{Looking Ahead} One Last Winter Hoorah

I missed doing a post last week. Eh, it happens. It's hard to know what to plan when it feels like Spring, but it's still Winter. So, I winged it. That means for game day, I opened my cabinet and let each group decide what they wanted to do. Since most of my materials are at 1 school, my mountain school kids didn't have the luxury of choosing their activity, so I took Hi Ho! Cherry O! with me; and they loved it!
This is the week before Spring Break, even though it's technically still Winter. We're out for St. Patrick's Day (as always), so I decided to give Winter one last "hoorah". I'm centering this week's activities around the book Snowmen All Year. Speech Made Simple has a packet that has me covered for the whole week.

5 Minute Day

The students produce their target "x" amount of times, then roll the dice. After that, they can use the cute winter stamps that a friend sent me to stamp that number of snowmen.

Concepts

This little activity is great for basic concepts: following direction and expressive concepts. Just have the students put the winter item (so what if some are Christmas items? I have a feeling they aren't going to care!) in a certain place on the picture (beside, on, under, over...you get the idea!). After he has created his picture, ask him where certain items are. I don't let my students get away with saying, "Right there." When they say that, I usually tell them that I don't know where "right there" is, so he needs to use his words. 

Game Day

The companion packet has me covered for game day! Speech Made Simple included an open-ended game. Students produce their targets "x" number of times, spin the spinner, then move the game piece. The 1st one to the snowman is the winner.

Additional Activities
Last week, I pulled out some "oldies but goodies". I have a few students working on following directions using paper and crayon/pencil, and they have really been struggling with Listening for Basic Concepts All Year 'Round. So, I grabbed a couple of books I've had for a while:

 This one uses concepts, so it really fits my needs well.

I had one student read the directions and follow them. The directions are a bit easier, but the activities increase in difficulty later in the book.

The above is a page out of Easy Stories for Grammar and Basic Concepts by Academic Communication Associates. I completely forgot I had this, but it worked well with my students. It has a short story followed by questions for the student to answer to work on grammar and basic concepts, as well as answering questions following a short story. 

Good ol' Matt & Molly! Another good one for answer yes/no questions and "wh" questions after a short story is read. I downloaded the free apps, but my students went through those fairly quickly, especially the "wh" questions since there are choices. I'm not sure if the paid app gives the options of no choices. An SLP who was at the school before me had quite a few of the stories, so I made sure those weren't thrown away when I cleaned up the first time I was at this certain school. They are coming in very handy!

Another book I forgot about! Not only is this one good for answering questions, but it's also great for teaching students to read visual cues. I can't believe I forgot about this one! My students who are working on beginning inferences have started working with this book. What a treasure! The student has to look at the big picture and answer questions about it. Then,they color part of the picture according to your very simple description. (Example: The grass and the plant leaves are the same color as the trees. What color will you use?)

Then, there are 2 smaller pictures. The student looks at both of them and answers questions about how they are the same/different. 

Is there a Spring Break in your future?