It Looked Like Spilt Milk (by Charles G. Shaw)

It is a beautiful Tuesday morning and I am sitting at home... sick.  Instead of wasting my day, I decided to try to post another blog in between sneezes.  Since I discussed the book Little Cloud  in my last post, I thought I would discuss It Looked Like Spilt Milk this time around.  I am also "killing two birds with one stone" since I am planning on using this book tomorrow with our little pre-K group. These books go well together since they both visit the idea of cloud shapes.  The main difference is that "spilt milk" story has more shapes to look at and identify, and it doesn't tell you it is talking about clouds until the very end of the book. If you are not familiar with this book you can check out the youtube link below to see a video of it being read.

Our pre-k group consists of 3-4 three year old boys with communicative disorders. They are high energy kiddos. Our main focus with these boys is teaching them how to interact appropriately with one another: sharing toys, playing together, requesting items (instead of grabbing out of the other child's hands), waiting, taking turns, sitting in a short circle time (without hitting, kicking, getting up, etc.), and attending/participating in the story time.  So I will choose some of the easiest activities that will work with short attention spans.

Here are some of the targets/goals that can be readily pulled from this book:

• Perceptual skills: Let the kids look at the pictures and guess the shapes.  Most of the shapes will be easy to guess.  Add to this, if desired, by making your own additional shapes out of tagboard or felt pieces.  Can use a grab bag to pull out shapes and decide what they might be.
• Vocabulary:  Naming the items in the book or game (above).
• Categorization:  Group items - What animal shapes were in the book? What food shapes, etc?
• Articulation:  /l/ sound - "looks like".  Any sound can be addressed if you add an appropriate carrier phrase.  You could also follow up the book by having the children make their own take home books and add the criteria that all of their cloud pics contain their target sounds. (Ex. /s/ blends - skate, skunk, spider, snail, smoke....). They can practice in single words by naming pics or in sentences by inserting the target into the repetitive text. A fun oral motor game (found in the Preschool Express link below):  Use Straws and cotton balls to play a game of "blowing the cloud around the table". (Or, if you are really brave, blow white paint around on blue paper).
• Repetitive text / Verbal expression:  "It looked like a (car) but it wasn't a (car)."  This allows the child to fill in the new word in the first and/or second slot, similar to an early cloze exercise.  It also makes it easier for the child to learn the carrier phrase which is actually a compound sentences 10 words in length. 
• Grammatical skills:  Highlight (say with added emphasis) any grammatical target needed: 

                Articles:  a car.
                Pronouns:  it
                Past tense verb:  looked, wasn't
                Negation:  was not - teach about negation
                Conjunction: but - introduce "but" as a contrasting idea. 
                Temporal concept / adverb: Sometimes - can discuss the difference
                    between "always" and "sometimes" in the context that the cloud
                    changes shape.

Art activities:
Tear paper into shapes.
Glob white paint on paper and see what shapes you end up with.
Glob white paint on blue paper, fold and decide what shape emerges.
Shaving cream paint:  One of my new favorites!  Mix equal parts shaving cream
   and Elmer's glue, stir, and paint.  Dries like a white puffy paint.  Great for clouds.
   Can also do the folded paper trick with this.
Stamping clouds:  Use large stampers (I know have these somewhere) and use white
   paint to stamp shapes onto blue paper.
Tracing shapes:  Best for older kids.  Trace around tagboard or other shapes.
Cotton Balls:  Can fill in the shapes with cotton balls.

Sensory Play:
Shaving cream:  Use bare hands to move shaving cream into shapes. Change shapes  
      into other shapes.
White playdoh or clay:  shape into the book shapes.
Finger paint white shapes.
Pull batting or pillow filler material into cloud shapes. Can even glue onto tag.
Pinterest: One of my friends pinned this recip e and it looks perfect to go along with this book.  Use 8 cups of flour mixed with 1 cup of baby oil. Makes a really soft "moon sand" for sculpting clouds and such.

Songs:
The Wind Moves the Clouds  (tune of "The Farmer in the Dell")
The wind moves the clouds,
The wind moves the clouds,
And when it does they change their shape,
The wind moves the clouds.

