Elf on the Speech Shelf (2)

Just a peek at what our speech room elf has been up to this December.

Jingle was a super cute and friendly. My favorite activity was working on prepositional phrases in writing. Every day we wrote sentences about where Jingle was hiding! 

Happy Winter Break! Hope it's restful for you! 

Thanksgiving, Multicultural Holidays & a {FREEBIE}!

Happy Friday! Today's post it a little of this and a little of that. Kind of how my week has been! 

First of all, a look at this week in preschool. I read a Thanksgiving book and brought my food bin.

We each planned our Thanksgiving! Here was mine at one point!

If you don't have the cutting food set from Melissa and Doug you need it! It's simple enough to target single words or actions (eat, cut) and can be used to make elaborate play schemes with multi-step directions and tier 2 vocabulary.

Some how the boys always find a way to build a tower. Even with play food.

I'm throwing all my Thanksgiving Items on Sale! Stock up if you still need plans for next week! Gooble Gobble!

And while you're in my TPT Shop....

 Check out my new Multicultural December Holidays Pack. I made this pack to use with my 2nd- 5th graders. I do a mixture of Holidays in my classroom and in clinic. The kids are SO interested in the holidays. Studying the different types of celebrations is a wonderful way to engage them and work on speech and language skills!

I have highlighted Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Christmas in this 64 page document. Each holiday is described in a document outlining the history and current traditions (source: Scholastic). Please realize that each of these holidays is tied to a religion, so there is information about each religion. It is a district and personal decision about whether this is appropriate for your students. 

Other fact pages are included. 

Check comprehension with these questions and main idea sheets. 

I love attaching illustrations to new vocabulary. It's been a great strategy for my 3rd graders this year. Here they learn and draw. 

There is also a describing activity for each holiday. Generic game boards are included to be used with any goal.

I made a vocabulary matching game and bingo board game to target vocabulary in each holiday.

The last activity is a card game that can be played with any speech or language cards.

I included similarities and difference cards to work on comparing the holidays after studying them. 

Hope some of you can use the Multicultural Packet! If you log into my TPT store you can grab the card game for FREE where it says preview. ((See the orange rectangle that says DOWNLOAD PREVIEW.)) 

I'm trying not to be jealous of all of you who get ALL of next week as vacation. I'll certainly take my 3 days and be happy about it!

Christmas Packets

Don’t panic with what you are about to see. It’s only the first week of November!

Don’t panic with how long this post is! I just wanted to show you all the pictures I can!

The Thanksgiving packets I made are turning out to be one of my favorite projects. I really have almost all of my lesson plans for November done. Throw in some other activities with books and crafts and call it done! I wanted to make a similar packet for December, so I’ve spend the last three weeks working on it. I have a ton of hours into these so I hope you’ll find them useful.

The packets focus on Christmas. If you can’t discuss Christmas at your school, keep your eyes peeled for my other packets, which are almost ready to share.

So ready or not, here comes Santa Claus!

Packets available include: Speech & Language Toy CatalogCompanion, Christmas Articulation, Christmas Grammar, Christmas ExpressiveLanguage, Christmas Receptive Language and Christmas Pragmatics.

The Speech &Language Toy Catalog Companion is designed to work with any toy catalog mailer. It’s appropriate for both preschool and elementary aged students.  It’s 20 pages in length and targets articulation, functions, attributes, categories, compare/contrasting, persuasion and perspective taking.

The articulation, function, attributes and categories pages are made for either writing answers or drawing answers. 

I had my preschool and kindergarten friends draw their answers. The first graders and older students wrote their answers. Everyone who I tested it on loved it!

The cards come with suggested function, attributes or categories to search for. Add other ideas specific to the toys in your catalog.

A Venn diagram is included for comparing and contrasting toys or items with your older students.

There is a page describing perspective taking. Two sheets are included with suggested characters. Have your students think about what another person might want to receive for the holidays. 

How will a 3-year-old girl and an 11 year old boy differ?

There is a page describing persuasion skills. Have your students persuade a friend to choose a certain toy, to not spend money on a toy, and to combine money to share a toy. Use bullet points or narratives to make persuasive arguments.

Find the Toy Catalog Companion in my TPT Store.

The ChristmasPragmatics Packet is 28 pages and includes activities for problem solving, judging social comments, initiating conversations, giving & receiving gifts, sustaining conversation and a set of conversation starters.

Social Problem Solving (20 cards) Each card contains a social situation that could take place at Christmas. Determine what you should do.

 Naughty or Nice? (18 cards) Read the comments and determine if those comments would land you on the naughty or nice list!

Social Narratives: Use the included narratives to discuss topics related to gift giving and receiving. (3 included)

Sustaining Conversation Sweaters (27 cards) Students read the mock conversations. They need to continue the conversation. What would they say next?

