Pigs in the Mud!

One of our first projects during our farm theme were our perfectly pink pigs. They helped us reinforce the vocabulary word, as well as teach the basic concepts of clean and dirty. And they are very cute, too...just look at his face--he knows he was a naughty dirty pig!

Targets:
Vocabulary-pig, mud
Basic Concepts- clean, dirty
Requesting

We started by gathering our materials- clean, pink pigs pre-cut out (I can't remember where I found the original picture, but I blew it up to be pretty big!), brown paint, paintbrushes, green paper and glue.

The next step was to talk about the pigs as the students requested them (I want a pig) and glued them onto their green paper. We used descriptive words, like pink and, of course, clean!
We talked about what pigs like to do best (besides eating...)--rolling in the mud!

Next, they requested the brown paint (I want paint) and got to painting. As they painted, it was a great time to sneak in some body part vocabulary by having the kids paint the mud onto the pig's feet, tail, head, nose, etc. They could paint the mud on any way they wanted.
Now, our pigs weren't clean any more---they were nice and dirty!!

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!
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Beautiful Butterflies

During circle time, we talked a lot about butterflies. We looked at our bulletin board to review the vocabulary. We also used the fun and simple song "Look at the Butterflies" from Deborah Stewart's blog Little Fingers That Play. I printed up the pages from the visuals on the website and I did my best to sing the song. It's a great song to talk about the vocabulary (butterfly) and to sneak in some counting to 5!

Then, in small group rotations, we painted some beautiful butterflies!

Targets
Vocabulary-butterfly
Concepts- half/whole; same
Colors

First, we gathered our materials--

A variety of paints (we eventually put into cups), paintbrushes, butterfly patterns that were pre-cut and folded in half

Now, when I made the sample butterfly, I added the paint by squeezing straight from the bottle. 

There were a few problems with that, so we brainstormed a bit and decided it would work just as well to have the students use paint brushes!

We started with the students requesting their butterfly (I want a butterfly). We talked about how they were folded in half and opened them up to show they whole butterfly. We talked about how they were only going to paint on one half. We even covered up the other half to give them help.
Then, they got to painting. They requested the paint (I want red; I want blue, etc). They could paint any way they wanted, but we did try to encourage that they copy some forms, like circles and lines and eyes.

 Then, they folded the butterfly in half again and spread the paint around.

We found that they had to do this quickly because the paint dried pretty quickly and stuck the butterfly together!
We opened up the butterfly again to show the whole butterfly. We talked about how cool and magical it was that both halves looked the same!

Our butterflies came out very beautifully and we had them fly onto our windows to be displayed!

I love getting feedback, so please leave a comment!
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Flower Rubbings

I really hope everyone has enjoyed their Spring Break vacation!! I certainly have!
Here is another activity we did during our Spring Theme.
I had originally wanted to have the students make flower prints, like we had done at the Nature Materials Workshop. However, when I tried it on my own, it didn't come out quite right.
I had some fresh flowers that still needed to be used, so we decided to do rubbings. It worked ok and some students were able to use the fresh flowers, but they were a bit bulky.
Finally, our talented classroom assistant, Lucy, designed some tag board flowers that we eventually used for our rubbings!

Targets
Vocabulary-flowers
Fine motor
Basic concepts- half/whole, middle

We gathered our materials, including our fresh flowers and some fabulous fake ones, too!

We used our tag board flowers, crayons, paper.

The students practiced requesting (I want a flower, I want a crayon)
They folded the papers in half (giving us a great opportunity to talk about half and whole).
The flower went in the middle of the paper and colored. It was neat to watch as each petal came through!

 Also in the middle was a Springtime message and a chance for the students to practice reading and/or writing their names

Happy Spring!!

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An SLP's Easter Egg Hunt

I have a theory that anything can be turned into a language activity. This holds true for an Easter Egg Hunt! Here's how:

Vocabulary
Easter Egg Hunts have lots of fun words to make sure children know. These include
Bunny/Rabbit
Egg
Basket
Action words:
Hide
Find
Pick up
Talk about the words with your children, exposing them over and over again until they can understand and use them during conversations.