Clouds are Floating  (to the tune of Frere Jacques)
Clouds are floating, clouds are floating,
Up so high, up so high,
Floating up above us, floating up above us,
In the sky, in the sky.

CLOUD RIDDLE

What is fluffy?
What is white?
What can you see
When skies are bright?
What can float?
What brings rain?
What may be higher?
Than a bird or plane?
Say it loud:
CLOUD!

* You could also make up riddles about the shapes:
What is furry?
What is white?
What has long ears?
What can hop?
RABBIT

Science: Make a Cloud
1. Need hot water (not boiling), glass bottle, thin piece of cloth, rubber band, crushed ice.
2. Pour hot (not boiling) water into a glass bottle. When the bottle becomes hot, pour out all but one inch of water.
3. Stretch a thin piece of cloth over the mouth of the bottle and fasten it with a rubber band.
4. Place crushed ice on top of the cloth. Have children observe the cloud that forms as the warm air meets the cold.

Links: Check out the links below for more great ideas.

youtube video story

Preschool Express Cloud Theme

Story patterns at Kidzclub.com

Weather Wiz Kids info about clouds

Clouds Power Point Displays for those who really want to dive into clouds with older kids.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This is a terrific book to use for a Springtime theme. Here are some of the language development concepts I have pulled out of this book:

• Sequencing events: first, second, third, next, last...
• Counting 1-5
• Learning days of the week
• Life cycle of the butterfly: Get a butterfly house, find or buy some caterpillars and watch the life cycle as they grow
• Concept "through": I made large versions of the fruits in the story and cut a hole in the middle of each one.  I use a plastic caterpillar and have the children pass it through the hole along with the story.  A fun follow up activity is to play with a fabric tunnel and crawl through it.
• Basic sentence structures: It eats..., it is eating...,  it ate..., he/she, etc.
• Food groups: Fruits, Sweets, etc.
• Articulation: multi-syllabic words, medial sounds, any target when using an appropriate carrier phrase.
• Expressive Language: Retell the story with props such as plastic caterpillar, butterfly, or felt board pieces.  A good activity would be to use some of the printables available online to make a take home book for the children.
• Arts & Craft activities are unlimited. Check a few of my links below or simply Google a few.
• Snack ideas:  Make caterpillar shaped foods.  Pinterest is a good source for these.  Children with ASD are especially picky eaters and this might be a good time to attempt to have them pretend to be the caterpillar and nibble on the foods in the story.

There are tons of online resources.  Here are a few that I have "mined".

• http://www.teachingheart.net/veryhungrycaterpillar.html Find a wealth of activities and links here.
• http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/hungrycaterpillar/index.htm Sequencing pics, feltboard pieces and other activities.
• http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/Caterpillar_Lesson.pdf Lesson plans with pics for days of week and foods eaten on Saturday.
• http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/TheVeryHungryCaterpillar.html More printables

Pinterest has a wealth of treasures for this book as well.  Just go to the search bar and type in "very hungry caterpillar" and tons of great activities will appear.

One of the best activities we ever did (think I will do it again this year) is to actually raise some caterpillars until they become butterflies.  I purchased a net house like this:

More info on ordering and raising caterpillars can be found here:

http://www.thebutterflysite.com/rearing.shtml

and here:

http://www.wikihow.com/Raise-Butterflies

Here is a great video of the life cycle of a Monarch butterfly

Youtube Link

It is always fun to follow up a story with other theme related books, fiction and nonfiction.

          

And, if seasonal, why not take a little walk outside to see if you can find a caterpillar or a butterfly in your yard.

Easter Egg Hunt Fun

We love those plastic Easter eggs at The Speech House.  There is not a more versatile and inexpensive therapy tool to be found!  I have been known to pull them out anytime during the year for a quick and fun therapy lesson.  Most of my ideas are pretty intuitive to anyone who has worked as an SLP for awhile.  But, if you are new, or a parent, who needs some ideas to get you started, here are a few ways to use them:

1. Classic Easter Egg hunt:  Fill eggs with candy, small toys, stickers, etc.  Hide them and have clients find them.  When it is time to open them, require a speech or language target such as a carrier phrase or sentence.  If working on /f/ sound, it could be, "I found a blue egg."  You can figure out a phrase for any target to require articulating prior to opening the egg. 

