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Oral-Story-Retelling-Rubric-819201
The SLP or teacher could extend the activity by having them write and record their story using an I Pad, I Phone, or other digital recorder.  Here is a realistic fiction story I wrote and recorded today inspired by my recent vacation to Mexico. I am a firm believer that SLPs and teachers should provide models so that students have a clear example of the desired outcome. 
Coming soon….once I learn how to upload a file to my You Tube channel that I created! 🙂 The title of the story is: Yikes! I saw a Barracuda! A Summer Snorkeling Adventure.
Other oral and written language samples can be taken during the school year and rubrics used by the educator to measure students growth or mastery of skills.

Tamara Anderson, M.S., CCC-SLP
SLP Back to Work

Summer Freebie!!!

Summer Freebie!!!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I am having a great time. I have done some traveling and decided to create another beach themed language activity. One of the best parts of this activity is that it’s a freebie that is available in my Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) online store. I know that we all work so hard throughout the school year and also in private practice with our students and clients. I want to reward you all with an activity that will be useful and visually appealing.

One of my favorite places to visit during the summer is Ormond Beach, Florida that is located on the east coast, a little north of Daytona Beach and south of Flagler Beach. While there, I saw a caravan of “Monster Trucks” and decided to capture the moment. I thought, “wow, my boy students would love to see these photographs!!” Hence, I created Beach Themed Monster Trucks-Synonyms & Antonyms to target comprehension and verbal expression of the specific vocabulary listed.  As you other speech-language pathologists know, direct vocabulary instruction is essential for our students with language disorders who struggle with developing their vocabulary. They require a lot of drill and repetition as well as naturalistic ways to practice identifying and communicating key vocabulary words. Addressing vocabulary in speech-language therapy or language arts/literacy lessons is critical to increasing students’ communication, language, and overall academic development. 

You can check out more details about this product at: 
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beach-Themed-Monster-Trucks-Synonyms-Antonyms-774872

Enjoy the remainder of the summer!! I have exactly 1 week left before I return to work full-time! I can not believe my summer break is coming to an end. 

Tamara Anderson
SLP on Summer Break!! 

Beach Themed Multiple Meanings Memory Activity

Beach Themed Multiple Meanings Memory Activity

One of my favorite places to go during the spring and summer is the BEACH!! I love the sound of the ocean waves crashing on the shore, the smell of the salt air, the feel of the sea breeze, and even the sand beneath my feet. I created a fun resource using photographs of some of my travels to Key Biscayne, Florida (Bill Braggs State Park); Ormond Beach, Florida; Dunnedin, Florida (Honeymoon Island State Park); Ocala, Florida. 

This is a fun activity for use by speech language pathologists who are working in private practice in the summer, teachers instructing students in summer school, or as a back to school activity for teachers/SLPs to help students practice multiple meanings vocabulary. The purpose of this learning game is to increase students’ short term memory, working memory, and receptive/expressive vocabulary knowledge. 

Students will take turns looking for matches of homophone and homograph pairs. If they get a match, they get another turn. There are a total of 40 matches. I recommend that you divide the cards into a homophone set that has 20 matches and a homograph set that has 20 matches. At the end of the game, have students use their vocabulary matches in sentences to correctly convey the multiple meanings. There are 2 ways to win the game. The player who has the most matches as well as the player that can correctly communicate the greatest amount of his or her homophone/homograph pairs in sentences. 

This is available for purchase at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beach-Themed-Multiple-Meanings-Memory-Activity-716732

Thanks for your support, 


Tamara Anderson, M.S., CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist on Summer Break! 

Basketball Challenge- Speech, Language, and Academic Skills

Basketball Challenge- Speech, Language, and Academic Skills

Wow! I can’t believe it’s June already. I am thankful to have completed another successful school year. My summer break started 2 weeks ago. Hooray! The last 2 months of school was quite busy with the usual tasks of group speech-language therapy sessions, testing students, IEP meetings, special education team meetings, staff meetings, committee meetings, and tons of paperwork/computer work. Let’s not forget our beloved high stakes CRCT, the state test here in Georgia. Among all those important and urgent activities, I made a deliberate effort that my students have fun while learning and practicing their speech and language skills in my therapy classroom.

I am pleased to share with you one of my newest resources that I created and used with my students during the months of April and May. The Basketball Challenge-Speech, Language, and Academic Skills is an awesome interactive activity that kept my students engaged during their 30 minute speech-language therapy sessions. I primarily used my English/Language Arts Common Core Vocabulary questions (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/4th-Grade-EnglishLanguage-Arts-Common-Core-Standards-Vocabulary-652220) with this activity. Here is how to play this basketball challenge. Most of my groups have 4 students, so they would divide into 2 teams, and select a name for their team.

I would write the name on the statistics sheet shown here.

Then, they would choose a basketball player.

I would place the basketball court and 2 nets on the table.

I would then place all the basketballs face down on the table.

Each student took turns answering a learning question, then they would pick up a basketball, dribble the ball to the net, and shoot the ball. It was the luck of the draw if they would get 1 point, 2 points, or 3 points.

During the game, I recorded the number of basketball points each student earned and the number of learning points they earned by answering questions correctly on the statistics sheet.

The game would end when their speech-language therapy session time was over. I would then calculate the accuracy percentage for answering their speech, language, and academic questions.

My students were so excited to see if their team won the game and also what individual player had the most basketball points and learning points.

This activity is definitely a win-win for both the students and the SLP. You can purchase it here to use with your students: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Basketball-Challenge-Speech-Language-and-Academic-Skills-717131

Thanks for visiting my page today!! I will have several new posts and therapy/educational products available next school year.

Tamara Anderson, M.S., CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologist on Summer Break!