Concepts- Prepositions
Have the children look in specific places, listening for the location word.
"Look under the chair"
"Look behind the ball"
"Put it in the basket"
"Walk around the tree"
"Where did you find the egg?"

Concepts-Open and Close; Half and Whole
When they have gathered the (plastic) eggs and start digging in and finding their candy and toys, talk about the eggs they will open. Afterwards, they can close them, too. When they are open, talk about how they have half of an egg and when they are open, talk about how they have a whole egg.

Answering Questions
When your child is done with their egg hunt, ask them questions
"Where did you find eggs?"
"What did you see?"
"Who has more eggs?"
"How many did you find?"
If your child has trouble answering questions, give them a choice--"did you find a blue egg or a yellow egg?" When they are answering, make sure they use complete sentences...don't let them get away with 1 or 2 words! Remind them to "use your words."

You don't have to feel like there is a need to sit down and "work" with your child to work on their language skills...just focus on some simple words and  concepts during regular activities. Most of all--have FUN!!

I'm editing to add some information about how we did our egg hunt! We had the students collect paper eggs outside. When we came in the classroom, the students gave us the paper eggs; we counted them to turn it into a counting activity. We *could've* even turned it into a graphing activity by writing their names and graphing how many each student found. Most and least concepts could've been focused on! Then, we gave the students little treats inside of their eggs.

The students also made their own bags for the egg hunt by requesting stickers, etc, (e.g. "I want an egg" etc)

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Spring umbrellas

Umbrella is a great word!
It has 3 syllables, so it gives us a chance to practice multisyllable words by clapping each syllable and using intonation to help the kids hear the unstressed syllable.
It helps teach the concepts over and under (the umbrella is over our head; we are under the umbrella) and wet and dry. It's a great vocabulary word to know when you are in a rainy season...imagine NOT being able to ask for your umbrella--you'd get pretty wet.

To help learn all about this word, we made umbrellas! We borrowed this activity from the blog Lucky Me.

Targets
Vocabulary-umbrella, rain
Concepts-under/over, wet/dry, half/whole

We gathered our materials- paper plates, scissors, markers, glue, blue paper raindrops, brown paper handles, stapler

Before the students requested their umbrella (I want an umbrella), we took a look at the paper plates. We showed the whole plate with the pieces put together, then, we held them apart to show half of a plate.

Next, they decorated their paper plate with markers any way they wanted, requesting their markers (I want red marker" etc).
They requested their rain (I want rain) and glued them to their umbrella.
We also talked about how rain is wet.
After they requested their handle (I want a handle), they stapled thier umbrella together.

When they were done, they manipulated their umbrella and put it over their heads so that they were under it, keeping dry.
They look great on our window on a sunny day!

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Shapes House!

For starters, we are focusing on the actual house and it's parts. Then we will go inside to look around the rooms. A fun way to look at the different parts of the outside of the house, and to sneak in some practice with shapes, is to make a

Shapes House!

Targets
Requesting (I want a ___)
Vocabulary-- house, door, windows, roof
Basic shapes-- square, rectangle, triangle
Size concepts-- big, little

First, we gathered the materials--some shapes, paper to put it on and some glue.

We reviewed the house the "correct" way with the kids, pointing out that the house goes on top, the door goes on the bottom and in the middle and the windows go a certain way. However, when they get the piece in their hot little hand, they will put it wherever they want and how ever they want--this is good! It gives us an idea of how they are visually processing what they see and their ability to put things together. And, besides, would you moms and dads *really* want the art work on your refrigerator to be the teacher's? ;)

Before we really got started with all the action, we also reviewed the shapes to see if the children could identify or label them. We also talked about big vs. little with the squares.

Then, the fun began! The students always need to request items before they can have them ("I want paper," "I want a square," "I want glue," etc.). So, for each step of the way, there is always talking. The students get their gluey shape and stick 'em on! Oh, and as an added bonus, when they put on their windows, they get to practice counting to 4!

