Articulation Hearts Craftivity

Since my students always get really excited by the prospect of artsy activities, I decided to do a Valentine-themed craftivity with my artic kids. I prepped the activity by cutting out a bunch of construction paper hearts in various colors and sizes on our die-cut machine.

Lots of red shades!

Next, I created a circular Wreath template in Word, printed it, and cut it out (the cutting out beforehand will save valuable time during the session).

Wreath template. The side with the writing is the back.

I cut out the middle using an X-Acto knife.

When my students arrived, I gave them a word list with their target sounds. I told them that they needed to say each word over and over as they copied it onto the construction paper hearts and keep practicing as they glued it onto the wreath. I think we got far more than 10 productions out of each word! There were times when they were forgetting to practice because they were so engulfed in the art aspect, but they were easily redirected ("I'm not hearing XXX practicing!").

 

The (almost finished) product.

You can easily adapt this activity for younger kids by omitting the writing component. The group I did this with today was composed of two pretty responsible and independent 3rd grade girls. To make this easier for less disciplined students, you could have them earn a heart for each X number of time they practice their words to add more structure and predictability to the activity. 

All in all, this is a pretty inexpensive DIY therapy idea for Valentine's Day week. And the students get to take something home!

~Viola