Language In the Classroom: 1st grade

As a part of intervention services I do language in the classroom. It not only gives me the ability to help teachers with students on the bubble, but I also get to help my identified students with generalization of their goals!

I try to pick a common core standard to work on so it benefits all the students. Then I tweak it a little so I can work with my IEP kids on their goals in the general education setting. This week we have been targeting homonyms.

Sounds the Same scramble

This game I made on the fly... and the kids really enjoyed it. You can find a copy of this activity here

To prepare:
Print cut and laminate pictures of homonyms
Print homonym work sheets.

To Play:
Pass out homonyms pairs randomly through out the classroom.
Explain to students that homonyms are two words that sound the same but have a different meaning.

 Have students find their "word" partner. Each student illustrates their word and writes a sentence using their word that illustrates the meaning of the word.

Articupalooza: November Style

I have a lot of students with articulation difficulties so sometimes it's hard to keep it fresh. I try each month  to do a craft as a reinforcer (I also usually double this one up for my Concepts and following directions/language memory kiddos),  games with articulation, drill with a traditional game, and a chance for students to practice their carry-over skills.

So here are my plans for November articulation skills:

Craft

Coffee Cozy Mayflower
This Coffee Cozy Mayflower was on Parenting.com's website. How cute is it! Answer: So cute.

Photo from parenting.com

For this project you will need:

• coffee cozies
• wooden stir sticks or Popsicle sticks
• white construction paper
• red construction paper
• Styrofoam cups
• glue
• scissors

Here is a video of the Mayflower Craft  showing all the steps and some additional Thanksgiving crafts you might want to make with your students
For generalization
Generally, I give the students 1 or 2 words to monitor during the activity sure they are correctly articulating during their requests or
For Drill
You can just given them a piece for each correctly articulated word
And                     are some picture supports for sequencing students


Pin your tail feather

Cornucopia Game

For this game you need

• pom-poms
• large brown construction paper
• tape

This was a huge hit with my students. To play you toss pom-poms "fruit" into a paper cone "cornucopia". To earn fruit, the student must say their target word/sound etc. 3-5 times or make a sentence. When they have achieved this they get to toss their "fruit" into the "cornucopia". As you can imagine this is a great way to get multiple repetitions and provide opportunities for practice for students.

Cornucopia mix

For this snack you need

• bugles
• runts
• Ziploc bags

I have the students talk about what a cornucopia is using the EET tool.

"Pin your tail feather"

This game targets articulation sounds for /k/ /s/ /l/ /r/ and /th/  Download it here at my TPT site.

Assembly

1)Print, cut and laminate turkeys and articulation sound pictures.

2)Hot glue articulation pictures to clothes pins (this is optional…I like it because lots of my

Kiddos also get Occupational Therapy)

3)     Hot glue turkeys to plain paper plates or use colored circles included as a base.

Games

There are multiple ways to use this game to work on articulation skills.

Game 1:

Have students draw sound feathers from  the and let them collect points  by clipping the feather to their turkey.

Game 2:

Use as a phonemic awareness as well as articulation game. Differentiate three turkeys  for beginning, middle and end sounds by printing and laminating  green, yellow and red circles and attaching them to paper plates. As students practice their sounds ask if the target sound is in the beginning, middle or end of the word and have them clip it to the corresponding green, yellow or red turkey.

Game 3:

Have students draw multiple feathers to make sentences or have them roll a die to see how many words to put into a sentence.

you can down load it here

Research Writing to Address Comprehension and Expression + a Rubric Freebie

Lately my second grade friends and I have been having tons of fun writing research papers based on monthly and classroom themes. It's been really nice because we are able to build upon skills they have used previously with the Expanding Expressions Tool Kit.

The challenge has been getting students to change from the lingo of the tool kit to a more cohesive style of writing. So to explain what I expect for my speech written expression students, I have made a great rubric based off the EET kit. This rubric is pretty generic. By changing levels of support  and content needed, you can make it more appropriate for students of different grades.  Look at common core standards to guide what your expectations as far as structure should be, they differ per grade level (upper grades expect definitions and heading etc.)
Based on Common Core State Standards, second graders should

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.5 With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record science observations).

That being said, I give my kiddo's lots of support and expect mostly 3's and 4's on the rubric. You can set different goals for different students based on pre-writing and post writing scores if you wish to decrease support IE if they are at a 0 you can set a goal to get 2's on 6/7 etc.
You can find a free printable of my rubric here.

I find short reading for my kiddo's to combine with the knowledge they have sponged up from their science, social studies or reading classes. One website I really like for the short, grade level readings is readworks.org.  K12reader has a great First Thanksgiving reading comprehension passage  to supplement information reviewed in class that I am going to use with my second graders when they write a Thanksgiving themed piece.

Have a great week!