Polar Bear - Day One

"Polar Bear, Polar Bear" is another one of my favorite books by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle.  Like "Brown Bear" it has predictable text that makes it perfect for beginning readers.  Using this book I like to work on the names of the animals, the sight words "I", "a" and "hear" and sentence structure.

When I do this book I usually spend an entire week on it, concentrating on something different each day, while building on the knowledge gained from the day before.  On day one, we use the "I hear a...." board and a copy of the book.

We start by reading the story several times, taking note of the animals and the sounds they make.  Most of the children have heard this story before and are familiar with it but they may be unfamiliar with the sounds of some of the animals.  We often go to the internet to hear the real animals.

Once I'm sure that the children are comfortable with the story,  I have them make the sentence "I hear a ......." as I read each page.   At first I model the sentence along with them and then as they become more confident, they can do it by themselves. For children that cannot pick up the pieces, I hold them up and have them use eye gaze to make a choice.

Even at this early stage we work on punctuation. 

To finish up on the first day, I have the children make a little book to take home or I send it home for homework if we run out of time.  I have a couple of different versions depending on the abilities of my students.  One, they just need to color, the second is a "fill in the blank" and in the last one the children need to trace the animal word.  Sometimes we mix and match the pages.  I have each student complete a page and we make a class book.

4 ways to help children with speech difficulties in the classroom

Do you have a child with speech difficulties in your class?  There seems to be a much greater prevalence of speech disabilities among young children these days.  Not all qualify for speech therapy but those that do often have to wait months or years on waiting lists (at least in our area).

Let's take a closer look.

What does the speech child look like?

They may have articulation problems.  They may leave off beginning sounds, ending sounds or substitute sounds in their speech.  They may demonstrate disfluency (stutter), that is, they may repeat a beginning sound, word or several words at the beginning of a sentence.  They may be speaking at a single word level or have no speech at all.

They may.......

* demonstrate inappropriate behaviour due to their frustration level

* be self-conscious if they have an awareness that they don't talk like their peers

* they may have poor language skills (but this is not always the case)

They may try.....

Repeating themselves over and over

Give up all together and rarely talk 

If your student is involved with a speech pathologist, please consult them before implementing any strategies.  If your student is still on a waiting list here are 4 strategies that you can try in the classroom.

1.  Children are often very excited to tell us a story.  When they come up to us out of the blue and start talking, for the unfamiliar listener, a child with a speech difficulty can be virtually impossible to decipher.  When you don't know the topic, you don't have any reference to start figuring out the conversation.  One resource we have found helpful in the classroom is a clarification board.

With a clarification board you can ask the child "who" questions.  

"Who are you talking about?"

"Your family?", "A friend?" etc.

Wait for conformation and/or move on to where.

"Are you talking about something that happened at school?"

Continuing using the board to narrow down the scope of what the child is trying to tell you.  Below is an example of might a clarification board might look like.

2.  Augmentation communication boards are essential for children with little to no speech.  In our classroom setting we have moved to CORE boards.  CORE boards contain high frequency words.  These words can be used in different situations and with a variety of people.  CORE words make up about 80% of the words that we use everyday.  Fringe words can added to the boards.  These are words that are specific to locations or situations.  The CORE board featured below is available for free from the Minspeak website 

3. Children using augmentative systems need lots of exposure to the symbol set they are using.  We put symbols up all the room, and use them on a daily basis.  Seeing everyone using symbols helps the children realize that this is "normal" and an acceptable way to communicate.  The picture featured below uses Pixon symbols.

4.  Using visual schedules is another great way to incorporate symbols into your classroom.  They can be used to schedule the day, part of the day or a single activity.  They can be used for the whole class, such as the whole day schedule or they can be individualized for particular children for certain activities or routines throughout the day, such as a bathroom routine.

I hope I've given you a few ideas that you can take back to your classroom and implement with students in your class that have speech difficulties.  

Science Saturday - Bouncy Popcorn Kernels

For today's Science Saturday I thought I would highlight a science experiment that is easy to do, doesn't require a lot of items and is easy to incorporate some core vocabulary into.

Bouncy Popcorn Kernels  are fun to watch.

You will need:

A clear container - I used a vase

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Popcorn Kernels

Water

Spoon

Communication Board - this is one I used from Minspeak

I started by showing the children the items we were going to use and asked them "what", "do", "this"?

"What are we going to do with this?"

It's important to use a communication board yourself so that the children see one in use.

We can't expect children to do something they don't see us doing.

We start with the container (It doesn't matter that we don't have the exact picture of what we are using.  We use what the children have to describe what we are using/doing) and fill it with water.

We added a tablespoon of baking soda and stirred it up.

We talked about what we needed to use to stir the water up.

We "put" in the kernels.  Just enough to cover the bottom.

Then we added some vinegar.  I found using a small measuring cup easier than a spoon for children with fine motor issues (less spillage).

We "look"ed to see what happened to the kernels.

We took "turns" looking a the popcorn and seeing what was going on in the container.

Everyone said they "like"d it.

We let it sit and kept looking at it throughout the day.  After awhile, the popcorn stopped moving and most of it settled on the bottom.

Even an hour later, the odd kernel was still going up or down.

Keep your words simple and model for the children the vocabulary you want them to use.  Before you know it, they will be using some of the words on their own.  Try doing an activity of own.  What simple combination of words could you use to talk about what you are doing?

Have Fun!

Bear Sees Colors - Day Three

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It's day 3 of our "Bears Sees Colors" unit.  

On this day we are introducing Characters.

I showed the children this poster of the characters in the book.

We then talked about the characters being the "Who" in the story.

As we read the story, we posted pictures of the animals on a chart.

Once we finished the chart I had the children make individual books.

I had coloured and black and white pictures printed off for the children depending on the skills of the child.

For my students that have fine motor skills, I had them colour in the pictures.

I laid them out beside the book so they had a choice to pick from.

Some children could handle 5 choices, and some could only handle 2. 

As the children completed their book, I had them read the sentence to me.

When the children were finished, they took their books home to read to their families.

Don't forget to grab the book.  You are going to need it for these activities.