Phonics Song

Prepositions

We worked on prepositions in September. Can you match the words to the pictures?

• by


• between


• under


• in


• behind


• over

 

Now use the preposition words in a sentence like this, "The shark is between the chairs."

Up and running

Hi students and parents,

I am excited to have the blog up and running again. I will be updating current work throughout the year. Stop by with your kids and have them talk to you about what we are doing in speech class. There are new links (on the right) to wonderful resources and games to practice speech and langauge skills at home. Let me know if there is information you would like me to add to the blog and please feel free to leave a message or have your children send me a note in the comments.

Keep up the great work Cougars!

Mrs. Kurtin
Speech Langauge Pathologist

October - Occupations

This month we have been talking about occupations. Look at the pictures above and tell what job each person has. Practice using pronouns like He is a ____ and She is a ____.

How many of the jobs have the -er ending?

Can you think of a few tools each person needs for their job?

Don't forget to use your good speech sounds.

Voting for a class pet

Last year we had so much fun checking in on our virtual class pet that we will be doing it again this year. The great white shark from the Monterey Bay Aquarium was release back into the ocean so we will be voting on a new animal to follow this school year.

We are using a bar graph to track the votes of the three nominees.

The choices are:

• Flamingos from the Monterey Bay Aquarium (see them here)
• Lion cubs from the National Zoo (see them here)
• Polar Bears from the San Diego Zoo (see them here)

Voting results will be reported on Monday.

***Post update***

The lion cubs won the vote for class pet but the webcam at the zoo has not been showing them. Instead we have been stopping by the panda bears to see what they have been up to. We will soon be drawing and writing about what we have observed.

August - Back to School.

Welcome back Keeling students and families. I hope you all had a safe, fun and relaxing summer. I feel rested and ready for another fantastic school year. We are going to continue our monthly themes this year and we started off in August by talking about School. The primary students did an activity on the Smartboard where they sorted school supplies into the categories of singular (one) or plural (more than one). We talked about adding s and es to the ends of words when we want to make it more than one.

We also read the book In a People House but Theo LeSieg. I used this book to introduce Labels. We practiced writing our own labels on school items we found in the speech room.

Practice at home by making labels for things around your home.

Charades

Your summer homework is to play games with your family (and read, read, read). Charades is a great language activity and is fun for all ages. To play click and print the images below. Cut on the lines to make cards then take turn acting out and guessing words from the lists.

Teaching Opposites

I challenged my third, fourth and fifth graders to work in small groups and think of a creative way to teach opposites (antonyms) to the younger students. They decided to use the digital camera to take pictures then put them together in a story using movie maker. We are right in the middle of this project but here are just a few pairs of opposites they have captured already. Can you figure out the opposites by looking at the pictures?

What are some more opposite pairs?

Challenge: Draw or take pictures of your words and make your own book of opposites.

Draw and Tell - Kindergarten

Drawing is a great way to get kids talking. The kindergarten students used the SmartBoard today to draw a picture then tell the group about it. They did a great job adding labels to their pictures. Fantastic job kinders.

Asking Questions

Today a group of second graders used the digital camera to take pictures around the speech room. Next they had to think up a question to ask about the pictures. They also used white boards to write down their questions. Here is what they came up with:

When is your birthday?

What is inside the jar?

Where did you get the prizes?

How do you use a computer?

When is school over?

Think up your own questions. Here are some words you might want to use.

Who What When Where Why Which How Can Is Are Do Does

Can you think up more question words?

Getting Ready for MAP Testing

The second graders reviewed some 'concepts of print' this week to get ready for the upcoming MAP testing. They found the information above by walking around the speech room and looking through books. The last two items were simply initialled by me when they were found. Click on the questions to open and print your own copy. Find more practice here.

R minimal pair practice

Practice saying these pairs of words. Listen and feel the difference between the words that start with the "w" sound and those that start with the "r" sound. Click on the pictures above to open and print your own sets of these words. Use the cards to play Bingo, go fish or memory.

Places

In April we are talking about places. We used the Kidspiration software to brainstorm and generate these webs.

Which are common nouns (house, store) and which are proper nouns (Red Robbin, Fry's)? These are just a few places, can you think of more?

What places have your speech sound in them? Remember that words like station are spelled 'tion' but have the "sh" sound in them.

Nature Walks

The primary speech classes took nature walks this week. We collected and discussed nature we found on the playground like flowers, sticks, pinecones, sand and rocks. We took pictures of nature that we were not able to collect like trees and bees.

Here is a list of some of the nature words we discussed:

rock

sand

flower

grass

tree

bee

pinecone

leaf

stick

What words have your sound in them? Can you add more words to this list?

March - Nature

Our focus in March is on nature. Here is a wordle (wordle.com) of nature words that were brainstormed by a group of first graders.

Multiple Meaning Word Project

The intermediate speech groups have been creating multiple meaning word PhotoStories. The students had to choose 3 words that had multiple meanings (blue/blew), take photos that demonstrated the meanings of these words and then narrate sentences about their photos using the PhotoStory3 software. Finding creative ways to take pictures of their words really challenged the kid's critical thinking skills. Can you identify the multiple meaning word used in the two pictures below?

Love of Reading Week

This week the speech students enjoyed quiet, self selected reading time. Popular books included Pinkalicious, Dinosaur books, I Spy and Curious George. It was so much fun we decided to have a reading day once each quarter.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction?

Can you tell the characters, setting and sequence of events for the story Goldilocks and Three Little Bears?

February - Around the Home

This month we are talking about things we have around our home. Below are pictures from a game we play at school. Look at the pictures. Can you name what the items are and tell what we do with them? Which pictures have your speech sounds in them?

New York or Hawaii?

We have been watching webcams in New York City and Hawaii to see what people are wearing. If you were able to take a trip where would you go and what would you pack?

New York (click here to see)
jackets = coats (synonyms)
hats = caps = beanies (synonyms)
sweaters
jeans
pants
mittens
gloves
scarves
boots
turtlenecks

How are mittens and gloves alike? How are they different?

Hawaii (click here to see)
shorts
t-shirts
sunglasses
sandals
tanktops
swimsuits = bathing suit
hats

Do any of these words have your speech sound in them?

January: Clothing

January: Clothing

Talk about what these people are wearing.
Where do you think they live?
What are they doing?
Think about what the weather might be like.

Our Class Pet

The speech and language classroom has a virtual class pet this year. She is a Great White Shark that lives at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Click here to see her (you may need to wait 10-15 seconds for the webcam to load). The other animals we considered were the Giant Pandas from the National Zoo and Shamu from Sea World. The students wrote and presented their opinions about which animal we should have as a class pet. After hearing these persuasive arguments we voted by paper ballots. The Great White Shark had the most votes. We are excited to learn more about sharks and the Monterey Bay Aquarium this year.

Check out the other two contenders here:
National Zoo Web Cams
Shamu