New Items in my TpT Store: Back to the Future

This is the last of the blog bombardment from me this week.  (Are some of you cheering?)

I decided to do some activities/games like I would use in therapy for language.  I like to make learning language skills fun too.  Why not? It sticks with you better when it is fun.  I can still remember a silly little mnemonic sentence I learned when I was in grade school to spell geography and that was 100 years ago.  I use games as mnemonics....to aid their retention.  

The focus of this Back to the Future game is to learn regular verb tenses by the cues: -ed denotes past tense; is/am (verb)ing marks present tense; and will/shall indicates the future.  They will learn to listen for those cues and respond appropriately.

They work their way around the game board by identifying the tense of the verb illustrated and stated on the game cards to advance to that spot on the board.  The fun of this game is that when they land on "Back to the Future" they lose ground by having to go back to the last "Future" space.  You know how they hate to go back in a game!

 

 As you can see in the above sample card, it states PAST and gives you 3 multiple choice responses.  They must identify which of those 3 is the past tense verb form of touch.  If they are correct they get to move ahead to a "past" space on the game board.  That is how they will proceed to move around the board.   There are 40 verb cards in this set.

There is also another set of cards that has the same verbs but requires a different task. 

In this set they must identify the verb tense that is underlined.  What tense is this? ...am touching.  Can they tell you that says you are doing it now and that is present tense?  If so they will move to a "present" space on the game board.  Game play is the same only the task is different.  When they master this skill level you can confidently say they comprehend regular verb tenses.

Now that they understand and recognize verb tense they should have a smooth transition into using it correctly in their speaking and their writing.

Let me know what you think.

New Items in my TpT Store: BEAR HUNT and BOWLING

I have created many things for articulation therapy, but have not specifically targeted phonology. My work in public school involved many unintelligible preschoolers and kindergarteners so I am very familiar with teaching phonological patterns. I have a strong personal preference for Barbara Hodson's Cycles Approach to phonological therapy.   I decided I wanted to share the activities that I used when doing Cycles.  You can just pull them out and use them .... time savers.

These activities are not new and are not my original ideas. These are activities that we all have done when working with our little ones.  I have simply tried to make the target stimuli easy to grab and use.  I did use all my own artwork :)  I am providing you with printable stimulus targets!

Let me tell you about BEAR HUNT and BOWLING for Consonant Singletons.

These picture show how they print 4 pictures to a page with the bears or the bowling pins for the card backs and the target stimulus is on the card front.  Each picture word is labeled with target stimulus in the top right corner. Because of the number of targets I am providing I have had to divide these into two sets.  I have Bear Hunt & Bowling for Consonant Sequences  which targets initial consonant patterns of:
Stops- /p/ and /t/;
Nasals- /m/ and /n/;
Glides- /w/ and /j/.
As well as final consonant patterns of:
Stops /p/ and /t/
Nasals /m/ and /n/ following Barbara Hodsonʼs cycles approach.

This 42 page download includes everything you need to make 160 target cards for the bear Bear Hunt and a Bowling games. Once you have them made you only have to pull out the target stimuli you need for the day.  

The BOWLING game will use the same target stimuli just printed with the bowling pins on the back. Two activities for the price of one :)

The other set targets S Clusters, Velars, Alveolars, and Liquid /l/ and /r/.   With it you get the same bear and bowling card backs but the target stimulus is different.

The focus of this set is on these consonant patterns:
S Clusters- initial /sp/, /st/, /sm/ and /sn; final /ts/, /ps/ and /ks/ with the focus on pluralization.
Velars- final /k/, initial /k/ and /g/
Aleveolars- final /t/, initial /t/, /d/, and /n/
Liquid- initial /l/ and /r/

This 46 page download includes everything you need to make 176 target cards for the Bear Hunt and a Bowling games.

With the Bear Hunt game you will simply hide their target pictures around the room and let them go on a Bear Hunt. When they find a bear they bring it to you and name it.

To go bowling, use clothespins to stand the pictures up with the bowling pin picture visible. Roll a ball to knock the “pins” down. They will say the picture words on the pins that have been knocked down. Complete directions are in the downloads.

My little ones loved these two games and I am sure yours will too!

New Items in my TpT Store: Articulation Phrase Cards

I have been a little MIA for the past month, but my absence has been for your good ;)  I have created several new things for my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  I plan to do 3 posts over the next couple of days to tell you about them.

I'll start today by telling you about the Articulation Phrase Cards.  Ok, so it is not the most creative name, but it does certainly give you a heads up as to what this download is about.  Yep, you guessed it. These are cards with sound specific articulation phrases on them.

Why did I create these?  Well, for one thing, it is second semester and you, as well as your kiddos, are bored with your the target stimuli that you have been using all year. And two, they always show renewed interest when material is presented in a different format.  They get tired of worksheets and word lists.  Using a colorful card deck actually becomes a motivation tactic.

Besides using them at your table in your therapy room, these little cards are great for 5 minute therapy or therapy centers in your room.  You can use them with any of the speech games you already own or any of the generic games that I have created that you may own!   These are fantastic for your mixed groups because each child can have their own personal deck.

Each download targets 2 sounds that include 8 pages that will create 60 stimulus phrase cards containing 180 different phrases. Each card contains 3 different phrases for one target word.  Ex: For the word game the phrases on the card are: play a game; video game; win the game.

All this for the low price of $1.50  What's not to love about it?

The downloads are grouped this way so you can pick and choose:
Articulation Phrase Cards for F and L
Articulation Phrase Cards for K and G
Articulation Phrase Cards for R and S
Articulation Phrase Cards for SH and TH

Each sound is a different color and comes with decorative backs that clearly state the target letter, so sorting them is quick and easy.  Just the way we like our therapy, right?

TIP:
I would punch a hole in one corner of each card and hang them on a ring to keep up with them easier.  That way the kids could just flip them them as they say them and you won't have them scattered all over the place!