Turtle Power!

My latest download is actually a series, so I figured I’d show you all that it has to offer.

The first products focus on articulation.  There are two versions: one for early sounds and one for late sounds.

Here are the sounds contained in each pack:

Early sounds

Late sounds

Here’s some examples of what the pages look like:

Initial /w/

Final /ch/

Find the early sound pack here and the late sounds pack at this address.

Next up is language.  It includes both receptive and expressive tasks.

Here’s a list of what’s included in this download:

Some examples of the receptive pages:

There are a variety of following directions tasks.

Next are some visuals for describing attributes, along with cards to help.  They can be sorted onto the pictures or used as visual cues.  There are 4 attributes per picture/noun.

 Next there are prepositions of location.  Below is the page with words, but there is also a page without words.

 Next, students must put the steps of a familiar sequence in the correct order.

The last receptive area is answering questions.  It includes all 5 Wh- questions, but below are just a few.

Next come the expressive tasks.

The first expressive area is compare & contrast.  Visuals are used!

Then comes sequences, where students must independently describe the order of events for the tasks listed.

The next areas are synonyms and antonyms.  I tried to pick words that are not the typical, simple ones you always see.

The last few pages work on categories in a variety of ways.  This is a huge area of need for my first graders, so I just had to include it!  (They’re the ones that I specifically made this pack for.  Last week one said, “This game is so fun.  Thank you for making it for us!”  So sweet!)

Students must list items in the given category.

Students must decide which item in the list does not belong.  My students are pros at this when visuals are involved, but have much more difficulty when just words are used.

The category names required are both concrete and abstract, simple and more advanced.

Find the language version here.

The last packet is grammar.  It targets a bunch of areas for preschoolers through early elementary.

A detailed description of what’s included

a few subject pronouns

some object pronouns

a couple of the possessive pronoun sentences

Some of my preschoolers need I vs me help!

One of the sorting mats.  Cut them along the horizontal lines.  There is also a set of mats that includes visuals for each word!

The regular past tense sentences, with visuals.  The present tense of the verb is discretely written in a script font on the sewer lids, in case you need a little help prompting 🙂

Sooooooooo many of my kids need third person singular -s help!

Have students formulate a sentence with present progressive verbs using the picture given.

Sorting mats for the is/are, have/has, do/does cards.  Cut along the vertical lines!

A, The, or An: a sorting mat/anchor chart is included for these, as well!

Put the words in order to formulate a grammatically correct question – a real struggle for many!

Grammar can be found here.

Now, if you really want a deal, I’ve bundled all of these products together! So, you get 4 products for the price of 3!  It’s a 25% savings!  Find the bundle here.

Here’s you chance to win your choice of one of the above downloads (not the bundle).  Enter using the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope your kids love these turtles (and packets) as much as mine do!

Cooking Up Simple Sentences with the Speech Bubble

My favorite thing to work on with students is grammar, so when I got the chance to review The Speech Bubble’s “Cooking Up Simple Sentences“, I jumped on it!

 

 



This product targets sentence structure in two ways: indentifying complete sentences vs. incomplete sentences and creating simple sentences and expanding them appropriately.  ***I think my favorite part is the words going into the mixer on the cover.  SO CUTE! 

First, there is a visual poster included that describes what is needed to make a sentence.

Next is the first set of cards.  They have sentences (some complete and some incomplete) at the top. Students must read the card and decide whether it is complete or incomplete.  If the sentence is incomplete, there is a worksheet included so that students can finish it.

some complete vs. incomplete sentences

Next comes the formulating sentences task. This is a multi-sensory approach to sentence structure.  There are 3, 4, and 5 part sentences included. 

When I used this with students, I actually made 2 copies of each of these pages.  That way, students could make extremely unique sentences, just by scrambling and rescrambling the individual cards on the “mats” I made. 

I also added another bit of complexity: once students had made a correct sentence, I asked how they could rearrange the existing words to make a sentence that meant the same thing.  For example, “She is playing at home today because she was happy.”  Moving the “when” word around changes the way the sentence sounds, but it means the same thing!  This is sometimes a revloutionary concept for students.  Another fun way to promote this idea would be to have each student in the group draw a picture of what the sentence(s) is/are saying.  Talk about what is similar, what is different, and why the sentence can have the same meaning when said a couple different ways.