And, when they are done, their house gets put up onto the bulletin board with all of thier neighbors !

 

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What's Happening in my Classroom?

Today was the first day of school for some of my students! I have 3 classes--Mon/Wed/Fri in the am and pm (my 3 year olds) and Tues/Thurs am (my 4 year olds). So far, they seem like they'll be a lot of fun! *fingers crossed*

I base my class activities on vocabulary themes because I believe that teaching vocabulary in categories is the best way for children to learn new words. Themes/categories help kiddos put new words they encounter into little "filing cabinets" of similar words to expand their vocab.

What's the current theme? Back to School!
We've got vocab words like school, bus, teacher, book, pencil, crayons, friends, backpack, toys, blocks, etc.

How are we teaching these words?
Well, today, we played a game where students took turns opening the backpack and taking out a vocabulary item. They had to label items and maybe even say a sentence (like "I have a backpack").
We also worked on their listening skills by having them point to items or follow directions (like "point to the book," "point to something we use to cut" or "pick up the apple and put it in the blue backpack"). If they can't do any of these right away, we give them cues, like pointing or modeling for them.

We also did a coloring page (with crayons and a bus) to give them a chance to practice their crayon/pencil grasp--- My trick for getting the correct grasp?--breaking crayons in half! (by the way, this is a coloring, experiential activity, NOT a worksheet activity--blech!)

Finally, we used our Discovery Toys EZ Blocks!
EZ Blocks are great first building blocks because they have a grooved top and bottom to make sure that little ones' hands don't accidentally knock the blocks over. They are also a nice size for the little hands, too. Give your EZ Blocks a little shake--they make noise!! How fun and inviting is that? They are also inviting to the eye because they have some basic colors and shapes.

So, how can you use EZ Blocks in a speech and language development class?
Well, first off, "blocks" is one of our vocabulary words for this theme since blocks and toys are key items in a preschool classroom.
We also worked on requesting-- my kids are taught the phrase "I want ___" It's a pretty powerful phrase, if you think about it! A great way to meet your wants and needs! We only give the students 1 or 2 at a time so they will always have something to ask for. We're sneaky that way!
Some basic concepts were also targeted, like colors and shapes, but also concepts like "tall" and "short" or "loud" and "quiet." Who made the tallest tower?

Some of the phrases and sentences I heard used with my students were "I make a castle," "shake blue," and "it fall down!" When we heard these utterances, we modeled and expanded so the students could hear the correct sentence use ("oh, I am making a castle," "I am shaking the blue block" and "it is falling down!").

There is so much more that can be done with EZ Blocks from Discovery Toys! The kids are learning and having fun, too!! They are available here at my website.
Also, check out the new fall catalog to check out an EZ Blocks addition--
EZ Blocks Wheels & More!
Here's to a great school year with lots of learning and playing!

Happy building!
~Marcy

Bathtime Fun with Discovery Toys!

Bath time in the Fox household used to consist of lots and lots of screaming. And splashing. And crying.
Well, it still contains all that, but, fortunately, it occurs at the END of the bath, not at the beginning and middle. She does not want to come out. Why, you ask? I think it has something to do with

Bathtime Bugs

Bathtime Bugs is a 4 piece set made of sturdy, washable plastic. Each piece is a different bug (a butterfly, bumblebee, worm/bug and flower {yeah, I know! A flower isn't a bug...work with me here...}) so you can work on springtime and bug vocabulary!

Here's what the Discovery Toys (fancy, schmancy new) website says about Bathtime Bugs {with my commentary, too!}...and, have you seen the awesome new Discovery Toys Parent Guides?
KEY BENEFITS:

• Brightly colored and textured pieces encourage child to investigate early science concepts {Rachel had fun manipulating each piece and exploring. She also was figuring out the concept of water displacement as the worm kept popping out of the flower. It was kinda fun to push it down and squirt the water out!}
• Thinking skills are reinforced through cause and effect principles {Rachel had a blast trying to figure out how to keep all 4 bugs under the water at the same time. She also was learning that she had to keep the yellow butterfly under the water for a longer time to get it to full up so she could dump it on herself}
  
• Assists with bath time while aiding motor skill development {Rachel had to use her (cute little) fingers to spin, push, scoop and sprinkle}.
• Provides the opportunity to expand vocabulary by introducing new words and concepts and demonstrating their meaning.{Beautiful!! Read below for my speech-language point of view!}
  
• Versatile pieces are also perfect for backyard water or garden play. {we will TOTALLY have to try that!}

And, here it is...the after bath...

