Speech Hoops

Need a little beginning of the week inspiration today? It's a mix of shamrocks and basketball in my speech room this week. I wanted to show you two more basketball ideas! A free app  plus a  little activity to get the kids up and moving.

Here's an app called Arcade Hoops. This is one easy group reinforcer. The kids work all during their speech or language session to earn their turn a the end of our time! Easy as that! And it's free! Check it out in itunes here.

To accompany my March Madness Free Download, I pulled out the hoop and ball for some action! I attached the hoop to my white board and my speech friends described to me how to draw a backboard. That was a pretty funny speech lesson in itself!

My first and second graders were playing this game so our target skills were comparing and contrasting, synonyms, categorization and story sequencing. I made these quick boardmaker visuals and assigned them point values.

Then I taped these squares on the carpet using masking tape. I made 4 boxes and assigned them each a skill from those I listed above. The farther from the hoop the more points! When I played with articulation students, I took down my pictures and wrote in tasks like "name 3 animals with your sound."

Don't forget about this free March Madness download I posted a few weeks ago!

What's your favorite get 'em up and moving activity?

March Madness

A cruise through Pinterest or the speech blogs will show you lots of ideas for March! Most are of the great doctor (Seuss of course) or St. Patty's day materials! I wanted to share something a little different to get you thinking about March! Lots of my students love sports, so I wanted to make a quick printable to go along with March Madness.

I made a super flexible basketball game to use with all my groups. The game is played like basketball! First you write your learning targets and objectives on the back of the basketballs. My example above is a pronoun game. I also made articulation, verb and conjunction versions. 

Students complete the speech or language task to earn their points. They flip over the ball to see how many points they earned! Most balls are just regular 2 point field goals. They are trying to find those 3 pointers and slam dunks (worth 5 points for style in our game!) 

Just print one scorecard for every game. I divide my students into teams and tally their points on the backboard. An easy points reminder is included on the score card!

Grab your copy here! 

I will be cheering for the Buckeyes this March. Who is your team?!