Spring Garden Sensory Bin

I don't know about you but I have a bit of spring fever and have gotten into the gardening and planting mood. Oh wait, you thought I was referring to my own personal garden?! No way! I'm talking about my educational play garden. Not only are sensory bins a fun tactile way for kids to play and learn, they can be used with any kind of toys/manipulatives you have laying around.

I filled a plastic shoe box sized bin with dried black beans (about 4 bags). I then added plastic fruits and veggies from Target (see below). I felt like I hit the jackpot with this purchase! It came with 2 cutting boards and 2 knives. Win!

My children had a BLAST with this one! We worked on verbs (digging, finding, hiding, cutting, etc), labeling, following directions ("Give me the __"), 'wh' question comprehension ("What is the orange, crunchy vegetables bunnies eat?"), yes/no questions, and categorizing.

I paired this activity with "The Fruits We Eat" to provide additional reinforcement to work on vocabulary. We used one of the last pages as a reference the help identify whether or not a selected item was a fruit.

**Edit: I found a great book that targets vegetables called "Our Community Garden". My kids loved learning about all the different veggies that can be grown in their own garden.

What else can I do with the bin you ask? How does planting flowers sound!? I couldn't really find any cool plastic flowers in the store, so I decided to make my own out of pipe cleaners (thank you YouTube!)

My "bouquet" 

I made the flowers in an assortment of colors (pink, red, blue, and orange). Add a toy shovel and planters and you're all set for some gardening!

Kids have so much fun using the shovel to dig the "dirt" into the planters.

 With this activity, skills such as requesting ("I want the red flower"), sentence expansion, 'wh' question comprehension, following directions, yes/no questions, can all be targeted.

Do you use sensory bins in your sessions? What materials do you use?

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I didn't want to make a separate post, so I'll just let you in on a secret I've been hiding. I'm pregnant! Hubby and I are so excited to be expecting a sweet baby girl this August. If I end up MIA again, you'll know why :) Please find the obligatory bump pic below:

Multiple Meanings Library {App Review}

With vocabulary being such a weakness with my students, I jumped at the opportunity to review Multiple Meanings Library.

Multiple Meanings Library ($12.99) allows you to target a variety of word meanings through 5 different settings: (1) Auditory Bombardment, (2) Picture Identification, (3) Definition, (4) Fill In and (5) Make Up Sentences.  The library contains 100+ multiple meaning words.

Menu Screen: Select Setting and Choose Words

The Auditory Bombardment setting allows users to hear and see the target words with a picture example of both meanings (see below).

Auditory Bombardment Setting

After being auditorily presented with a sentence, users are prompted to select the appropriate picture that corresponds the sentence when using the Picture Identification mode (see below).

Picture Identification Setting

The Definition setting provides users with the definition (visually and auditorily) of a target word. Users are provided with three options (see below).

Definition Setting: Users can keep track of their progress as they work

The Fill In setting prompts users to select one of three words to complete the sentence (see below).

Fill In Setting

Lastly, the Make up Sentences setting requires users to create recordable sentences using target multiple meaning words (see below).

Make Up Sentences Setting

A session report is provided as a means of keeping track of progress. These reports can also be emailed to teachers, parents, therapists, etc.

Session Report

Multiple Meanings Library has served to drive home the concept of words having more than one definition to many of my students.  The visual and auditory supports greatly help to reinforce various word meanings.

Things I liked:

• This app is easy to navigate
• The ability to track and share progress
• The ability to use auto recordings
• Multiple names/students can be tracked

What I would like:

• It would be great if users could update the library by adding their own words and images of multiple meaning words

Compatibility:
Multiple Meanings Library is compatible with the iPad and requires iOS 5.0 or later.

I like my students to keep track of targeted words on their own in addition to using apps like Multiple Meanings Library.  I found that a graphic organizer works best. I've been using one that I found over at Minds in Bloom (below). It's great that there is place to illustrate both word meanings!

I also like to utilize jokes to reinforce the importance of multiple meaning words and to repeatedly practice it's use. I've frequently been using this freebie that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers (below).

Disclosure Statement: I was provided a copy of the Multiple Meanings Library iPad App by the developer. No other compensation was provided. This review includes solely my opinions.

Processing Auditory Messages Exactly and Totally {Review}

For those of you who are fans of my Facebook page you know that my district recently provided me with therapy materials to use with students. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting reviews of those materials. There is an overwhelming amount of products to choose from out there, hopefully, my posts will provide you with info regarding  items you deem worthy enough to add to your SLP toolkit.

