Using Blank Playing Cards in Speech

Note: This post contains affiliate links.

As I was browsing Amazon for therapy materials over the summer, I came across the most amazing thing: blank playing cards! As soon as I saw them, the wheels in my head started turning to come up with ways on how to use them in Speech.

I tried out three different variations of blank playing cards made by Apostrophe Games: Rectangular, Square, and Dry Erase.

Blank playing cards are available in these three options: rectangular, square, and dry erase.

If you’re like me, you are probably tired of using the same old artic decks over and over in your sessions. To combat the monotony, my students and I decided to use these cards to make our very own articulation decks! At first I thought that we could use index cards. However, the quality of these blank playing cards is SO MUCH BETTER and definitely worth the extra money.They are about 2-3 times as thick as index cards and marker / Sharpie does not bleed or seep through to the other side. Since you will likely end up using the finished cards with your students in therapy sessions, it makes sense to want them to be durable. They are so thick that you could even skip laminating - seriously, who has time for that?

I started by having my groups come up with words containing their target sounds. This was great for stimulating their awareness of their sound. As they were rattling off words, I wrote them onto the playing cards with a Sharpie, making sure to highlight target sounds in red. Of course you could have students write the words themselves, but I wanted to make sure the writing was nice and big and didn't have spelling errors. To make this more engaging, I allowed students to include Pokemon and Minecraft things (Hey kid, if you want to practice the word "creeper", which has two /r/ sounds, be my guest!). Next, students drew pictures of their words onto the card (we used washable markers for this), although pencils or crayons would work as well. While we worked, we also practiced saying the words we were drawing. Students were super motivated throughout their session. And look how awesome their cards turned out!

I used both Square and Rectangular cards for this activity and didn't really have a preference. The square ones seemed to be big enough for a picture, and also might be better for little hands.

This would also make an excellent homework activity: send home ten blank cards with the words on it and have students draw and practice at home. You could also let students keep their cards at home for practice.

And of course you could adapt this activity for language groups - you can make homonym/homophone cards, opposite cards, WH-question cards, and so much more!

I also found a use for the Dry Erase Cards - I used them for a listening activity with my language groups. Because these cards are double sided, they lend themselves well to alternate response mode activities. I drew a happy face on one side and a sad face on the other. Each student in the group received one of these dual-sided cards. Then they had to listen to conditional statements (e.g. "If you have brown hair, hold up your happy face") and follow the directions. This was great for working on following directions and general listening skills. A note: To prevent smearing on these cards, you may want to consider Vis-A-Vis Markers.What is really nice about the dry erase deck is that it can be reused over and over.

This is a therapy activity I will definitely keep doing again and again as I cycle through new students. I'm so glad I found these cards!!

Making Your Own SGM Braid

I always have a number of students working on listening comprehension. I have tried different programs to teach this, including Visualizing and Verbalizing by Lindamood-Bell. However, the one tool I always seem to come back to is the Story-Grammar-Marker (SGM) braid by Mindwing Concepts.

The original Braidy

For those unfamiliar with the SGM program - it is essentially a visual organizer that can be used to talk about and recall story elements. It consists of a braid that can be manipulated via removable icons and beads. Each part of the bead corresponds to a different story element. 

I have been using this braid with some of my 5th grade students to work on short story / paragraph comprehension this fall. They really loved "Braidy", so I promised them that I would figure out a way to make our very own version of the story braid to keep. 

To create our homemade SGM braid, I searched for beads similar to the ones on the original Braidy, which we strung onto a pipe cleaner and secured with a Binder Ring. Some of the beads we used include Smiley Beads, Star Beads, Heart Beads, Faceted Beads, and a hand bead (I found this one at Walmart!).

The result was a cute little visual that students can use whenever we work on story retell.They really enjoyed making these and are now even more into the retell activities than before! This is a great extension activity for those little hands-on learners if you are using SGM with them.

Musical EET - DIY Therapy Game

Most SLPs are familiar with Expanding Expression Tool, or EET in short, an amazing therapy technique to work on description skills (find out more information about EET here). EET is my go-to strategy whenever I have students working on describing an item.

For those of you unfamiliar with EET, it is basically a visual of multicolored circles. Each circle represents a different descriptive aspect of an item: Green - Group, Blue - What does it Do, Eye - What does it look like, Brown - What is it made of, Pink - Parts, White - Where do you find it, Orange - What else do you know?

Students are guided through this hierarchy and provide the respective information about the item they are describing. I like EET because it is visual and easy to implement.To add some variety to my EET session, I came up with a really fun game that my students just loved: Musical EET! And the best part is that you can recreate it for virtually less than $1.50.

You will need:
* Felt sheets (Green, Blue, White x2, Brown, Pink, Orange)
* A paper plate or other large circular object
* A marker
* Scissors
* Some sort of music

Cheap materials.

