Using STEM in Speech: Rocks and Minerals

Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

For the months of November and December, our STEM unit focused on Geology! A lot of my students surprised me with how into rocks they were and many of them already had some basic knowledge about different rocks and minerals.

Since I have groups functioning at different skill levels, I had to make sure to come up with activities that would fit my students' level of functioning. Here are some of the activities we did to learn about rocks and minerals:








1. Geology Lap Book
My older language students got to make an interactive rock and mineral lapbook. I bought the template for this product on TPT. It is a  great tool for teaching about the layers of the earth, the rock cycle, different types of rocks, the difference between rocks and minerals, features of minerals, and key vocabulary words. It was a great activity, but I should note that this activity would work best with students you see twice a week - even though I pre-cut many of the items, it still took us 3-4 sessions to create the whole thing. My students liked being able to take something home after it was finished. You will need a file folder for each student.

2. Explore Rock Types
This activity allows you to teach students about the three different types of rock and works for a variety of groups. I purchased three different sets of Rock Specimen by Educational Insights: (1) Igneous Rock Collection, (2) Sedimentary Rock Collection, and (3) Metamorphic Rock Collection. We talked about how the different types of rocks are formed and described each rock by its appearance. We then used the included reference sheet to find out the name of the rock. This activity worked well for older language and articulation students. It was challenging to match some of the rocks to the correct picture due to lighting differences in the photography, but we still had fun!

3. Mineral Sort

This activity was probably my students' favorite and was one that I could use with all of my groups, even my younger SDC caseload! Using Dancing Bear's Rock & Mineral Collection Activity Kit, we described the appearance and texture of the different minerals and then used the reference sheet to find the name of the mineral. You can target different skills with this activity, as well, including expressive language, articulation, fluency, and even social skills (sharing the minerals and not fighting over who gets to describe and match a specific mineral). This was definitely a favorite!


4. Making Pet Rocks

This activity was perfect for my younger students and SDC students! Prior to this lesson, I collected some rocks in the park behind our school and washed them. It would have been fun to let my students do this, but we just didn't have enough time. Then I let my students decorate their rocks with googly eyes, pompoms, beads, buttons, sequins, ... whatever! You can use this opportunity to work on appropriate requesting ("I want a blue pompom, please") with lower functioning kiddos. We used a Pet Rock worksheet that is included in this TPT packet by Reagan Tunstall to give our rocks some personality. This was a fun activity and all of our rocks turned out super cute!

Hopefully this gives you some inspiration for your own rock and mineral STEM lesson in Speech! What is another activity you can think of? Feel free to leave a comment!

Using STEM in Speech: Skeletal System

Note: This post contains affliate links.

Given all of the spooky skeletons everywhere in the month of October, our monthly STEM unit revolved all around bones and the skeletal system. Just as with the unit on Density, you can incorporate tons of language concepts and adapt the activities for articulation/fluency/social skills. Below are some ideas to get started.

I introduced my groups to the concept of bones by reading the book Bones (Science Readers: A Closer Look). With my younger/SDC kiddos we read Skeleton Hiccups. Of course, you could read any Halloween themed book about skeletons to get into the mood.

I also purchased some Halloween decor at Walmart: An (anatomically correct - this is important!) Skeleton, as well as a "Bag of Bones". We used these props to talk about the different bones in the body and learned some of the scientific names. There are some great bones containing /r/ and /s/ - femur, humerus, skull, pelvis, ribs, spine, etc. that you can have your artic students practice. The bag of bones was great for guessing which bone was which by comparing them to the bones in the skeleton model. Bonus: I can reuse these guys as Halloween decorations!

Students loved exploring the animal x-rays!

Next, we got to the fun part!! I discovered two different sets of X-Rays on amazon - Animal X-Rays and Human X-Rays. We used the animal x-rays to compare the skeletal structure of different animals to that in a human body. I also had students try to guess what animal might be depicted by the x-ray. You can also have students compare and contrast the skeletal structure of two different animals.

Putting together human x-rays

I used the set of human x-rays to solidify students' knowledge of the names of bones and our general skeletal structure by having them assemble the skeleton on white butcher paper. This was actually harder for many of my kiddos than they anticipated! They were allowed to use a diagram of a human skeleton, as a reference. When they were stumped, I gave them hints such as, "This is an x-ray of a tibia." They then had to reference the diagram to figure out where the bone would go.

As an extension activity, we made the Q-tip skeleton that is plastered all over Pinterest. Students had to "earn" each bone by either saying their speech sound 5x or completing a language task. Tip: Make sure to cut all of the Q-tips prior to the activity, as it will save time in the long run.

What I loved about this unit was that I was able to incorporate STEM in a Halloween-themed unit, while teaching students about important concepts AND working on their speech goals at the same time. Win-win!!

Have You Filled a Bucket Today - An Extension Activity

One concept that I love using with the students in my social skills group is that of Bucketfilling. This idea is based on the book "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids" by Carol McCloud. 

