Preschool Week Day 4: Bag of Tricks!

Ok everyone…get excited!  This post is going to be a little lengthy but AMAZING!  I’ve got some fabulous bloggers ready to share their favorite toys, games, or activities that they have found useful when working with preschoolers.  Today we’ll be hearing from Carrie’s Speech Corner, Speech Room News, Communication Station, Let’s Talk SLP, and [simply speech]!  Can’t wait to take a peek into their bag of tricks! 

I wish I could tell you which one is my favorite, but they are all great!  Today I’ll show you a little more of “Old McDonald.”  All of the books come with interactive pieces, a board to place the pieces on, Velcro Dots to attach the pieces, and a communication board:

I like to start with the pieces in the book.  We remove them as we read the story and place them on the story board.  The first time through the story, we focus on imitating the vocabulary words/animal sounds.  After I finish this story with the kids, we go through it again (“to clean up”).  This time, I target receptive vocabulary identification, asking the students to find a specified image and return it to the book.

These books have simple text and clear illustrations.  The interactive pieces are awesome for sustaining the attention of the little guys!  I think they are a must have for any SLP working in a preschool setting!
You can find more information on the books HERE.

There are lots of different sets. I found the alphabet, instrument, and animal sets at Goodwill last summer. There are lots of different goals to target. This little friend and I were working on expressing single words paired with signs (for animals and colors). Of course we built towers and crashed them down! Perfect for 1, 2, 3, go! If you hold the bag of items, you can have the students requesting for each block. The kids just don’t get tired of building towers! 

Jenna Rayburn, MA, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist. Follow her at SpeechRoomNews.blogspot.com

1. Put articulation cards inside Ned. Let students take turns pulling out a card. Then they practice the word or make up a sentence for the word.
2. Put your own objects in Ned’s Head. Have the student reach in and grab one object. Without taking it out, he/she has to describe the object (it’s bumpy, it have 4 corners, it is soft, etc) and the other students have to guess what the object is! Great for expressive language and adjectives!
3. Working on letter names and sounds? Place plastic letters in Ned’s Head and have your kids draw out letters one at a time. They can find the match on a separate sheet, tell you the letter name and sound, or find an object that goes with the letter.
4. Working on vocabulary? Put laminated pictures of target words inside Ned’s Head. Have the students name the picture when they pull it out.
5. I created a sentence template to use with articulation cards. My sentence says “I found a ______ in Ned’s Head.” The students draw out an object or word card (depending on the target goal) and fill in the blank. This is good for working on complete sentences and articulation.

Blog: www.kcummingsslp.blogspot.com   

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Brea, Let’s Talk Speech-Language Pathology

One of my favorite preschool activities is the Animal Buddies game. This game features four animals: monkey, dog, rabbit, and elephant. Included in the game are four food items for each animal to eat – a banana for the monkey, a carrot for the rabbit, a peanut for the elephant, and a bone for the dog. The purpose of the game is to feed the animal the correct food item.

This game is so versatile that you can use it with any group. My articulation kids like to say their word/sound 5 times and then “earn” a food item (I pick it randomly out of the bag). Then the student can feed the correct animal the food. My language kids like to also “earn” a food item by using pronouns correctly, identifying prepositions, using word endings appropriately, etc.

I also have pictures printed of each food item. Sometimes I will bring the pictures out, and then instead of earning a random food item, the student will flip over one of the pictures and get that food item. To work on sight words, I will put the words (“bone” and “carrot”, etc.) on a spinner and have the student spin the spinner. If he or she can read the correct word, then he/she wins that food item!

My students also love to be silly and have the animal eat the wrong food. I allow this if we have played the game before and they know what the correct food is for each animal. They think it is HILARIOUS to see the rabbit eat a bone and a monkey eat a carrot. I’ve even taught them to make little “nom nom nom” noises when the animal eats the food. There are SO many things you can do with this game, and that is why it’s one of my favorite games to play!

Written by: Brea from Let’s Talk Speech-Language Pathology

www.letstalkslp.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/LetsTalkSLP

Thanks so much for sharing, ladies!!  Be sure to visit their pages and give them a like!  

What do y’all think?  What kinds of things are in YOUR bag of tricks??  🙂