So, what kind of cool speech and language things can you do with the Bathtime Bugs?
Early Sound Development- "B" is one of the earliest sounds that develop in children. So, if you are using Bathtime Bugs with your little baby or with your non-verbal child, you can encourage him/her to use their /b/ sound---you've got bath, bug, butterfly, bumblebee, and even bubbles. You can put the pieces by your mouth to help your child focus on your lips. Then, /b/ away to your heart's content! "B-B-B-bubbles! B-B-B-Bee!!" Eventually, your child will join you!

Vocabulary- Remember, teaching words within a theme is one of the best ways to make sure your child is learning the vocabulary. The theme here is "Bugs." Have your child point to each bug as you name them. Then, have your child label each piece as he/she puts them in the tub.
Action vocabulary words--as your child is playing, talk about what she is doing. "Splash," "pour," "swim" and "push" are great words to learn!
Descriptive vocabulary words (a.k.a. adjectives)-- "Wet"

Using Simple Sentences-Some of the things I heard Rachel say included "I taking a bath!," "I got water," "bug go down," "I wet" and, not to mention "no all done!!!" Most of her sentences include a subject, verb and a complement (the basic 3 word sentence), which is pretty typical for a 2 or 3 year old. When she said only "I wet," I could have helped her expand her sentence by saying "yes, you are wet" "you said 'I am wet!"

Bathtime Bugs has been a great addition to our bathtime!! They are available at my website as a set of 4 sturdy pieces for $20. (But, don't forget!! If you order any product through my e-mail by August 11, you can enjoy 10% off your purchase!!).

Keep clean ;)
~Marcy

Fun ocean activity!

Here is great activity that we used in my classroom to accompany playing AB Seas during our Ocean vocabulary theme...it's A Blue Fishy Drink!

Here's what you'll need: a pitcher (see-through is best!), a spoon, blue powdered drink mix (maybe Kool Aid®), sugar, gummy fish candy and cups.
Since this is a great sequencing activity for students with speech-language delays, having sequencing pictures are very useful. You can do line drawings, cut out pictures or even use photographs. This is an example of what we used in my classroom, made with Microsoft Paint:The sequence is: Pour in the mix, pour in the sugar, pour in the water, put in the fish, stir and watch the fish swim, put it in a cup and drink.

The speech and language targets in this activity included:
sequencing-- we cut up the above pictures and reviewed them first a couple of times. Then, as we made our fishy drink, at each step, we had the kids pick the picture that came next. We were also teaching them the temporal concepts of first, next, then and last.

vocabulary--our vocabulary theme was ocean, so we talked a lot about water and fish. We also taught the action words of pour, put, stir, swim and drink.

turn taking--talking and conversation involve verbal turn taking, like a tennis match. Turn taking is also a basic skill preschoolers need to learn. So, when it came time to stir the fishy drink, the kids were guided to turn to their friend and say "it's my turn."

sentence expansion--my 3- and 4-year olds are typically still communicating using gestures, single words or very short sentences. My job is to get them to use longer sentences. So, as we were making the fishy drink, the students were encouraged to "use your words." We also do this through modeling and expanding-- in our own talking, we use the sentences we expect them to use (for example "I am stirring" or "The water is blue"). Then, when they say something using single words, we help them expand it into a complete sentence (for example, if they say "more," we model "I want more. Yes! You said 'I want more'").

and
articulation--I'm kind of sneaky with my articulation* therapy! (*articulation= how we form our speech sounds). Most of my students are leaving off sounds or changing sounds around, so we need to give them lots and lots of chances to say the words correctly. I chose to focus on the /f/ for Fish, and /s/ for STir. So, as we made our fishy drink, we over emphasized these sounds and encouraged the students to make these sounds. I also like to *show* the kids how to make the sounds by pointing to my mouth to make it obvious how the sound is made.

