I love it when that red box shows up in the front office! You know the one I mean! That box full of Super Duper Therapy Materials! Here's my nerdy excited SLP iphone pic! Today I'm sharing a review for Lids N Lizards. Super Duper provided the materials, but the opinions in this review are mine. I think you'll flip your lid for this one (sorry I couldn't resist.)
Lids N Lizards is a game made of up metal lids, picture magnets, and small plastic lizards. Place a magnet under each lid and flip them over to hide the picture! Now for the fun part! Hide the lizards under some of the lids and let your students uncover them! As they work on vocabulary, describing and categorization they accumulate lizards. The student who uncovers the most lizards is the winner of this one! The photo magnets are for the categories: food, clothing, animals, transportation, and home items.
First of all, the students are just a tiny bit obsessed with these lizards! They are fun to search for!
Okay so if you've been hanging around Speech Room News very long, you know I'm going to give you some ideas about how to use this activity, that weren't on the side of the box! In my first week with it in my therapy closet here are few ways I have used Lids N Lizards!
Categories: The game comes intended for categories. I started by having the kids sort the pictures they found into groups by category. The next round we used only one category of photos and we played a guessing game trying to predict the pictures we would uncover. It was great for naming category members.
Vocabulary: This game is perfect for reviewing common vocabulary. I did it receptively at first by laying out items by and having them identify the correct picture and placing it in the lid. Then we expressively named the vocabulary as we turned the lids.
Functions: Lay out the vocabulary pictures. Name the function (ie: what you use to wash clothes) of an item and let your student name the correct picture.
Inferencing: Lay out the vocabulary cards and give verbal clues about an item for students to make an
inference! ie: a piece of clothing that keeps your head warm!
Articulation: Use a carrier phrase for each lid you turn over that includes your target sound: ex: I see/I found/Look a/I spy a. If your students are still at the word level, grab your Webber Jumbo Artic Book, make a copy of a page with your target sounds. Tape those pictures to the inside instead of the magnets! If you happen to have any MagneTalks those will also work and already have magnets!
Pronouns: Grab two post-it notes. Draw a boy on one and a girl on the other. As you flip the lids decide which person you want to give the lid to! For subjective pronouns say "She has __/He has __." For possessive pronouns say "This is his __/This is her __."
HAVE/HAS: Draw a post it note with two people and another with one person. Sort and create a sentence as your flip your lids! ie: They have a banana, He has a shirt.
Irregular Verbs: I used this to work on common irregular past tense verbs with some kindergarten friends. I picked saw/said/ate to make sentences with each picture. The kids thought that the round we played saying 'Ms. Jenna ate ___.' was the funniest thing ever.
Plurals: We made sentences after each lid we flipped using the carrier phrase, "I have one ___, but I wish I had two ____."
WH Questions: After your students have flipped all the lids, make up questions to match the pictures, ie: What do monkey's eat? for the banana picture.
Concepts: under/over, empty/full, same/different!
Descriptions: Grab those lizards and describe them! smooth/bumpy, colors, size, etc.
Associations: Can you find photo magnets that go together? milk/cereal and milk/cow
Compare/Contrast: After your students have flipped all of their lids and while you are putting the game away, take the chance to work on identifying similarities and differences in the items. Let them pick two items to compare/contrast. Typically they pick easy things first! ie: apple and banana, but once it's down to the last two items it might be a banana and a hat! See if they can finish it all the way to the end!
My overall opinion is that this therapy tool is one of the most flexible I've ordered lately! If I was able to change something about the program it would be the vocabulary magnets. I wish they included a wider range of items, because even my ESL and low level students new most of these vocabulary words! It would be wonderful if SD offered some supplemental packs of magnets that I could use to challenge the vocabulary development for my students. Lids N Lizards is available for $39.95.
