Small St. Patrick's Day Collection

It's hard to believe it's almost March!  I'll be in London before I know it.  Yep, the tickets are bought--come March 28, it'll be Big Ben, the Changing of the Guard, and London geocaching.  I'm ready!

So, back to speech therapy, and thematic materials---over the years, I've developed a little collection of St. Patrick's Day materials and ideas, so here they are.  Kids don't really understand the whole St. Patrick's Day thing, so this collection is small.........but fun!   Enjoy!

Shamrocks Everywhere--printable book

St. Patrick's Prepositions Bingo

Clovers for Me and You--adapted book

A Streamer Rainbow--Printable Directions and communication board











That's it!   Have fun!




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Clovers for Me and You---printable adapted book

February is almost over!!!!   Sorry to tell you folks up north, but our daffodils are blooming, and onion grass is sprouting. It's sweater weather again, and recess is no longer painful.

Now I'm jumping ahead to St. Patrick's day.  None of my kids understand it, and in fact, I really don't know why we think about it; however, I like green and green is symbolic of spring.   Let's just do it!

I love Tarheel Reader, and found a cute book (Clovers for me and you) there.  You can check it out, but I did download it, and altered it a bit, and then added icons for kids to match and build two word combinations.  The original book obviously was not mine, and I didn't take the great photos.  It's available for download on Tarheel Reader, and you can also check out the adapted version here on my website!  I really appreciate the person who created the original!

flickr

Click here to download the book and icons

Use this with your kids.  Report back, leave a comment; that will make me happy.

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Bears Everywhere---Free printable book

I have a child on my caseload who is obsessed with bears.  Without a bears-related activity, this darling is very busy doing everything except the assigned task. Give him a 'bear craft' or a 'bear book' and he is attentive, behaves, and communicates.  For our speech/OT group, we have decided to have a bears theme for next week, so I've whipped up a book that will capture our boy's interest and keep him at the table.  Use the icons however you need to---some of my kids don't need them, while others are at the matching level.  I have some of the children use the sentence strip to help combine words.

It's patterned off of my older books---why change a good thing?  We have set up a joint action routine!

Click here to download in pdf

Click here to download in Boardmaker

Title page

icons and sentence strip (blue)

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Joey and Jet---another preposition book!

I'm amassing a lot of materials targeting prepositions and in a couple of days, I'll send out a 'preposition collection'.   The latest find is a children's book called "Joey and Jet" by James Yang.

From Amazon: "Joey (a boy) and Jet (his dog) have a simple adventure that is enhanced by a digital format. Joey, a round-headed kid (think Charlie Brown for the twenty-first century) has a ball. His black-and-white dog (yes, a little Snoopy-like) watches as Joey tosses it. Jet chases it--among the birds, through the trees, on the water, up and down the hill. Jet finally brings the ball back, only to have Joey throw it again. Intensely visual, this also provides a way for children to get the feel of prepositions, which are in boldface, and the way they relate to space: the ball goes between tables and over the roof. But it's the artwork that's the draw here. Using digital pen-and-ink, Yang has created simple yet intriguing landscapes. For instance, trees are black crooked lines overlaid with lime-green leaves set against a mottled-orange background. Groups of tables and chairs are identical, but their 1950s shapes and colors make them standouts. Fun to look at, this is a clever, energetic romp."

I've used this book in the past, and am using it this week with some kindergarteners in language therapy.  It's great for prepositions beyond 'on' and 'under' and it ties in a cute plot and characters.  Check out these pages---

 The language is simple, the pictures are engaging, and you can reenact chasing scenes in your speech rooms.  I love it.

This book is available on Amazon, but I got my copy at the public library.  You don't always need to spend your hard-earned dollars!

I made a few printable icons to go with this book.  I have to say that Boardmaker did not have an icon for 'among', so since the book's example was 'among the birds',  I just used bird icons. 

Click here to download the icons in Boardmaker

Click here to download the icons in pdf


It's never too early to read to a baby.  Here's my husband and our cute granddaughter.  So what if it's the Wall Street Journal!

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Peace Corps Tidbits--Volcano and English Camp

There haven't been huge amounts of photos from Indonesia lately.  You might recall that last April, my daughter, Andorra, traveled to Indonesia for a 27 month stint with the Peace Corps.  You can check out the posts about that here, here, and here.

The most recent news is that her town of Madiun is now sprinkled with volcanic ash from a major eruption of Gunung Kelud--a volcano also on East Java.  She's totally safe (volcano is 100 km away) and has posted  pictures of the fine ash layer around her place, along with everyone's coping with it all. The students apparently were sent home early from school---literally a 'volcano' day. 

Andorra says that masks are necessary because the ash hardens with moisture (you want to keep it out of your lungs.)  She also said that Peace Corps volunteers closer to the volcano were evacuated. 

Other photos from recent weeks are below:

Her Bali vacation!

English camp girls

Working at an English camp: "Helped out at an English camp this weekend. Not my school, unfortunately, but I'm glad I could be a part of it! There were 10 schools and ~100 students. Activities included some games of 20 questions, English performances (singing and plays) and school cheers and speeches. Also, a nice hike to a nearby park. And, of course, they were very excited to have me there! Next year maybe we can get more volunteers in on this."

English camp

I'll leave you with this stunning picture from the Wired Science website.  Although the US actually has more volcanoes than Indonesia, theirs seem more active.  There is the one today and there is another active one on the island of Sumatra. I feel that the Peace Corps would never let their volunteers work in danger, so for now, the sense of adventure and  the science of all of this intrigues me.

volcanic lightning at Gunung Kelud

 

Around the House the Fox Chased the Mouse--free printables

I get all excited when I find a new book to use with my kids.  Today, the new book was "Around the House the Fox Chased the Mouse: A Prepositional Tale".  I looked for this book on Amazon, and it seems to not to be offered there for a reasonable price, but the link to Google Play is here.  I also found a copy of the hardback book at our local library, and the book is also available here.  A little looking will lead you to this book if you really want it, and it is a great one!

From Google Play: "This frolicking adventure teaches children about prepositions as they follow a very focused fox in his chase for a mischievous mouse. Kids will love learning what a preposition is and how it can connect words together when they see the fox chase the mouse around the house, under the fence, into the barn, out the window, and even through the chicken coop. Using additional learning activities at the end of the book, children can then apply what they've learned." 

How did I use the book?   

 I used Boardmaker to create icons for key words.  There are only a few words per page and each page focuses on a different preposition.  First, read the book with the child.  

• Following that, you can use these icons how you want---simple matching, or cover the words with sticky notes after previewing the book, and  then have the child find the correct preposition.  You can also cover the words and see if the child can produce a sentence for the page.

 

Cover the words after previewing with the child.  This is 'between the signs'

• For kids who need it, you can demonstrate the difference using the icons of the 'fox chasing the mouse' vs 'the mouse chasing the fox'.  The story is a game of tag, with the fox doing the chasing first. Roles reverse at the end.  

• You can also demonstrate the various prepositions using the icons and your furniture in your room.  (e.g. Make the mouse run across the table.  Make the mouse run beneath the chair.)

• One other cute aspect of the book is the different facial expressions on the animals showing their feelings of confusion, fear, and surprise. 

If you would like the icons for this book, click the download below.

Icons in Boardmaker to download

Icons in pdf to download

across the field past confused cows

some, not all, of the icons

Not to go off topic, but how's your weather?  We have a snow day tomorrow!