Tag Archives : Word Associations

Winter Word Associations

I cannot believe that December 2013 is already here. I still remember celebrating on New Year’s Eve and beginning my year quest of writing down experiences that I am grateful for. I have slacked off on recording those lately though and need to write down a few more things!  

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!

Back to School Word Associations Freebie!!!

Hey everyone! This past week I returned from an awesome vacation in Cancun, Mexico. Here’s a picture of Chichen Itza, one of the seven wonders of the world!!

Here’s a picture of me in front of one of the Mayan ruins, Tulum. 

Upon checking my mail when I got home, I noticed the usual “back to school” greeting letter from the principal at the elementary school where I work. You know the letter, the one saying how much we are missed at school and how the administrative staff are anxiously awaiting our return because they are eager to start the school year or perhaps it is just too quiet during the summer. Well, that’s when it hit me that my summer vacation is pretty much over. 

In my school district, I return to work this Wednesday, July 31st and have 5 preplanning days. Students return to school on Wednesday, August 7th. As my summer vacation is still a very present and pleasant memory, I allowed this information to abruptly sink in. In anticipation of this, I created a Back to School Word Association Freebie prior to leaving for my trip to gently ease myself into the reality of returning to work. Don’t get me wrong, I love love love my job as a SLP!!  However, the summer always goes by way too fast. Anyhow, I often enjoy teaching my students about word associations because it is a great way to address vocabulary, memory, and overall receptive/expressive language skills at the same time. 

The Back to School Word Associations learning packet is ideal for students in kindergarten-third grade and targets 20 school related vocabulary words. I suggest doing a brief mini-lesson to introduce the concept of word associations before using the activity materials. Explain to your students that word associations are words that go together or are related by category, function, part/whole, synonyms, antonyms, etc and that today they will practice words that are related because they are in the same category of  “Back to School.” The purpose of the activity is to allow each student in a speech-language group or language arts/literacy center to name 2-3 word associations for each target word. Here’s a preview of this packet. 

You can get this freebie in my Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) online store by clicking the link here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Back-to-School-Word-Associations-775946

If you want more information about the importance of teaching word associations click the link here to read one of my previous blog entries: https://www.buildingsuccessfullives.com/?p=116   

As always, thanks for visiting my page today. Check back soon for some language therapy giveaways!! 

Tamara Anderson, M.S., CCC-SLP   

SLP Back to Work This Week! 

Spring Word Associations Freebie!!

I absolutely love spring time! I love the weather, emergence of colors in the blooming flowers, and I love SPRING BREAK which is 3 weeks away for me here in Atlanta! Most importantly, I am grateful that Jesus Christ loved mankind so much that he made the greatest sacrifice for us. Spring is a season to reflect on his  death, resurrection, and free gifts of GRACE, MERCY, and FORGIVENESS to all those who believe in him. 

In anticipation of spring, I want to share a gift that you can use in your classroom so I specially created a Spring Word Associations Freebie for you to use with your students. 

Click on the link to download the resource: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spring-Word-Associations

In the download, you will see photographs I took over the past few years of plants from my garden (green hosta, pink lily, yellow lily, pink knock out rose), my mother’s garden (white magnolia bloom), and my Aunt Pauline’s garden (orchids). I hope you enjoy the activity and photos! 

Why Teach Word Associations?

As speech-language pathologists, we recognize the significance of  providing direct vocabulary instruction for students who have language impairments on a weekly basis. Students need to improve their receptive and expressive vocabulary skills so that they can improve their functional communication, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and overall understanding of their grade level curriculum.
Teaching word associations is essential to students’ vocabulary acquisition and understanding of word relationships.

What are the advantages of teaching word associations?

