Category sorting is a great activity for multiple populations.  I work on categories with students in preschool, kindergarten, and basic classrooms.  I was getting bored with my Boardmaker pictures that I was using to categorize, so I decided to make a new activity that targets category sorting with new pictures.  Because of the blah weather around here (Michigan) I wanted some bright colors.  So, what came out of those thoughts was... Category Sorting ! There are 10 different mats and 40 different item cards to sort.  There are two sets of the item cards- black outlined cards and color coded cards. The categories are: farm animals letters fruits vegetables numbers shapes zoo animals vehicles toys playground equipment Here is an example of two mats and the color coded cards that go with them: I made two sets of item cards.  There is a color coded set like you see above.  The outline of each card matches the mat.  I also made a set that has black outlines,...

In my work with students who have Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), I have had to become pretty creative with how I work on skills.  My students crave repetition, and do learn from repetition and visual strategies.  Matt and Molly stories from Linguisystems are a great way for me to work on story sequencing, yes/no questions regarding stories, and 'wh' questions. Matt and Molly stories are very simple four picture stories.  The vocabulary is simple.  There are typically only two characters (Matt and Molly) and possibly another animal.  In some of the socially themed stories there are one or two other characters, but they are not named (listed as "friend").  When I work on a Matt and Molly story, I start by presenting each picture and reading the sentences that go with that picture.  Then, I have the student place the sentence cards under the pictures.  Depending on their reading ability, I may read the card, or have the student read the card.  I t...

My students are loving using these book companion packets for their phonemic awareness work!  I have to confess, I am having fun making them too! My latest book that we will be working on is: The Jacket I Wear In The Snow by Shirley Neitzel. In my The Jacket I Wear In The Snow: A Phonemic Awareness Companion , I have included activities for syllable awareness, rhyme awareness, rhyme generation, onset-rime blending, sound blending, and some bonus cards for segmenting. How Many Syllables?: Recognizing Rhyme:   Generating Rhyme: Blending Monosyllable Words Onset-Rime: Blending Sounds to Make a Word:   You can find this packet at my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking HERE . Thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in my phonemic awareness packs! Pass it on to your Kindergarten teachers if they could use something like it.    ...

A few months ago, I stumbled on a post by Speech Room News  about a dollar challenge.  From this, I decided to try "Dollar Days".  I have challenged my students to say 100 words in a session to earn one "speech dollar".  After 10 dollars, they get a trip to my prize box. Before they can participate in a dollar day, their sound needs to be established enough to be able to do at least one syllable words.  Most of the students that participate are able to do their sound in all positions of words if given some visual and verbal cues.  I don't want to be reinforcing wrong productions 100 times! We made cute little speech wallets where the students are keeping their "dollars".    Some of the students have decorated theirs, but they put their lasts names on them, so I did not want to show them.  They look really cute though, and the kids love having a wallet.  They keep them in their speech folders that are kept in my room. When the students ...

I am really excited about my newest activities that I created.  I really needed some simple sentences and stories for a few of my older students who are working on s and z.  I didn't want many graphics, I just wanted to keep it simple.  Because of this, I created No Frills Articulation for S and Z.   In this packet, there are memory cards, phrase worksheets, sentence worksheets, and story worksheets.  I have created pages for all positions of sounds (initial, medial, and final) for all activities. Memory Cards for all positions of s and z Phrases worksheets for all positions of s and z Sentences worksheets for all positions of s and z Stories worksheets for all positions of s and z You can get all of these articulation activities HERE at my TpT store.  Comment below for a chance to win this on Monday, January 21st!...

Next week, my Kindergarten phonemic awareness group is going to focus on the book: There Was A Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow!  By: Lucille Colandro.   I think this book is so cute.  My son who is also in Kindergarten had to do a book report this week, and he picked this book.  I also used this book in a social language group that I run with the school social worker.  Everyone loves this book! My phonemic awareness book companion pack includes activities for syllable awareness, rhyming, onset-rime blending, and sound blending.   There are five activities in this packet:   How Many Syllables?       Recognizing Rhyme     Generating Rhyme     Blending Monosyllable Words (Onset-Rime)     Sound Blending     My students have been loving the activities in my phonemic awareness book companion packs.  I can't wait to use this one next week!  If you want to use it too, you can click HERE to purchase at my T...

This week in my phonemic awareness group, my students worked on the book, The Mitten by Jan Brett.  I made this companion pack of activities to supplement the book.  My students had fun with the five different activities. The Mitten: Phonemic Awareness Companion There are five different activities: How Many Syllables: Blending Syllables: Recognizing Rhyme: Generating Rhyme: Blending Monosyllable Words (onset-rime):   You can find these activities at my TpT store by clicking HERE ...