Basically, the gist of the book is that everyone carries around an invisible bucket that represents the level of an individual's happiness. When someone's bucket is full, the person is feeling happy, and when the bucket is empty, the person is feeling sad. The author emphasizes that you should fill others' buckets by being kind and doing nice things for them. This in turn, will fill your own bucket.

I revisit this concept annually with the students in my social skills group and we talk about different ways to fill someone's bucket. This year we took it a little bit further. My students observed that in the book, a person's bucket tends to bear resemblance to the person it belongs to - for example, if the person is wearing glasses, the bucket is wearing glasses. We decided to create our very own personalized buckets to practice bucketfilling.

You will need:

• Foam Beads
• Styrofoam Cups
• Chenille Stems
• Wiggle Eyes
• Markers

First, we designed the buckets. Students colored their buckets in a way to resemble them. We also glued on wiggly eyes to add some life to them. We then used the pipe cleaners to poke through the styrofoam rim and create a handle.

Some of my students really got into it and spend a lot of time creating bucket-masterpieces. One student insisted on having Pikachu sit on his bucket's shoulder. I loved to see the level of creativity! 

Once the buckets were completed, we started practicing the act of bucketfilling. In the book, the happiness and good feelings filling one's bucket are represented by rainbow stars and hearts. In the past, I have used plastic coins and pompoms during these lessons, but this year I found something even better: Foam Beads! These beads come in different shapes and colors and kind of look like the bucket contents in the book.

For this part of the lesson, we practiced filling each other's buckets by complimenting or doing nice things for the people in our group. Students loved seeing their buckets getting fuller. We also practiced bucket-dipping: if a student interrupted or misbehaved in some other way, shapes were removed from the teacher's bucket and their own bucket.

There are so many things you can do with the concept of bucketfilling and this is just one of them!

Mummy Candle Holder Craftivity

My Speech kids and I spent this week making one last craft before Halloween - Mummy candle jars. This craft is not only super cute, but really easy and cheap to make (a little more expensive if you choose to send a candle home with it - but that part is up to you). This is also an easy activity to add a therapeutic spin to it... just keep on reading.

To make these candle holders, you will need:

• Baby food jars (if you don't have a baby, consider asking parents with little ones to donate their used baby food jars).
• Gauze, cut into strips
• Googly eyes
• Mod Podge
• Crafting Brush (to apply Mod Podge)
• Hot glue gun
• LED Candles

To make the candle holders, follow these steps:
1. Use the brush to apply Mod Podge all around the baby food jar
2. Stick on strips of gauze one at a time, until no spots of glue are left
3. Use the hot glue gun to glue on the eyes
4. Place a candle inside and enjoy :)

To make this into a therapy activity, you can have students "earn" the strips of gauze by completing language tasks or practicing target words. I also used mummy-themed books to work on comprehension with some of my language groups before making the craft. Some great mummy-books that I have used include:

Skeleton Meets the Mummy
Where's My Mummy?
Runaway Mummy
There Was an Old Mummy Who Swallowed a Spider

Our mummies turned out adorable, and we made a whole "graveyard" with them. This is only a portion of our mummies:

 
This craftivity was the perfect ending to a fun-filled October. I can't wait until next year!!

How to Make Monster Pencils

I love doing crafts with my students that I know won't go into the trash right after they leave my Speech room. And when you have 60+ students on your caseload, a bonus is when the materials used are relatively cheap. These monster pencils are not only cute and easy to make, but functional as well! 

To make your own monster pencils you will need: 

• Halloween Pencils (Dollar Tree!)
• Glitter Pompoms (the glitter ones give the monsters an especially unique appearance)
• Google Eyes
• Hot Glue Gun

To make these pencils, you first need to pry the erasers out of the sockets. Put hot glue into the metal portion of the pencil and stick on the pompom. To fortify the design, I put additional glue around the spot where the pencil touches the pompom. Next, add the eyes. Since this is a monster, you can have just one eye or more than two. It looks especially cute if you use different sized eyes. Once the glue is dry, the pencils are done!

I paired this craft with the book Hey, That's MY Monster! (although any monster-themed story will work): I used it with different groups to work on comprehension, picked out words from the story containing articulation target sounds, and discussed it with my social skills group. Given the versatility of this activity, it made therapy planning super easy this week!

I wish I could claim credit for this cute idea, but I originally found it here.

Easy Spider Craftivity for Halloween

I love Halloween because there are so many themed crafts you can do. Last week, my students and I made this cheap and easy spider craft.

Here is what you need:

• Lollipops
• Black pompoms
• Googly eyes
• Black pipe cleaners / chenille stems
• Pony beads
• Hot glue gun

Start by making the spider body: Bend four pipe cleaners around the lollipop to create eight legs. Then glue on the pompom and googly eyes.

In order to make this craft educational for therapy purposes, students had to "earn" each bead by producing a word with their target sound 10 times or completing a language task. When student had three beads on each leg (can do more if you have time), we tied a foot at the bottom. At the end of the session, we bent the legs to make the spider stand up.

All in all, this was super easy to do even for my younger students, and they got to take something home. These spiders also looked really great with multifaceted beads.