Preparation:
1. Using the paper plate and marker, draw circular templates onto each felt sheet.
2. Cut out the circles.
3. On one of the white circles, draw the outline of an eye and cut a smaller circle from the leftover blue felt which is glued in the middle of the eye (this will be the iris). Draw some eyelashes.
4. On the orange circle, use the marker to draw a big question mark.

Our EET circle.

Once all of the circles are ready, place them in a big circle on the floor. The circle should be large enough for students to walk around the outer perimeter without being crowded. Also note that if you have bare floors, students may slip if they step on the felt. It is therefore most feasible to do this activity on a carpet. If you don't feel like taking the time to make these circles or have bare floors that are not conducive or safe for felt, you can buy non-slip steppers from the company (unfortunately only with the purchase of the entire kit).

Game play.

Tell the students that they will get to play a game like musical chairs. Start playing some music. As the music is playing, have students walk around the circle. When the music stops, they have to stand by the nearest circle. Once everyone is placed at their spot, they will look at a "mystery object" (i.e. a picture card) and have to provide the information about the item based on the color of their circle. For example, if they are standing on the brown circle, they have to state what the item is made of.

My students had a blast with this game and the activity reinforced their memory of what each color stands for. In addition, the movement piece added a kinesthetic component and was especially feasible for my students with an ADHD diagnosis. 

~Viola

DIY: Articulation Connect Four

One of my favorite games growing up was Connect 4. To this day, I enjoy playing this game. And did you know that this game can be adapted into a cheap, awesome, and fun articulation activity? 

You will need the following items:


* Connect 4 game (check for used copies at Goodwill, I found several there for $1.99)
* round Avery labels (3/4" diameter) - check Walmart
* pen
* a list with target words


First, write your target words onto your labels. Then, stick the labels onto the game chips. There should be 21 tokens of each red and black in a complete Connect 4 set, so if you stick a label on both sides, you can have 28 labels for a sound in each initial, medial, and final position. In my example, I highlighted the target sound by making it a different color. 

Put a label on each side of the play tokens.

As soon as all of the labels are attached, you are ready to play!

Articulation Connect 4!

Tip#1: Make sure your label size doesn't exceed the 3/4" diameter, otherwise the chip's color will be covered up.
Tip#2: If you want to make multiple sets for different sounds, but only have one game: basic checkers chips are the same size, too.
Tip#3: You can re-create this activity for a checkers game.
Tip#4: This works for other educational targets, like sight words.

I hope you like this as much as I do!

~Viola

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

Spooky Mystery Items -- Halloween Guessing Game

A trip to the Dollar Store inspired me to create a Halloween activity for my Speech students to work on inferencing skills (although it is adaptable for articulation, as well). I found these cute boxes for $1/pair:

Dollar Tree finds!

I ended up buying a bunch of them with the intent to use them in therapy. I didn't have any ideas about what exactly to do with them at the time, but it didn't take long to come up with something. In addition to these boxes I also found a lot of other gross / spooky stuff at the Dollar store, including spider webs, bones, fake teeth, fake blood, etc. I figured that all these goods would lend themselves to a creepy guessing game. With this concept in mind, I started creating clues for each of the items and printed them on some cardstock:

I wrote 3 clues about each item

Next, I stuck the clues onto the lids of the Halloween boxes and placed the matching object inside of the box. When my students arrived to therapy they had to guess the contents of each box based on the clues that were provided.

Hmmm...what could be inside?

Gravestones, a snake, and goblin snot!

This worked well for some of my older articulation students, too. I simply had them read the clues out loud with their best speech, and had them do some targeted practice of the words that contained their sound. They had a lot of fun! Amazing, how much more motivated students seem to become with themed activities like this. I am already looking forward to the holidays!

~Viola

Speech Jeopardy

One of my favorite whole-group activities to do with my Speech students is Jeopardy -- I have modified this game to target different goal areas / age groups. I have made Artic Jeopardies, Language Jeopardies, SDC Jeopardies, ... the options are endless. Technically speaking it is not really "Jeopardy", since I do not require my students to answer in question format. It is more of a quiz show type competition. Since my students really enjoy this activity (and if they enjoy something, they will work hard!), I thought I would devote a blog post to it.

I have made and accumulated several Jeopardy versions to target different goal areas (I think I have around 6 different /r/ game templates) and am starting to transfer them into an electronic format so that I can make them available to other SLPs through TpT. Making them is quite an involved process, however, the good news is, once they are made, you can re-use them over and over.

I most recently made a language Jeopardy for my 2nd-3rd grade Special Day Class that we played today. The difficulty level of the questions is appropriate for regular education Preschool / Kindergarten students, as well. The categories I incorporated are relatively simple, and match the goal areas my students have been working on in therapy (prepositions, categories, opposites, inferencing, and emotions). Once I was sure of the categories I wanted to use, I came up with five questions for each and typed them up, along with a header for each question type. At this stage I also decided on a point value for each question -- the easier questions are worth fewer points, whereas the harder questions are worth more points. I also made sure to incorporate "Double Jeopardy" questions (worth twice the points!). Then, I printed this whole mess!