2.  Fill the eggs with small toys or pictures that represent speech targets: /b/ - bee, ball, baby, bug, bell, bow, etc.  After eggs are collected, open them up and tell what was found inside, make sentences with the targets, tell something about the item (to make a language task). 

3.  Get duplicates of all kinds of decorated eggs and work on matching "same" eggs.

4.  Have a variety of eggs to work on descriptive vocabulary.  I have eggs that are shiny, sparkly, pearly, spotted, striped, flowery, small, medium, large, etc.  I will ask the child to give me a sparkly orange egg and I will then fill it and put in the basket (receptive language).  Or I will have the child tell me which egg to choose (expressive language).

5.  I will hide the eggs completely out of sight and the child will have to follow my directions to find them.  This is especially good for working on positional concepts:  Look "behind" the desk, or "under" the pillow, or "between" the desk and the file cabinet...

6.  Play "hot" & "cold" to teach an abstract way of finding eggs.

7.  For social skills work, play "follow my eye gaze to find the hidden egg". 

8.  For older children, have "treasure hunts".  Follow clues to figure out where clues are hidden.  You can use riddles or descriptions:  "I am hiding in a dark and cold place.  The light comes on when you open the door.  I am beside some milk." (Refrigerator)

9.  For Social Groups, have the group work together to decipher the clues or have one child find one part of the clue and then they have to share their clues to figure out the location of the egg cache.  One way to do this is to write or draw the final location on tagboard, cut up into puzzle pieces and have each child earn a piece of the puzzle.

10.  For higher level students, let them figure out hiding places for eggs.  Then they have to write their own clues.  This can be tricky for some kids because they may have trouble with being too concrete or being too vague with their clues. 

I will add more ideas as they come to mind.  Readers please share your ideas too by adding them in the comments section.  I know there are many other ideas out there!

At The Speech House we are planning on having lots of egg hunts next week.  Since it is usually more fun to do in groups, we plan on having each therapist bring her client together with other clients to join in small hunts outside. 

Spring is in the Air... Part Deux

Just when I thought I would scream if I had to endure another cold and gray day (cold in East Texas means below 60 degrees).... I awoke to a beautiful day full of sunshine.  What a sorely needed gift to my blighted mood!  This of course turns my thoughts to Spring themes....

I plan to ponder this idea as my week progresses and I will add to this blog.  But until then, here is a link to Spring is in the Air (Part one).

I never actually got to do the gardening theme last year (my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer in March and my life went into survival mode; thankfully we have been blessed and he is doing well.)  So... I am really thinking maybe I WILL put in the extra efforts toward this project this year.  We shall see....

Spring is in the Air

Today started out cloudy and windy.  The forecast included a tornado watch.  Late afternoon grew dark just before the cloudburst.  Then the skies became a clear blue with the sunshine streaming through.  Ah, Spring is well on its way!  My thoughts were, "Let it rain!"  I could almost envision the rain rejuvenating the grass and plants outside.  The advent of Spring is revealing all kinds of treasures around our new home at the Speech House.  A few weeks ago, masses of Papewhites appeared, now the daffodils are beginning to bloom, and I am pretty sure I have spied at least two dozen Amaryllis (at least, I think that is what those strong flat leaves poking up out of the soil will become).  I stopped by Lowe's and picked up a few tulips to add to the bed under the tulip tree.  No wonder my thoughts of lesson plans are turning to Springtime themes. I perused my Spring Books to try to decide what to use this year with my clients. There are so many fun themes to choose from.

Gardening Themes:  Spring is a time of renewal for all things green, is a great time to discuss plants and growth cycles.  One of the things that can be done is to plant a garden (My First Garden):  Now that we are in our Speech House, I am seriously considering making a full fledged "mini" garden.  I have already been asked, "And why would you want to do that?" (translation: "Wouldn't that be a lot of extra work you already don't have time for?" To which the answer would be, "yes!")  It seems like a fun idea and a good excuse to take some therapy sessions outdoors. Although I am unsure if I will tackle this project this year, here are some of my thoughts on goals and objectives:

1.  Sensory:  sunshine, dirt, water, smells, and after things grow, taste and texture (feeding issues).   The kids could get dirty scratching around the soil, planting seeds, watering them, and eating the product of their labor. 
2. Vocabulary:  Plenty of opportunities to learn new words from pre-k to teens:  parts of plants, fruits, vegetables, gardening tools, science from germination to photosynthesis, weather, ...
3.  Language & Verbal Expression: My philosopy is that experiential learning is the best kind:  Requesting, discussing, describing, instructing, sequencing.... Use children's literature for whole language learning experiences.