One of the wonderful aspects of this product is its versatility!  Not only is it great for sentence structure, but it would also work for Wh- questions!  The question words are right there on the cards!  This would work great with groups of students with varying goals (aka every group I have this year!)

There are also “special” cards included to make any of these tasks into a game!

Add this 29 page download to your materials library by downloading here!

My thoughts are with all of those affected by today’s tragedy in Boston.  ❤

March Madness Freebie & Grammar Golf

I am ECSTATIC to see that my Facebook page has reached 800 likes.  Last night, when we hit that mark, I was watching the NCAA tournament, where my grad school alma mater (La Salle – a 13 seed) beat Kansas State (a 4 seed)!   Clearly, I have far less school spirit for my graduate school than I do for my undergraduate (hence the SpeechLanguagePirates name!) school.  But, it was fun nonetheless, so I decided to make a March Madness themed freebie.

It’s a barrier game with a basketball theme.  It includes a full page court (for use a the background), a ball, some hoops, 2 different girls teams, and 2 different boys teams. 

We all know the great flexbility of barrier games, but I made sure this version worked on LOTS of concepts and descriptive vocabulary: pronouns, adjectives, nominal phrases, plurals, negatives and more!  For example, “the girl in the blue uniform who is spinning the ball on her finger”; “the girls who are wearing purple uniforms”; “the basketball hoop that does not have a ball in it”; “the hoop that is full”. 

I also made a simple, 2 page board game that can be used with any activity you have.

I hope you enjoy it!  Find it here.

I’ve also just completed a new grammar download; it’s golf themed.  I know how much sports activities are appreciated by so many students.  When I saw this clipart, I HAD to buy it!  Isn’t it adorable?!

I’ve targeted a variety of grammar goals in this 45 page download.  Take a look:

There is a game board and special cards.

part of the board game

I also included title cards, so you can organize each deck easily.  The pictures on these correspond to the pictures in each set.

 

title cards for easy organization!

Irregular verbs: present & past pairs

some irregular verb cards

Irregular plurals: pg. 15-19 singular & plural pairs

some irregular plural cards

Do vs. Does, Have vs. Has, Is vs. Are: Fill-in the blank cards, each with a sorting mat

one of the sorting mats

some “have” cards

the is/are sorting mat

some of the “is” cards

Third Person Singular: Fill-in the blank

some third person singular -s sards

Subject-Verb Agreement: Fix the sentence to make sense

some subject-verb agreement

Pronouns, including subject, possessive, object, and reflexive.  Includes a visual/anchor chart and multiple choice cards.

some of the “he” cards

Check out this activity here!

Now here’s your chance to win this download!  Enter using the Rafflecopter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for reading everyone!  I hope you find these new downloads useful!
~Denise

Adverb Arcade & a St. Patrick’s sensory craft

Many people have been requesting activities targeting adverbs.  Well, I made just that!  It, like many of my activities, gives a variety of levels.  Also, the arcade theme is appropriate for a variety of ages.

There are 4 posters/anchor charts/visuals that explain: what an adverb is, how an adverb differs from an adjective, examples of adverbs (broken up into type), and examples of difference types of adverbs in sentences. 

Here is a picture of one of the visuals:

There is also a game board:

Then come the task cards.  There are 4 different levels/types of responses, with 17 of each.  Here’s a glimpse:

 

Receptive: identifying the adverb.

Expressive: multiple choice, fill in the blank.

Expressive: correct the sentence.

Expressive: Finish the sentence, open-ended

 

 

While using this download, the SLP/teacher can discuss what word is being modified (described), what type of adverb it is, and what question it is answering.  I hope this is something you can use!  Check it out here.  Leave a comment below for a chance to win this download!  I’ll pick my favorite comment on Monday (3/18/13) and announce it on my Facebook page!