At this stage, my project looked something like this:

The early stages! Note that you will also need scissors, 5x8" note cards, and glue.

The next stage entails gluing the questions onto one side of the note card, and the corresponding point value onto the other side (make sure the colors match!).

Side one.

Side two.

I also glue the headers onto some construction paper of a like color. It makes them look nice and at the same time more durable. The last step (although optional) is to laminate each item -- that way your game will last a long time.

Laminated/finished game.

Once you are ready to play the game, you will have to set it up by taping/pinning the categories and questions in a visible place (usually the whiteboard works).

Jeopardy cards taped onto the whiteboard.

Now for the fun part! I have come up with two variations to play this game:

Version 1 (my preferred for SDC groups or younger students)
1. This version allows students to play versus the teacher / SLP.
2. Students take turns choosing a category / point value (e.g., Opposites 300).
3. The question is read out loud.
4. Students then have to come up with the correct answer as a team. (Or you can take turns calling on them until someone gets it right, which is what I usually do).
5. If someone knows the answer, they get the points. If they do not know the answer, the teacher/SLP gets the points.
6.Whoever has the most points at the end is the winner!

Version 2 (my preferred for older students):
1.Divide students into teams.
2.On their turn, a team gets to decide on a category and point value. 
3. The question is read out loud. 
4. The team has to collaborate thinking of the correct answer -- no blurting out or they lose their turn!
5. If the team answers correctly, the team gets the points. If the answer is incorrect, the other team gets a shot. Teams take turns picking questions.
6.The team with the most points wins.

A rule for both variations: Questions with stars on them are "Double Jeopardy" cards and worth twice the points.

An example of a Double Jeopardy card.

For Articulation Jeopardy, all of the answers have the target sound in them. After they answer correctly, all of the students have to chorally practice the target word x number of times. Like I said, this activity is very adaptable.

If you choose to make your own Jeopardy game, the first step is to think up five categories that you want to use. Next, you have to come up with five questions for each category. Once you have your categories / questions thought up, you will have to transfer them onto index cards. On the back of each index card, you assign a point value (100-500 for each category). Make sure that easier questions have a lower value. I have a free Jeopardy Number template available in my TpT store here. You also need to make a header for each category that you have chosen. 

If you would prefer to save yourself the work and buy one of my templates, I currently have a Language Jeopardy (appropriate for 2nd-3rd graders working on Language goals) and the SDC/Preschool/Kindergarten Language Jeopardy game described above available on TpT.

The reason I love Jeopardy so much is that it allows you to see a lot of students at once. This is especially helpful when you are trying to make up missed sessions for several students. In addition, this activity is great for promoting cooperative / team skills in your classroom in addition to building speech and language skills. While the preparation takes some effort, once the cards are made you can laminate them for durability and reuse it every year! Win!

~Viola

Using phoneme-specific workbooks to become more efficient

I am making a conscious effort to work smarter, not harder, this year. As part of this goal, I am also exploring ways to become more efficient. One thing that I realized always ate up a lot of time with my articulation groups was to get each student started with the right worksheet (find the right folder/book/worksheet, pull it out, practice, then put it back). This is of course especially detrimental to those kids who only get to see me for 30 minutes per week. I hate wasting their time! 

 

So what I came up with this year is the development of phoneme-based articulation books. Each of these books contains all my favorite worksheets for one particular speech sound and is organized by word position. I have trialed this idea for /r/.

The finished result - kids love the rainbow cover!

 

Here is how I did it:

1. I gathered all of my favorite worksheets for the target sound.
2. I then organized them by word-position
3. I copied this packet front to back several times (4 times in my case)
4. I found colored construction paper (multiple colors), trimmed it to regular paper size, and laminated it. These are my “dividers” (although you can use real ones if you have them.
5. I separated the sound sections (e.g. initial, medial, final, blends) with the construction paper.
6. I bound the book together.
7. Do this for each book.  



Sample pages.

 

We are fortunate in that we have a spiral binding machine and a laminator at my school, so I was able to put this together quite nicely. However, a binder and dividers would work perfectly fine for this as well! That way you can add on to your book more easily as you get new materials.

 

The subsections contained in my /r/-books are as follows:

• minimal pairs & /r/ at the syllable level
• /r/ initial
• /r/ final
• /r/ medial
• /r/ blends
• vocalic /r/
• mixed worksheets
• short stories for reading practice

Each section gets increasingly more complex, starting with single word level worksheets and ending at the sentence level.

 

Now all I need to do when my /r/ kids arrive is pull out a copy of the book for each student, open it to the word-position they are working on, and have them start practicing. Because the dividers are different colors, I can quickly find the right section:

 

 

An additional perk is that my students really like these books! I have had several students ask if they could “take the book home” (and one of them absolutely hates practicing her /r/ sound!). I think the kids see it as a giant coloring book! But if it gets them to practice, it's all good.

 

These books have been an amazing tool so far, and my plan is to do this for other high-frequency sounds, as well. The initial making of the book took a while, but I think in the end it will be worth it. Give it a try!

~Viola