Plinko & Hot Dots Reviews!

One of my favorite education stores in Lakeshore Learning. I have one of these stores just down the road from me in Columbus and I could spend all day in there! They create  materials for teachers, but you know we can adapt things for an SLP slant! Lakeshore let me review some of their materials for you! The first activity is a Plinko Game for Nonfiction Reading Comprehension, that leaves you feeling like you're a game show host! The game comes in a few versions, but I selected grades 1-2 since that meets my current caseload needs the best! The students watch their chips bounce down the giant-sized game board—then answer challenging comprehension questions in 4 skill-building categories (main idea, diagrams, details, cause/effect.) The game includes 80 question cards in a compartmentalized storage tray, plus 4 plastic chips and 40 game pieces.  Now - if you know me at all! You know I'm going to set this up and use it for every group all day long! I pulled out the post it notes out so that I could modify the game as the day went on! All that fun and I didn't get an amazing picture but here's a quick picture of the post it notes I used to adapt the game.  You can adapt the game for ANY goal - but I just made an articulation, grammar and language version.  The articulation version was made up of the following areas: rhyme (so great for vocalic /r/ - bear, chair, dare, scare, etc!), say 3, say 5, and sentence. The grammar version included, plurals, verbs, conjunctions and negation. The language version included synonyms, antonyms, definition and compare/contrast. I think you get the idea here - you could make a post it for ANY goal. I love flexible games like this! If I could make any changes to the Plinko game - it would be with the comprehension cards. I think the skills are mostly at a first grade readability level. I ordered the game with my second/third graders (who are mostly reading one year behind) in mind. The cards were really quite easy for them, likely because the passages are so short.  This game currently retails for $49.95 The next product that I tried out is the Hot Dots Vocabulary Quiz Cards - Complete Set. I knew that my students would love this because of the quiz cards come with awesome pens that provide feedback every time they answer! The  complete set comes with 6 boxes.  Each pack includes 100 different questions that focus on a specific skill. The packs include identifying synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, prefix/suffix, context cues and using multiple-meaning words. Children just touch an answer with the talking Hot Dots pen and it instantly tells them if they’re right or wrong! I was pleasantly surprised at the humor in these decks! Each card is set up as a riddle or joke. It was a really great for my kids who don't understand non-literal humor! The set of six retails for $55.00. Each pen is sold separately for $10.95   The items in this review were provided by Lakeshore, the opinions and review are strictly mine. No other compensation was provided.  Enjoy up to $15 off your purchase from Lakeshore: www.LakeshoreLearning.com/specialoffer