We also focused on pre-academic skills. (I love working in a preschool setting--we can work on so many things!). These included
counting--we counted the fish as we put them in

colors--we talked about the colors of the fish as we put them it. It also turned out to be a cool science activity as the clear water turned blue when it hit the powder. Magic!!

The students had a lot of fun with this hands-on activity! And, I was happy because there were so many things I could focus on in just one cool activity.
Leave a comment below to let me know if you've tried it!!

Happy swimming!!

What's Happening in My Classroom?

Well, it's Summer School time, which means a longer day for students in my class, but less kids. So, we have more time to give the students the attention they need and more time to do FUN stuff!!

The vocabulary theme (remember--one of the best ways to teach vocabulary is within vocabulary units to help them categorize new words they use as they put the words in their little "filing cabinets!") for the next few weeks is: Ocean Life!!

What's the best game to play with my preschoolers?

It's ABSeas!!

For starters, AB Seas is a fantastic way to help your little one learn the alphabet. As they go fishing, they catch sea creatures who have upper case letters written on them. They can say the name of the letter and then match it to their game board. Make it a bit more challenging and have your child match the upper case letter to the lower case letter.

And! There's a bonus!! The fishing poles are magnetic which lead to an awesome science experiment! My students had fun going around the room seeing what items the magnet stuck to (the chair leg! the white board! the filing cabinet!) as well as what it did not stick to (the cardboard box, the pocket chart, the water table). It was pretty fun watching them get so excited.

Now, how can AB Seas be used to teach speech and language skills?...
Vocabulary development: As they fish for letters, they will be encountering several sea creatures, including fish, sea horses, octopus and sharks. The box is also decorated with ocean items, like sea weed, coral, water, shells and bubbles. All of these are great for developing labels and descriptive language.

Basic concepts: While your child is playing, they are taking the sea creatures out and putting them on their game board.

Turn Taking: Often, students with speech ang language difficulties have problems with pragmatic language (that's the social use of language; how people interact with others). One key area of pragmatics is turn taking. A sneaky way to work on turn taking is through game playing--especially when you are super sneaky and only give the kids ONE fishing pole!! They need to know that each kid gets a turn and they can use phrases like "it's my turn," or "I want the fishing pole."

More pragmatic language!: Encourage your kids to ask each other "Do you have the letter B" to see if they can play together to find all of the letters.

My speech and language preschoolers are having a lot of fun with AB Seas! I hope you do, too! It's available here on my website!

Happy fishing!
~Marcy

What's happening in my classroom?

This month's theme in my classroom has been Zoo Animals. We've had a lot of fun singing cool songs about "Going to the Zoo" (yay Raffi!!), playing with our zoo animals, making lots of animal sounds and working on cute projects.

One week was dedicated to pre-math concepts. That week, we counted animals, made AB patterns with zebra stripes and read the fabulous Discovery Toys product:

Counting with Animals!

This one little book is jam PACKED with educational concepts! Let's take a look:
Introduction to numbers- on the left side of each page, the numbers 1-5 are shown (one at a time as you turn the pages!). The coolest thing about this is the numbers look like Touch Math**! There are a number of dots on the numbers that correspond with the amount the number represents, which really helps those kinesthetic learners as they move their fingers to count. **disclaimer--it's not TouchMath--it just reminds me of this fabulous way of teaching numbers and math.

Introduction to shapes and colors- on the right side of each page, there are peek through holes that are in some of the basic shapes, like squares, circles, triangles. Oh!! And, the amount of holes corresponds to the number shown! And, guess what?! The peek-a-boo shapes show off colors that are on the secret "Lift and Learn" flap!

Lots and lots of opportunities for counting-inside the flaps, there are oodles of animals to count and, you guessed it, the amount of each animal corresponds to the featured number on the previous page!

