Trees!

After a 2 month hiatus (excusable, I promise), I have a great multi-purpose language packet.

Trees are great visuals for language. There is one big item (the trunk) with branches (parts of a whole) and leaves (even more parts to the whole). Thematically, trees fit any time of year, but especially spring and fall. With the upcoming Earth Day, this activity is perfect for this time of year.

Here's what it features:

Categories (convergent & divergent) - students take leaves and stick them on a tree. Simplicity is always best. Some leaves contain names of categories (25 in all) and other leaves are in groups of 3-4 to elicit names of categories (50 leaves in all).

Irregular verbs and irregular plurals both have a similar set up. The present tense verbs and singular nouns are presented on blossoms while the irregular past tense verbs and plural nouns are presented on leaves. You can have the blossoms on the tree and ask students to replace them (i.e. convert to the irregular form). Or vice versa. This section has 30 verbs and 25 nouns.

The definition section features a tree with leaves with the target words written on apples and cherries. You can attach the fruits to the tree and gather them into the definition basket. The basket has definition cues such as attributes, category, parts, function, etc. Or gather the fruits into an actual container - this may make it a little easier! There are 27 words to define.

Finally, the following directions section has 48 single step directions written on leaves, 8 temporal concept acorns and 12 conditional concept acorns. Combine the leaves and acorns depending on your students' needs to create an individualized activity.

Still not sure? Download the preview for a FREEBIE of this activity!

Enjoy, and happy spring!

Diana

Superhero Expressive Language

Who doesn't like superheroes? Whether generic or copyrighted, children of all ages (and genders) enjoy the idea.

Cue the language activities. This fun-filled packet features wh-questions (who, what, when, where, why) - 8 each:

Categories (convergent and divergent):

Sequencing (student will describe the sequence) with a visual guide for first/next/last:

 Compare & contrast - with a Venn diagram:

And safety questions and scenarios:

The safety portion has autobiographical questions (address, birthday, etc.). This includes phone number, which I included reluctantly. Some families still have a house phone, some change cell phone numbers on a regular basis. Ask this question cautiously, and perhaps remind the parents/guardians that children should be familiar with a number they can call.

There is also a follow-up worksheet for home use:

Families should be encouraged to review autobiographical information as well as safety-related scenarios. This is especially true for some children on the Autistic spectrum who have a difficult time differentiating safe vs. dangerous scenarios in the community. 

Interested? Find the packet on Teachers Pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook. 

Are your students struggling with categories and perhaps benefit from more visuals? 

Try my April Shower Categories found on TpT or TN. 

Enjoy, and remember - SLPs are language superheroes all day, every day!

Diana

Mini Sale!

Thank you for following me on Pinterest, via Teachers Pay Teachers and/or via this blog!

For your loyalty, I've got a mini sale happening February 7-10th, right ahead of Valentine's Day and starting prep for your spring materials.

Visit my TpT store for 10% off on the following (links lead to products in store)

April Shower Categories
Articulation Gumballs MEGA BUNDLE
Valentine's Semantics
Pronoun Squares

Interested in a giveaway? Visit my Teachers Notebook store to enter a chance to win the Valentine's Semantic packet!

Diana

Valentine's Day Semantics

Now that the (not so exciting) Super Bowl is over, we can focus on Valentine's Day. There are so many activities that you can do with the holiday - both sappy and otherwise.

On a basic level, you can have students make Valentine's Day cards, if the practice is allowed in your school/district. They'll probably make them for immediately family members in class, so you can use the opportunity to make V-Day cards for someone else... a sports hero, the president, a teacher. This is a great opportunity to work on sentence structure, pragmatics (socially appropriate greetings to write) and incorporate some phonemic awareness into the writing.

I decided on a semantically based activity for this V-Day. Here we have synonyms, antonyms (easy to do with a broken heart pattern), homophones and compound words.

Synonyms and antonyms are presented in 2 ways: 2 parts of a broken heart, which you can cut out and match, and a pair with one missing (robots for antonyms, dinosaurs for synonyms). Don't worry, there's an answer key for the missing pair!

Homophones are words that sounds the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. Have students identify or match the definitions (a small box with a definition for each word is provided) and/or make sentences for the different definition.

Finally, the compound words are simply presented on a heart. Students can deconstruct the compound word, identify similar compounds and deconstruct the meaning based on its parts.

There are 154 synonyms and antonyms, 64 sets of homophones and 60 compound words!

You can find it on TpT or on Teachers Notebook.
Diana

Pronoun Squares

Happy 2014, everyone!

I'm starting the year off with pronouns. Here's the challenge I typically face: I create a sentence or a scenario for a sentence but can't "hint" at the subject of said sentence to elicit the correct pronoun. One way to meet that challenge is by using pictures. I like using Webber Photo Cards (story starters, verbs, social issues - links provided below). Once you've gone the picture route, you want the student to be able to use pronouns in written/read/orally presented sentences. That's where this activity comes in.

This packet targets subjective, objective, possessive and reflexive pronouns.

Subjective = I, you, he, she, it, we, they
Objective = me, you, him, her, it, us, them
Possessive = my, your(s), his, her(s), its, our(s), their(s)
Reflexive = myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves

Use of pronouns is elicited by having a sentence with a picture of the target pronoun. Seen here:

 

There are 36 of these pictures for subjective, objective and possessive; 24 pictures for reflexive pronouns.

With an additional carryover/homework sheet for each group of pronouns:

There is a simple "square" game to go along with this activity or you can always use any basic turn taking game to keep the students entertained.

Want to use 3rd person pronouns outside of this activity? Here's this:

This product also has a FREEBIE in the preview portion. The freebie features the subjective pronoun pictures. Buy it on TeachersPayTeachers or Teacher's Notebook.

Interested in the Webber Photo Cards? (disclaimer: I'm not a paid spokesperson and am not receiving anything for free… although I wish I did!) Here are Verb Photo Cards, Story Starter Photo Cards and Social Issues Photo Cards (good for pragmatics too).

Diana

SALE & Teacher's Notebook store

I'm throwing a sale just in time for Cyber Monday and Tuesday!  

 

My entire Teachers Pay Teachers store is 10% off. The enter promo code "cyber" to receive an additional 28% discount. Visit my store here!

If you're more comfortable with Teacher's Notebook, you're in luck! I just uploaded all my materials at the same price to TN and am also throwing a 10% off sale, Monday and Tuesday! Check out their sale:

Visit my Teacher's Notebook shop here. 
Happy shopping!

Diana

A Christmas Auditory Miracle

Happy post-turkey coma day (because I refuse to give in to Black Friday madness)!

'Tis the season for many holidays, but today we will start with a Christmas activity. This packet targets various listening skills. In it we have:

24 (each) wh-questions

16 "how" questions

24 (each) 1, 2 & 3 step directions
24 conditional directions - with & without temporal concepts

24 absurd sentences

Game board for game play during activities

Blank cards with graphics to create your own auditory tasks

Many of the questions are Christmas and winter themed, but at least half are also general. 

You can find this activity here from Teachers Pay Teachers. Download the "Preview" to a get a freebie with a sampling of the activities in the full packet.

Be sure to come back for the Cyber Monday sale 12/2-3 and my own store sale with an additional 10% off from 11/30-12/3!!

Diana