Processing Auditory Messages Exactly and Totally (PAMET) is a 60 page workbook meant to target auditory memory and processing via black and white reproducible illustrations.

Cover

Two instructional levels are provided (I and II). Level I (below) contains simple directives such as, "Circle the bug" or "Underline the chipmunk that is holding the mushrooms."

Level II (below) contains longer more detailed directives such as, "Find something that can move even though it has no legs or hands. Color its eyes green"

A variety of language skills can be targeted through the use of this unit.  Additionally, the comprehension and use of: vocabulary words, prepositions, verbs,"wh" questions, as well as strategies to aid with memory can all be addressed with this simple and straightforward workbook.

Despite being presented as an activity for younger ages (2nd - 5th grade), I find that my students lack many, if not all of the skills targeted by PAMET ($26.55).

In many cases, the idea of coloring may seem rather juvenile to your middle schoolers. As such, I use highlighters instead of crayons/markers, as they serve to "mature" the activity. Also, to add an element of competition (and curb "cheating") to my therapy group, students set up barriers using their speech folders.

What activities/materials do you use with your students to target processing/comprehension/memory?

Targeting Vocabulary with Bluster! {Review}

I think you all know by now that I love free anything, especially free apps! Bluster! is a fun way to target vocabulary in the form of prefixes, suffixes, adjectives, rhyming words, and more. Students can choose to play as a single player, against an opponent, or as a team. Users can also select level of difficulty, ranging in grades 2, 3, and 4. Yes, I know these are not middle school grades, but unfortunately my students do not possess many of the skills that their younger counterparts have. I’m sure many of you are in the same boat.

Users can select player type and level of difficulty.  

A brief description on how to play.

When in single player mode, users are timed as they sort words into three boxes based on the selected mode (prefixes, adjectives, etc). Words disappear from the wordlist as the correct answers are selected. To keep track of time the sun moves from the left hand of the screen to the right. The player is alerted at the halfway mark when the sun reaches midpoint.

Students have roughly 2 minutes to sort words when in single player mode.
The sun moves across the screen to keep time. 

In the versus mode, two students can play against each other. Each player is required to find the appropriate words from a word-list provided. They are required to drag the words into one of three boxes. Students can only move onto sorting the next set of words if they are correct in their response. Players are able to slow down their opponent in the form of a disruptor (i.e. tornado, blizzard, etc). For a few seconds the player who falls victim to the disruptor is unable to move forward in the game.

Versus mode allows two players to play against each other.

When playing in team mode, students can collaborate to sort the vocabulary without competition or the threat of being hit with a natural disaster.

Players are untimed when playing in team mode.

Bluster! offers positive reinforcement for correct answers in the form of a phrase that is presented onto the screen.

Players are provided with praise for correct responses.

As with most apps (if not all), I would use Bluster! as a review for my students. I’m sure they would find the sound effects and animation engaging. Bluster! is pretty straightforward and simple to get the hang of. Skills related to morphology (roots, prefixes, etc.), phonological awareness (rhyming), semantic skills (synonyms, antonyms, etc.) and pragmatics (i.e. collaboration) are all able to be targeted with this application that contains over 800 vocabulary words. This will definitely be a frequently used reinforcement tool in my arsenal of apps!

App Compatibility
This app appears to only be available on the iPad.

One Person's Trash Are My Treasures

A thoughtful friend who works for Penguin Books was cleaning out her book room last week and thought of me! She sent over an assortment of beautifully illustrated picture books. 

As you all probably know by now, I work with middle schoolers. They would undoubtedly not appreciate Ms. Sohan presenting them with “baby” books to read. How could I not have these books go to waste and incorporate them into therapy?

The solution? Cover up the words. Now I don't know about your students, but mine secretly enjoy books that contain pictures (the more the better) as it provides them a reprieve from reading, which many of them dread!

The words can be concealed with pieces of paper, index cards, post-its, etc. The now wordless picture book can be utilized with students who have difficulty with sequencing, story grammar, vocabulary, perspective taking, details/descriptions, cause/effect etc. The pictures will provide students with visual support to aid in the development of their literacy skills. Note, this can be easily viewed as juvenile to some middle schoolers, tread carefully and be creative! For more of a challenge, this can even be turned into a writing activity, where students create sentence for each image as to generate their own narrative.

Those of you who are more tech-savvy can utilize any voice recording program on your device to capture your students narrative (phone, iPad, etc). The narratives can then be replayed between utterances/pages and judged for its syntactical, semantic, and/or sequential appropriateness. Incorporating such technology will definitely serve to motivate even the most disinterested student.

Happy "reading!"