Therapy Thursday: Listening Activities

If you are like me, you had a heck of a time learning foreign languages. Too many of the sounds seem similar and the words sound indistinguishable. To a native speaker, however, these differences are vast and very clear. Just as a native Japanese speaker may not hear the difference between /l/ and /r/, the native English speaker would exclaim that they are as different as night and day (and made in totally different parts of the mouth too!).

If, however, I had been raised in Switzerland (or most of Europe for that matter) and been exposed to many language from early on, the listening part of my brain would probably have much greater phonemic awareness capability.

In the same way, some children have natural difficulties with hearing sound differences even in their native language. This can affect their articulation, vocabulary, and reading skills.

Photo by carf.

A recent article by Judish Maginnis Kuster entitled, "Do You Hear What I Hear? Listening Activities" lists a large collection of excellent links. These practice games can help to tune and develop a child's listening skills.

Some of my favorite games are:

• Bananas in Pyjamas: timed animal-sound matching/concentration activity with easy, hard, or very hard examples
• Fisher Price Animal Sounds Game: click on the picture of the animal they hear
• Sounds and Hearing at Crickweb: identify sounds and sort musical instrument sounds
• Which One Makes the Sound You Hear: sort eight animal and musical instruments sounds
• Alien Scavenger Hunt: choose the sounds heard in the word presented
• Fuzzy Lion Ears: listen for beginning sounds in words
• What Do You Hear: discriminate vocabulary and grammar

All of these activities can be found (among other activities) in my PortaPortal site. Just log into the Guest Access "CCspeech".

Teaching Tuesday: Tracking reading time

Participating in a summer reading program?

We are.

And as much as the Flash does not want to read for a full 30 minutes, I'm going to be a stickler on this one. Just think of all the hours spent reading he will have accumulated by the end of the summer?!

Instead of having him ask "how much time left??" every 2 minutes, we have a count down timer.


When the Time-Timer is trapped in the room with a sleeping Marvel Girl, however, we can use the online Class Timer.



You can count up or down, and can have a "beep" play at the end of the allotted time.

Most of us can't afford the hefty price tag of the Time-Timer (I had a gift certificate, otherwise I wouldn't have one either!), but the Class Timer is free. Although count down timers don't make time pass more quickly, they can eliminate the constant questioning and nagging.... Which makes them all worthwhile.

You jump, I jump.

The Teachers Jumped Out of the Windows

The teachers jumped out of the windows.
The principal ran for the door.
The nurse and librarian bolted.
They're not coming back anymore.

The counselor, hollering madly,
escaped out the door of the gym.
The coach and custodian shouted
and ran out the door after him.

The lunch ladies threw up their ladles,
then fled from the kitchen in haste,
while all of the students looked puzzled
as staff members scurried and raced.

We'd never seen anything like it.
But, still, it was pretty darned cool
to see all the staff so excited
to leave on the last day of school.

--Kenn Nesbitt

Copyright © 2007 Kenn Nesbitt
All Rights Reserved

To read more funny poems like this one, please visit www.poetry4kids.com


Photo by Lel4nd

My Shadow

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

My shadow documents a time
When the sun shone upon my back.
This one is from 2 weeks ago
It hides the things I lack.

My shadow shows who I am
It shows me tall and strong.
It cannot show the victories
Or the place where I belong.

My shadow outlines my body
It reveals if I stand proud.
If I've tried my best at work
Helped children learn to talk, and loud!

My shadow hides my triumphs
Helping my son learn to read,
Assisting my daughter to blossom
Smiling as they take the lead

My shadow fades the worry lines
The white hairs that start to grow
Now that I'm "one year older"
Tell me please, do they show?

Auctionable Cookies. Month 3.

Snickerdoodley-Doodley-Yumm-O.

To my son's shock and horror, the cookie he had reserved for himself disappeared during the school day. You know, after the rest of the batch was given to the auction winner.

Oops! Guess mommy should have mentioned to the family that the cookie was off-limits.

I owe him another cookie. Or 3.