Of course, there are other fun plant activities that do not require making your own garden (easier too):

• Planting seeds in a cup and watching them grow.
• Using an egg carton and planting grass seed into an eggshell (combines Spring and Easter).  Crack the top 1/4 to 1/3 off of an egg, remove egg, fill with soil, plant seed, draw on a face, the seed grow to be "hair" and the kids can then give it a haircut.
• Place a wet napkin or paper towel in a plastic baggie.  Drop in a bean.  Tape to a sunny window.  As the bean sprouts, the clear bag allows the forming of roots and shoots to be observed.  Dampen the paper towel as needed.  Can transplant to a cup or pot later.

Other plant themed activies:

• Make a picture with various seeds/beans.
• Make flowers with construction paper or tissue paper:  create a construction paper flower or vegetable garden on one wall of the room.
• Make prints with cut up potatoes, apples, etc.

 Many thanks to SpeechTechie.com for finding these virtual links:

• Virtual Garden 
• Sensory Garden

Literature Links:  Check out these book links to find plenty of resources for fun lessons and activities.

 

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming

Mortimer's First Garden by Karma Wilson

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

Dandelion Adventures by Patricia Kite

                              

Weather:  Little Cloud by Eric Carle:  This is a great unit for this time of year when weather is changing dramatically from cold to warmer, from windy and rain to bluer skies and fair weather, making cloud watching an interesting experience.  Summertime is also a good time to use this book when there are warm lazy days, although where I live it gets really hot very quickly and the bright summer sun can make cloud watching more difficult (sun shades required).  There are some wonderful links to this unit on my Facebook page.  I have bookmarked a number of online sites with great photos of clouds so the children can work on stretching their imaginations to see cloud shapes.  This is particulary good for the child on the Autism spectrum or who tends to be a more concrete thinker.  There is also one resource that actually fills in line drawing around a cloud shape when scrolled over to assist those who simply cannot perform this task.  I borrowed from that idea by printing out several awesome cloud shapes, inserted them in clear plastic page protector, and outlined the shape with a sharpie marker.  I show the picture to the child and give him the opportunity to figure it out on his own.  If he cannot, I place the sleeve over the photo to assist him.  Lots of fun. The most interesting effect is that once the cloud is shown in outline, you can remove the line drawing and the brain recognizes the image on its own. 

Once I cut large cloud shapes out of poster board and glued batting over them and hung them around the office.  This way the kids could play the cloud shapes game while waiting for their session.  Another related ativity is on one of the Caillou computer games which has a cloud shapes game on the disk. 

Craft activties abound:
Tear out shapes from white paper and glue to a blue backround.
Paint white clouds on blue.  Can even inkblot them by folding the paper.
Cotton ball or batting clouds.
Sponge painted clouds
Clouds with raindrops dangling down
Eric Carle inspired:  Paint some paper with a mixture of color and texture and cut our cloud shapes.

Critters:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert
Watch Me Grow Butterfly a DK book

Are You My Mother?  by P.D. Eastman

Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood
Old Bear by Kevin Henkes

The quintessential bug of Spring is the caterpillar!  So many great books and lessons about caterpillars and butterflies.  There are TONS of online crafts and activities; you only have to Google a few moments to glean more than enough.  Click my book link for a few I found.  Likewise, the butterfly books abound.  Choose your favorites.  One great activity is to get one of those butterfly net/hatcheries and order some painted lady butterflies.  So great to watch them grow and become butterflies.

Baby birds, baby animals.... Spring is the time of newborns! Any baby animal books are sure to be a hit.

Crickets and other bugs:  These can go with Spring or with Summer.  On second thought, I might save crickets for the lazy summer nights.

If you like this blog, check back as I will be adding more Spring ideas as I come upon them.  Instead of writing a lot of blogs, I like to compile resources as much as possible.  It helps me find things when I need them!