1) increases receptive and expressive vocabulary skills
2) increases students’ abilities to understand and explain similarities/differences
3) prerequisite skill for students to understand grade level/curriculum level compare and contrast activities
4) prerequisite skill for students to understand word relationships in analogies that requires students to use basic level deductive reasoning skills
5) supports common core English/Language Arts standards
6) reinforces skill of categorization that requires students to sort items into groups, name items according to group, identify/name items that don’t belong in a group
7) increases understanding of age level, grade level, and curriculum vocabulary
8) research supports direct instruction of word associations

Evidence based practice

Research supports the need for direct vocabulary instruction. Marzano (2004) agrees that there is a strong case for the importance and usefulness of direct vocabulary instruction. He states “the research indicates that wide reading probably is not sufficient in itself to ensure that students will develop the necessary vocabulary and consequently the necessary academic background knowledge to do well in school. In contrast, direct vocabulary instruction has an impressive track record of improving students’ background knowledge and the comprehension of academic content.”  

What resources can SLPs and teachers use to address these skills?

This packet includes baseball themed data collection forms for SLPs or teachers to record students’ accuracy of naming word associations. Students play a baseball game by choosing a player and take turns hitting the baseballs by naming 2 associated words for each target word. If they get a question right, they get a mini baseball to put on their baseball field. If they miss the question, they “hit” a foul ball and the SLP gets the ball. If they answer approximately 15-20 questions correctly, they safely make a “run” by making it to home base and collect enough baseballs to fill up the path.

The Packet includes the following pages:
1) Cover page
2) Instructions page
3) Boy and girl baseball players; custom made illustrations for BSL Speech Language
4) Baseball field custom made graphics for BSL Speech Language
5) 2 pages of different size custom made baseball graphics for BSL Speech Language
6) 2 General Associations lists (Grades 1-3)
7) 1 Language Arts Associations List (Grades 3-5)
8) 1 Science Associations List (Grades 3-5)
9) 1 Social Studies Associations List (Grades 3-5)

No Glamour Vocabulary book by Linguisystems, Inc.

Monday Update: 3/4/13
Today in language therapy, I reviewed word associations with 2 of my 3rd grade groups. First, I reviewed the meanings of word associations. Then, I did a mini lesson and guided practice activity. I listed basic words such as dog, apple, and bookbag and had them name associated words as I wrote them on a mini dry erase board. Then, I had them look at our “word wall” of language arts words that had story vocabulary listed (e.g. character, character traits, author, illustrator, narrator, etc.). I asked them: What is the category or topic of  these vocabulary words? My students required prompting to answer, so I asked them exclusionary questions: Are these math vocabulary? Are these science vocabulary? Are these social studies vocabulary? Are these language arts vocabulary? After that, I modeled making a graphic organizer to review the lesson and we used markers to make the vocabulary more visually appealing (plus using markers are more fun!!). Here is the one I created:

Additional Resources to teach word associations:

Help for Word Finding book by Linguisystems, Inc.

Pair Ups Association Cards by Linguisystems, Inc.

I PAD app Word to Word by MochiBits: best used with 4th, 5th, and middle school students

Numerous TPT resources created by SLPs

* I suggest purchasing/adding Rachel Lynette’s tasks cards for analogies in iBook and printing/laminating to create a file folder activity

Valentine’s Word Associations

Today, I worked on Valentine’s word associations with some of my speech-language students during an arts & craft activity. They chose either red or pink construction paper and traced a large heart. I explained to them that word associations are words that go together or are related. I told them to share words they know that are related to Valentine’s day.

Here is an example of the heart my kindergarten student who has a significant fluency disorder made:

I then used the First Words Valentine IPAD application by Learning Touch to review the word associations. This application has cute graphics depicting each key word and then provides an opportunity for the students to drag each letter to spell the word. My kindergarten student was eager to place the letters in the correct spot as the background had a faded letter that told him how to spell the words and voiced the letter as he did so. He seemed to enjoy the game as it reinforced some of the words he stated when making his heart. Since he is a student with a fluency disorder, I directed him to practice saying his words in slow and easy sentences using his fluency strategies. He did a great job using his fluency strategies in structured sentences.

Here is another picture from a 3rd grade language therapy session today. The top left was an example I made. The remainder here are the beginning of my students’ word associations work. This group will write their associations on the back and practice using the words in oral sentences. I plan to read a short story to them later this week related to Valentine’s Day and have them identify word associations and also practice verbally summarizing and sequencing the story events.