Snickerdoodles
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. salt

1. Combine ingredients in mixer
2. Roll into balls
3. Roll balls in a bowl of cinnamon-sugar
(4. optional step- Refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm)
5. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes

Teaching Tuesday: Online Teaching Games (edited)

Apparently I'm a little behind on the interactive teaching tools.

I recently discovered Portaportal, a compilation of my favorite websites and can direct my children (or students) to play these pre-selected sites. Since children easily can be re-directed to other sites, they must still be monitored, but this gives them a great place to start.

Take a look at my newly compiled Portaportal site by signing in as a guest of "CCspeech". I have put together language and math websites for kids aged 3-9.

Or create your own free Portaportal and then share it with me!

Edit: Sorry! Apparently I had set my preferences to "no guest access". That should be rectified now. Go ahead and check out my compilation of activities. :)

Marvelous Children's Book Monday: Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted To Be Noticed

Trust me, the humor is this book selection choice does not escape my notice. In an effort to maintain my family's secret identities, however, please refrain from any "revealing" comments. ;)

What is a super talented ninja, who just wants recognition for his skills, to do when he is supposed to be stealthy and unnoticed?

Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted To Be Noticed


Wink comes across this dilemma when trying to demonstrate his superior skills at ninja school. He cannot keep silent during stealth practice. He attracts brightly colored materials and ribbons like glue. He even fights with a panda when his stealth goes unrecognized by his master.

Using torn paper illustrations, this book is beautiful, amusing, and enduring. It is short enough to read and discuss within a speech therapy session, but encompasses enough vocabulary and detail for several therapy sessions discussion.

Speech Therapy Ideas:
1. Practice final /k/ sounds every time "Wink" is mentioned in the text. Remember that /k/ is made with the back of the tongue.

2. Discuss the master's sayings such as, "Free-flowing water will always find its way." What does the master mean? How do these sayings apply (or not apply) to Wink?

3. Discuss the grandmother's sayings such as, "Time spent laughing is time well spent." What does the grandmother mean? How do these sayings apply (or not apply) to Wink?

4. Explain the similes mentioned in the text: "flying through the air like a glittering cannonball", "clapped like thunder".

5. Practice vocabulary: stealth, silence, ninja, perform, flaunt, notice, extend, demonstrate, nimble.

6. Retell the story with (or without) prompts. Who are the main characters? Where does this take place? What is the problem? What happens? How does the story conclude?

Life. Turned down a notch.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Remember the camping trip with co-ed bunks and co-ed bathrooms?

Well, it wasn't all sleeping-bag changes...

In fact, it was lovely to just sit in the duck-poop-infested warm sand and watch the kids enjoy each other and the outdoors. Professor X commented that he never experienced nature like this as a child.

I hope The Flash can somehow appreciate this time of slowing down while growing up.

Therapy Thursday: The Same Game

Looking for some language practice this summer for your late preschool/ early elementary school aged child?

I found a great game last year. Fun to play (even for older siblings) and works on the concepts of "same", colors, numbers, and categories.

The Same Game


The game is similar to traditional "Memory" except that the child is not trying to match two identical pictures, but rather two cards that are the "same" in some area. The child spins a spinner for "same number", "same color" or "same category" and then turns over two cards. If they match in that area, they get to keep the cards.

Here's the bad news.

They don't seem to make this game any longer! My internet searches appear to be in vain on this product.

However, you could pretty easily reproduce this game by making your own spinner and then finding cards that match in these areas. For example, make some cards with pictures of fruit, vehicles, or toys. Stick to a color scheme of 3 or 4 colors and put 1 or 2 of each item on the cards (to match in the "same number" area). Then start spinning and matching. :)

Enjoy!

And if anyone finds this game on the internet, let me know and I'll link to the product. Thanks!

Co-ed camping

I can't help but find it continuously humorous that I've moved from one extremely socially liberal region, to an extremely socially liberal university, to yet another.

Looking at my faith, you might stereotype my political and social values.

But you might be wrong.

And at last weekend's school camping trip, I just might be in a bathroom stall next to The Flash's friend's father. Using sustainable soap that we provided ourselves. Lugging out bins and bins of recycling because the campground has no program. Sharing a "bunk cabin" with another family. And changing my clothes awkwardly inside of my sleeping bag for a small iota of privacy.