Monday, September 30, 2019

Farm Animals Come to Speech - 25+ Links

While labeling farm animals is not a functional
communication skill for those students with no or
limited expressive language, the language taught
while playing with the barn and animals can
be functional across all environments. Use core
vocabulary words and phrases such as go, in,
out, eat, walk, run, go in, you get,
and want drink
The farm animal theme has always been one of my favorites to use in therapy. Below you will find 25+ links to therapy activity ideas covering a wide range of speech and language goals. 

I like 5 Language Goals to Target with a Farm Set from Teach Talking.com

The post by Dabbling Speechie, Farm Themed Speech Therapy Toys and Materials, is full of good ideas. 

Read Talk with Derby's How to Use Farm Toys for Speech  

Look at WhitneySLP's room transformation on Down on the Speech Farm.

Allison Fors tells how she uses a toy farm in speech therapy at WHY YOU SHOULD BE USING A TOY FARM IN SPEECH THERAPY and click on this link to see her FREE Interactive Book.

Play the Animal Fun Game at Fisher-Price.com. Use a switch and switch interface to access this game and 11 other infant games. 

Play Peg + Cat's Chicken Coop at PBS.org while working on spatial concepts. This would be a great game played on a whiteboard. Don't let the students move the chickens. To increase language opportunities, have your students to tell YOU where to put the chickens.  Note there are 100 chickens to move. Instead of trying to move all of the chickens, set a timer - How many chickens did you move in five minutes? ten minutes?

Look at 5 Fabulous Farm Books for Speech Therapy from the My Speech Tools blog. She describes these read alouds, gives suggestions for language and literacy activities as well as vocabulary suggestions. 

Books for Teaching About Farms and Farm Animals for grades PreK, 1, and 2 can be found at Scholastic.com.


These apps were found at the Apple Store. The lite version
is free and the full version is $1.99. The full version is also
available at Amazon and Google Play. This app would go
well with the "Who's behind the barn door?" activity.
 You may want to consider watching the FREE
four-minute video of the Peekaboo Barn app on YouTube.

MORE - Farm Pic for Peekaboo Barn App (TpT) Free
It's easy to make 1234 More Storytimes's Flannel Friday: Who's Behind the Barn Door?  Use flannel or paper. For a no-prep activity, use your plastic farm animals and a barn. AND, a post at Buggy and Buddy has a similar FREE printable. Teach core vocabulary who, what, open, and behind.

Facilitate language using sensory bins. At Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls, see a farm sensory bin with a corn silo that really loads a tractor.  Another creative blogger planted grass in her sensory table. Visit The Thoughtful Spot Day Care to see her farm complete with grass! 

The Farmyard Jamboree, by Margaret Read MacDonald, is inspired by a Chilean folk tale and introduces members of a family along with a new farmyard animal and an animal baby on every page. This video, by Barefoot Books, would be a great follow-up activity. 

Teach core vocabulary words "who" and "not" while singing Who Took The Cookie? (Farm Animals Version) from Super Simple Songs.

Kizclub.com has story props for Old Macdonald Had a FarmThe Very Busy SpiderThe Farmer in the DellThe Cow Who Clucked, Cows in the Kitchen, Where is the Green Sheepand Rosie's Walk


Sing Old MacDonald had a Farm and model the core words here and there. Use the story props from Kizclub or your own farm animal props. So much language can be modeled while playing with the FREE app Old MacDonald Had a Farm HD from Duck Duck Moose LLC (Apple Store).

Play a stop and go game while pretending to be farm animals (fly, swim, crawl, walk, moo, etc.). One example of this type of game can be found at PreKinders (see Horse Stop and Go). FREE masks can be printed at Life Over C's (you must subscribe to the newsletter to print the masks).  

There are many good ideas for farm theme activities on Make Learning Fun.com

Look at my post, Target Language Skills with Mr. GumpyI've used John Burningham's predictable book, Mr. Gumpy's Outing, in therapy many times. It's a simple book about children and farm animals who take a ride in Mr. Gumpy's boat.

There are many, many farm-themed activities at Teachers Pay Teachers. Here are a few of the FREE activities. 



Diana Quinn

© 2019

Friday, September 6, 2019

YouTube – The Bad, The Good and 50+ Links for Therapy

She enthusiastically sang the songs during circle time and encouraged her students to sing as well. The songs rarely changed and neither did the basket of props - flags, shapes, ribbons, and more. Questions were asked and language concepts were learned. Students used words, body movements, and gestures to participate. Everyone looked forward to the group hug at the end.


Ten years later there was a whiteboard. The students watched cartoon characters dance across the screen to songs found on YouTube. All good songs, but no one was singing. 

This is the BAD - mirroring the passive nature of TV viewing.  No one is singing, modeling speech and language, OR interacting with others.  