Lots and lots of opportunities to see the numbers- while you and your child are reading, the book asks your child to find certain animals. This gives your child many chances to see the number in print.

Language and speech concepts!!
Vocabulary-I know I've mentioned it before, but, presenting new words within categories is the best way to teach vocabulary and add words to that "filing cabinet" in the right place.

Articulation- Hooray for a multitude of multisyllabic words!! Many of my students leave off those pesky unstressed syllables when they are talking (so, "elephant" becomes "ephant"). Well, Counting with Animals has oodles and oodles of animals with lots of syllables!!
Elephants, butterflies, caterpillars, oh my!

And, as a person who works with preschoolers, I certainly appreciate the quality of Counting with Animals!! The book is very sturdy and strong to resist those busy hands who might get a little rough and accidentally rip the book. Also, the pages are laminated, which is so fabulous because, well, 3- and 4-year olds get kinda snotty!! Little sneezing kiddos are no problem with Counting with Animals!!-- Wipes off so easily!

Oh, and did I mention how affordable it is? $13.50 is a great price for such a high quality book!! Please checkout my website and get your own copy of Counting with Animals!!

Castle Marbleworks!

Y'know, you don't really know exactly what a child can learn from a toy until you watch them play with it, or until you see it for yourself. Rachel and I just spent quite a while playing with her brand new CASTLE MARBLEWORKS (with brief interruptions for kisses and dancing with Salt N Pepa--VH1 was in the background).

By the way, I got the CASTLE MARBLEWORKS for 50% off, just like any other customer can during the month of May. Ask me how!!


Here are some cool things I heard while playing with Rachel's CASTLE MARBLEWORKS :
"More balls"
"Mama find it"
"Woah, balls!"
"Watch the balls"
"Top"
"Round and round"
"Thank you"

Top? Wow--I didn't know she knew that!

So, some cool concepts that can be taught using CASTLE MARBLEWORKS:
in, out, down, open, close (the door moves!), top, bottom, colors, counting to 3

Rachel also showed me how it is a problem solving activity when she tried and tried to make it so the balls wouldn't come out. It's also a motor activity when she moved her body all around trying to get the balls back out!
And, you know, even the jingly balls are fun to listen to as they move down the tracks, for some great auditory stimulation. :D

So, don't forget--during the month of May, you too can get a CASTLE MARBLEWORKS for 50% off! Ask me how.

Happy playing!
Marcy
www.discoverytoyslink.com/foxtoybox
foxtoybox@gmail.com

What's happening in my classroom?

Just as a reminder, my day job is in a preschool classroom for children who have delays in speech and language skills.
Part of my job is to work on building my students' vocabulary skills. I do this through teaching new words in categories--this way, the kids can take the new words and put them in their "filing cabinet" under the right category. They continue to build on the vocabulary they know with words in the same category.
Another part of my job is to teach basic concepts that preschoolers should know, including colors, numbers, letters, etc.

So, what's a cool way to teach both these concepts within a vocabulary theme?:

Colors on the Farm

From DISCOVERY TOYS!

This month, we are working on FARM vocabulary, so, why not use the farm to teach COLORS?

"Colors on the Farm" is a Lift and Learn Book, making it interactive learning. Each part of this sturdy book has the name of the color written on the same colored page (yay for teaching literacy skills!!) with shapes (oooh...sneaky way to teach shapes, too!) surrounding the color on the opposite page. As you read with your child, the book gives you great questions to ask your child to encourage thinking skills and to help them answer questions. Then--they get to open the flap and see all the items of that color on the farm. And there are even more questions to help you talk about the book with them!

Can you think of some yellow things you would find on a farm?!? :)

So, remember, "Colors on the Farm" is a sturdy interactive book to teach farm vocabulary and colors!! And, it's available here!

And!!!...if you like Colors on the Farm, you'll also love Counting with Animals! (we're learning about Jungle/Zoo animals next month!).

Don't forget to visit my online store at www.discoverytoyslink.com/foxtoybox