Hot Chocolate Story

Here is the story we will be working on this week in class.  It will be used to help the students sequence the story, answer wh-questions, and learn themed vocabulary words.

You can also get the PDF here on Teachers Pay Teachers!

Wrapping Christmas Gifts

This week was all about the Christmas gifts! Here is an overview of what we did.

Books:

This book is super cute!  There are multiple things that have "smelly stickers" on it, so the kids can small different Christmas items such a pine tree, hot chocolate, gingerbread cookies, etc.  We talked about how things smelled and which smells the students liked.  It was also a great way to practice taking turns and waiting patiently, because all of the my students were super excited to smell the items!

We read this book in my articulation class to practice the /g/. Every time I said "Grinch" I held up a small picture of the Grinch.  Whenever my students saw the picture, they had to put their tongue back for the /g/ and say Grinch with  me!

This is a beautiful book!  We also read this book to see what different cultures do on Christmas.  We saw pictures of kids in Mexico, the Philippines, etc.

Group Activity:

We had a fun group activity this week! We played with a parachute with bows.  I made it into a math activity also.  I had the students pick out a number from a bag and a color. Then the students had to help me count out that specific number of colored bows on the the parachute.  At the end we put all 150 bows in the parachute.  It looked really beautiful!

Art:

Our art this week was super fun!  We did "bow painting."  We gave the students paint, and they had to dip the bow into it and use the bow as a paint brush.  

Sequencing Activity:

For our sequencing activity this week we wrapped Christmas gifts.  I was able to target a bunch of vocabulary words and following directions. We were also able to practice some fine motor skills!

December Vocabulary Words

We have all holiday vocabulary words this month!  We made them to go with the books "I Love Christmas," "Jingle Bells," and "Night Tree."

 The following words are the same as the ones above, they are just bigger images.

Decorating a Christmas Tree

Last week in speech was all about decorating a Christmas Tree!  We were able to hit so many speech-language concepts.  Here is an over view of what we did:

Books:

We also read a story that I wrote with my own dog!  You can get it here.  This story is a sequencing story of my dog putting up a Christmas tree.  It targets holiday vocabulary words, sequencing, and answering questions.

My coworker and I also pulled out all of our Christmas books and filled up our reading center!

Small World Play:

 Our small world play was a "Christmas Wonderland."  It contained tinsel and all sorts of different "holiday" vocabulary words from stickers, erasers, and other toys.

Sequencing Activity:

For our sequencing activity we decorated a Christmas tree!  I had a visual for all of the students to use.  We worked on a lot of vocabulary words too with the ornaments.  I had ornaments in the shape of reindeer, Santa, balls, bows, lights, and starts.  They were all different colors, so we worked on colors and requesting specific ornaments. It was also easy to  make this into an articulation lesson with all of the /s/ sounds (i.e. star, bows, lights, Santa).

Question of the Day:

Our question of the day was "When you decorate a Christmas tree, do you like to put up ornaments or garland?  The students then put their name under their answer. After, we talked about what everyone has on their tree at home!

Thanksgiving

Books:

Games:

We played several games with this blow up turkey, although  mine has a hole in it so it was deflating! I bought mine from amazon last year, and they still have some if you want to buy one!

Hot Turkey: The same as hot potato, just with a turkey!

Who has the turkey?: We targeted "who" questions by guessing "who has the turkey?" I hid the turkey behind a students back, and we all said "Who has the turkey?" It ended with the student that hid the turkey displaying the turkey, but we still got to practice "who" questions.

Where is the turkey?:  We targeted "where" questions with the turkey too.  I hid the turkey somewhere in the classroom, and then we all said "Where is the turkey?" Then all of the students walked around the classroom to find the turkey.

Pass the turkey: We stood in a circle and threw the turkey to our friends.  The students had to say the student's name that they were passing the turkey to.  This game was basically to just target social interaction.

Playdough Mats:

Here are the Thanksgiving playdough mats  I made for the kids to use.  They include wh-questions on the top to promote conversation.  You can print them out for free on my site.

Leaves

Book:

This book is so cute and simple!  It is also a great book to teach the change in seasons. 

Art:

I found these trees somewhere online, but I can't remember!  The kids used cue-tips to paint leaves on the trees.  It was supposed to be dots, but they got a little more creative!

Small World Play:

I made a small world play of leaves, lizards, and lady bugs.  Every time the students said their articulation words, they got a one of the objects to put in the small world play.

Sensory Bin:

We put some fall objects in birdseed and beans for the students to play in!

Phonology Activity:

For our phonology activity, we worked on /l/ for leaves.  The students all made a leaf "fall" from the tree.  On the back of each leaf was a picture of a word that begins with  /l/,  You can find the pictures I used here.  

Farm Theme

For the first part of the month we have been focusing on farms! Here are the books and activities we have done for this theme: 

Books:

We have read "The Farm Book" and "This is Daniel Cook at the Farm."  These are both great books for focusing on asking questions and farm vocabulary words.

Here are some other books we had in our library about farms and Thanksgiving.  We didn't specifically target these books, but they would be other great ones to read with your child!

Song Activity:

We sang the song "Old McDonald had a Farm" and used these farm animal masks. You can find them on the website for free!

Small World Play:

I made a farm small world play for the kids to play with.  I used an old suitcase, and put in small farm animals, a family, and some hay.  I used this to target increasing sentence length, learning vocabulary words, and following directions. 

Sensory Bin:

The sensory bin I made is similar to the small world play, it was just in a larger container!

Playdough Mats:

 For a tabletop activity, I made farm playdough mats.  You can get them off of Teachers Pay Teachers for free!  I used them to target vocabulary words, follow directions, and work on colors. 

  

November Words

Here are the vocabulary words for November!  The first set are the ones we will be working on in the placemats.  The second set are the same, they are just bigger.  Please work on these words with your children the next month!

Halloween Week!

Here is everything we did this week in KIWI, Miss Mary's class, and Miss Alissa's class!

Here's what we did in KIWI: 

We read this super cute book about Marley, the "bad" puppy!  The students loved talking about all of the naughty things Marley was doing.  If your child is in Mary's or Alissa's class, we didn't get a chance to read this, so I would get it from the library if you can!

In KIWI we also painted pumpkins!  Here is one that was a "Barbie Pumpkin."

The following is what we did in Miss Mary's and Miss Alissa's classrooms:

We played with these great palydough mats! I got these super cute ones from Tot Schooling.  It was a great way to get kids to request for colors, and it was a great way to learn some new Halloween vocabulary words.

We also worked on the following story.  I read the story to them, then after we answered questions.  It targeted a few of our monthly vocabulary words.

Once there was a farmer.  She was thinking about a spider. She wanted to go and find a spider.

First she looked on her farm, but she didn't see a spider anywhere!

After, she asked an owl.  She said "Have you see a spider?"  The owl said "No, sorry!"

Second, she asked a bat.  She said "Have you seen a spider?"  The bat answered, "No, sorry!"

Third, she looked in a spider web. There was a spider in the web!  The farmer was so happy she finally found a spider!

After we read the story, we played in the small world plays.  The students got to play with all of spiders and insects.  We talked about the insects getting stuck in the web.  It was a great hands on experience!