YouTube can be a GOOD resource and there are ways to effectively use the videos without sacrificing good models and active participation. Below are some links and suggestions. 


Make it Safe and Easy


Watch the ENTIRE video before showing it to your students. You never know what not so nice surprise might appear at the end of that cute nursery rhyme. 

If you at all question the appropriateness of a video, DO NOT use it. 

See my SafeShare link of Pharrell Williams' Happy. 
Have you tried SafeShare?TV? SafeShare.TV takes out the commercials at the beginning of a YouTube clip and allows you to edit where you want the clip to begin and end. You have a nice clean video without distracting ads or other videos visible. Sign-up to create 20 FREE videos on SafeShare.TV. 

Click on the links below to see how teachers, at Teachers Pay Teachers, use SafeShare.TV and QR codes to show stories without distractions. These activities are FREE. 


For more information about SafeShare.TV, check out the YouTube Ad-Free Guide.

Rebecca Reinking, at Adventures in Speech Pathology, has some very useful suggestions to make using YouTube quick, easy, and effective. Check out her post,  USING YOUTUBE IN SLP THERAPY: DON’T MAKE MY MISTAKES!



Make It Fun

Sing the songs with your children, dance with them, use hand motions, and talk about the songs. Stop the music to talk about the characters, story, and lyrics.


Teach core vocabulary words "who" and "not" while singing Who Took The Cookie? (Farm Animals Version) from Super Simple Songs.

Find songs to teach simple concepts at Maple Leaf LearningI Can Hop and On In Under By are two of many original songs found at this channel.

Pair books with  We All Go Traveling By, The Wheels on the Bus, and Dinosaur Rap at Barefoot Books. 

Eric Herman's songs can elicit a lot of language. Check out The Elephant Song.



Make It Engaging



There are so many good books on YouTube. Don't let YouTube replace you reading to students. Mute the sound, read the book, and pause as needed. You will be the model for your students, you can pause, ask questions and comment. Let your students see your facial expressions and hear the intonation as you read.

These YouTube videos show book pages and not so much of the reader. 


Share resources with parents. Some of our students don't have many books at home, but most can view YouTube on a tablet, phone or TV.






Make It Interesting

You can find a YouTube video for just about any skill or theme.

In the spring, read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle or another seed to plant book. Follow up with From a Seed to a FlowerPeep and the Big Wide World: Peep Plants a Seed, or Sid The Seed.

Talking about fall? Read "Leafy" The Leaf that Wouldn't Leave  and also, The Little Yellow Leaf (A Stop Motion Story) - a wordless story add words 

Sesame Street's many short clips about feelings are great to discuss with your younger students.

Find videos to complement rather than replace your teaching. Use videos as an introduction or as the closing to your lessons. Book trailers make great introductions to lessons. 

If your topic involves occupations or animals, short books found at Speech Blubs, make great introductions. I would definitely use the BUNNY Storybook if working on /b/.



These SLPs Have Even More!

  • Angela Hannigan at Home Speech Home posted Using YouTube Videos to Spice Up Language Therapy.  Click here and scroll down to see Angela's post complete with a lesson plan.
This is a screenshot of my newest YouTube account - The Budget SLP.
I will be adding to my playlists, but will not be uploading videos. When
you find an account you like, always check videos for any they may
have uploaded. If you like their videos, you may have common interests, so
look at the account's playlists as well. 


Diana

© 2019

“Free stock photo - Reshot.” https://www.reshot.com/photos/cute-book-baby-library-read-imagination-happy-books-smart-bookstore_rs_6lkK8p. Accessed 28 Aug. 2019.

Photo by Alexander Dummer on Unsplash  https://unsplash.com/photos/UH-xs-FizTk 

Singing! (Some happily, some not) | Im000656.Jpg | ~My aim is true~ | Flickr  https://www.flickr.com/photos/sallypics/177779703/in/photolist-gHaHi-EjhATF-pmPvcR-8MA83x-7qYHVK-4onXJ9-v25qT-v25fQ-9TDpD3-2cPXK4J-6pJD5U-6pJE2E-6pEwdT-6pEvDi-6pEwgi-6pEvdg-6pEvN4-6pEwQp-6pEwFv-6pJDKq-6pEwDn-dpbrnV-zRnKzA-A9VFtz-A8Yf2r-e3KUGZ-9AiEUa-4ErCdN-7pLQN2-p4rnf7-3o1Z7L-Pr2Si-neBneU-XgAQdq-8z2ho6-bDLmJe-7ZBzf4-A9Wov4-dCzSKh-6wtM2A-A6Fy5C-A6Eyp7-A7Paxh-zRnjVd-zRnBDW-ifm3p2-4ZeiFk-ba46L8-4EKHRa-6RNZ43/. Accessed 28 Aug. 2019. Modified by cropping.