Initiating Conversation: (27 cards) Students read the given situation and decide how they would initiate a conversation.

Conversation Starters: Cut apart strips and use them as conversation starters.

There are blank cards included for each game. 

Find the ChristmasPragmatics Pack on TPT.

The Christmas Grammar Packet includes 40 pages. Learning objectives include: pronouns, regular verbs, irregular verbs, irregular plurals, is/are, have/has, and was/were.

Christmas Train Pronouns (60 cards) Fill in the blanks with the correct pronoun. Add train cards to your engine, but watch out for the train wreck!

Gingerbread Irregular Verb Cards (20 cards) Each card contains a sentence. Students must choose the correct answer to fill in the blank. If correct, store it on their gingerbread house.

Elf Irregular Plurals (24 cards) Students read each verb card. Find the elf legs and hat that match for the irregular plurals. Use each in a sentence.

Christmas Cookies: Subject/Verb Agreement (18 cards) Students read the sentences and fill in the blanks with is/are. Sort them onto the correct cookie sheet for baking.

Ugly Christmas Sweater HAVE/HAS Cards (18 cards) Students read the sentence on the card and fill in the blank with HAVE or HAS. Then sort the sweaters into the correct gift box.

Christmas Light WAS/WERE cards (18 cards) Students draw a card. Read the sentence and fill in the blank with the correct past tense form of ‘to be.’ Sort the card onto the correct tree.

Santa Verbs: (18 cards) Santa has been busy. Students should pull cards and describe what Santa is doing.

Grab the ChristmasPragmatics Pack in my TPT Store.

The Christmas Receptive Language Packet is 44 pages in length. It features the following learning objectives: answering WH questions, following directions, listening comprehension and inferencing.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters: Answering WH Questions: 78 questions cards, 6 special cards, 4 cue cards. Answer  WH questions correctly, and keep your card. Use the visual cue cards to talk about appropriate answers for each WH type. Watch out for sneaky elves trying to steal your cards.

Christmas Cookie: Following Directions: 36 task cards, 6 special cards, 1 page of student mats. Game includes one step directions, conditional directions, two step before/after directions.

Elf Antics: Listening/Reading Comprehension. 30 task cards, 5 skill cards, 6 special cards. Have students draw a skill card (main idea, prediction, detail, setting, characters). Listen or read the short passage and then target the skill selected.

Guessing Gifts: Inferencing game. 24 inferencing cards, 6 special cards. Students draw inferencing cards that show a gift box and list 3 clues about the gift inside. Items include toys, decorations and holiday objects.

This packet contains blanks for games to allow for customization.

Find this downloadin my TPT Store.

Christmas Expressive Language includes 42 pages targeting asking questions, comparing/contrasting, sequencing, multiple meaning words, vocab and similes.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters: Answering WH Questions: 78 questions cards, 6 special cards, 4 cue cards.  Each game card has an answer appropriate for a WHO, WHAT, WHEN or WHERE questions. Develop an appropriate WH questions correctly and keep your card. Use the visual cue cards to remind you of the options for asking questions. Watch out for sneaky elves trying to steal your cards.

Compare/Contrast: Use the Venn diagram to compare and contrast the items pictured above it (Santa, snowmen, presents.) Then write a paragraph describing the two items.

Christmas Cookies: Retelling Familiar Sequences: 18 cards. Students pull a sequencing card. Read the card and identify the steps to complete the sequence.

Christmas Lights: Multiple Meaning Words.  27 questions cards, 2 student mats. Print all light cards. Print one tree for each student. Place all lights in a pile. Have student draw a card and give two meanings for the given word.  If they answer correctly the students keep their card and place it on their tree.

The Night Before Christmas Vocabulary & Similes. Read the included poem with your students. Review the selected vocabulary and select other desired targets. Use the cards included to play games where students name definitions and synonyms. Use the blank cards to select your own vocabulary targets. Review the meaning of similes. Search for similes in the text. Use the sheets to record your findings. Original Source. 

This pack also contains blanks for most games.

Expressive Languagecan be found in my TPT store.

The Christmas Articulation packet includes 68 pages. Articulation games for /r/, ‘th’, /s/ and /s/ blends.

 The /r/ game includes 189 cards for prevocalic /r/, vocalic /r/, and /r/ blends. The ‘th’ game includes 81 cards in the initial, medial and final position in voiced and voiceless ‘th’.  The /s/ blend game includes 126 cards in the initial position of 1 & 2 syllable words. The /s/ cards include 108 cards in the initial, medial and final positions. Students draw Christmas lights and add them to a tree. Watch out for the sneaky cards that make you pack up your tree early!

This game contains blanks to allow for client customizations. 

ChristmasArticulation can be found in my TPT store.