 

Now onto my regular Wednesday post for those minimally/non verbal students on your caseload!  Much like my Valentine’s craft, for St. Patrick’s day we again used Jell-o.  I actually found Jolly Rancher brand gelatin!!!! For 50 cents at Wal-mart! Could it get any better?!  (Maybe if I had actually made it and eaten it…) 

 

We cut out shamrocks (forgot the green paper, whoops) using the Ellison press.  When I opened the bag of jell-o, the sour apple flavored powder looked VERY pale.  I was afraid it wasn’t going to look green on the white paper.

 

This time, we went a little different route than we did with the Valentine’s hearts.  We poured liquid glue in a big bowl.  The students took turns squeezing the glue bottle.  When that got tiresome (for me, more than anyone) we got the HUGE bottle of glue refill and had the students take turns pouring it into a measuring cup, then dumping that into the large bowl.  More OT skills targeted, that way!  Then the students all took turns dumping the jello powder into the bowl.  We then passed around the bowl and mixed it!  (It did turn out much more green than I originally anticipated – thankfully!) Then we put each student’s shamrock into the lid of a cardboard box and had them “paint” the jello-glue mixture onto them.  Here are some pictures:

mixing the glue and jello

the box lid helped avoid a mess!

painting it on!

our finished products!

These are to be used as “air fresheners”.  Once dry, their teacher is going to punch a hole in them and string green yarn through it so it can be hung.

 

The smell on these were not as strong and long-lasting as our Valentine’s hearts.  I’m not sure if it was our method or the brand of jell-o.  If you’re going to do this, use jell-o brand jello- (buy the jolly rancher for yourself – let me know how it is!) and shake the powder onto the glue rather than premixing it, to ensure yours are better than mine were.

 

Either way, the students loved it and it was language rich!

 

Enjoy! ~Denise

Grateful Grammar – Pronouns

How is everyone doing in the storm?  Knock on wood – it is fine here in Northern Virginia.  It’s windy and rainy, but tolerable.

I’ve used this time to finish up one of the grammar packs that I’ve been working on for about a week!  I’ve had a ton of writer’s block lately so it’s taken a while!  This is the first edition of Grateful Grammar: Pronouns – Leveled.

The pack targets third person singular and plural subjective, objective, and possessive pronouns (he,she,they/him,her,them/his/her/their).  It’s great for preschoolers and other language delayed kiddos!

It has 4 levels and also includes a variety of sorting mats, visuals, and a data collection tool.




The data collection tool.  Circle the level you’re working at and add + or – in the columns.  Print for as many students as you need.

 

The first level is sorting.  I’ve provided many different types of sorting mats, because some students confused gender or number, while some students confuse the category of pronouns required.  These can also be used as visuals while working at other levels.

For those who confuse subjective vs. objective pronouns.

 

For those who confused number and gender.



For those who no longer require visual prompts.



Level 2 is a bunch of receptive tasks involving following directions.  I provide a list of prompts for each type of pronoun, but the number of ways to use these activities is by no means limited to the prompts I provided!  You can come up with your own prompts depending on your specific goals!  For instance, “Show me her left shoe.” or, “Show me what is on top of his head.”  The possibilities are endless! 



Use the mat below with these cards and have students follow directions like, “Give a pumpkin to him.”





For use with receptive tasks targeting objective pronouns.



Here are the teacher prompts for subjective pronouns receptively.





Level 3 is a collection of multiple choice worksheets.  Again, subjective, objective and possessive pronouns are targeted.




The subjective multiple choice worksheet.

Level 4 includes task cards, question cards, and visuals that target open ended responses.





Teacher reads these prompts/asks these questions. See student mat below.







Students use this mat to answer the questions for subjective pronouns.





I have gotten a lot of requests for pronoun activities.  I hope these are what you needed!  Here is the link to it in my TPT store.  It’s on sale until 10/30, in “honor” of Hurricane Sandy and all of us being cooped up inside.

I am giving away a copy of it via Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And now for a freebie!  Here is a copy of a pronoun poster that I created in Boardmaker. 

Mine is printed on legal size paper and I mounted it on a piece of large construction paper.  Find it on my BoardmakerShare account here.

Enjoy!  Leave a comment and let me know how you would use this pack or if you grabbed the freebie!

~Denise