Topic “Level 2”  

"On my way home from school" resource: activity available to download free from www.speechteach.co.uk

(see: www.speechteach.co.uk
/p_resource/speech/
on_my_way_home.htm)

Download selected pictures and assemble the board in your chosen way. A start square and a finish square are recommended - try not to make the game board bigger than an A3 size sheet. Laminate for future use.

1. Players each have a token and roll dice or use a spinner to move places on the board;

2. When a player lands on a picture of an animal they must say the starter phrase "On the way to school I saw..." and then add the name of that animal;

3. The activity can be extended by asking players to add to their story. Additional information could include adjectives (describing words - e.g. "big"), conjunctions (joining words - e.g. "and", "because") and verbs (action words, e.g. "run", "drop"). For example, "On my way to school today I saw a tiny mouse."

Commercially available sequencing pictures

Photo-copied pictures from a favourite book

Photos from an outing

1. Give the child first 2 then 3 pictures to sequence appropriately. Share talking about the pictures first then see if the child can put them in order.
2. Ask the child about the first picture e.g. 'Look.... who is this' 'Look.... what's happening?' etc. Can the child answer? Give a prompt if needed.
3. Stick the pictures into a scrap book. Can the child show an adult or peer and comment on the pictures.

'wh' words (who, what, when, where) on symbol cards

You can make question symbol cards using the Commtap Symboliser for PowerPoint.

1. Share an attractive book with the child. Point to the pictures talk about what is happening in the picture, what the characters are doing etc

2. Let the child become very familiar with the book

3. Ask questions about the story and pictures and use one of the 'wh' word symbols to help focus the child's attention e.g. 'who is eating?' and show the 'who' symbol, or 'where is Spot hiding' and show the 'where' symbol. Help the child with model answers if needed. E.g. 'Look Spot is hiding here...under the rug.'

A 'wh' word retell sheet

A familiar book

A picture of an everyday event, or social setting e.g. crossing the road, or going to the cinema.

A story to go with the picture (no more than 5 or 6 sentences).

Or

See the resource sheets in 'Language for Thinking' (LfT) by Parsons and Branagan (Published by Speechmark). If using this publication, use Module 3 (the child reads the story) and the level A questions.

1. Choose a scenario.

2. Let the child read the story.

3. Ask the child questions verbally focusing on questions where the child looks for the answer in the text and just uses a little background knowledge, e.g. 'Find one that is....', 'When did...', 'What does this do?' 'What else is an X? etc. ("LfT level A questions").

A picture of an everyday event, or social setting e.g. crossing the road, or going to the cinema.

A story to go with the picture (no more than 5 or 6 sentences).

Or

See the resource sheets in 'Language for Thinking' (LfT) by Parsons and Branagan (Published by Speechmark). If using this publication, use Module 2 and the level A questions.

1. Choose a scenario picture.

2. Show the children the picture and let them read the story.

3. Ask the child the questions verbally.

4. Focus on questions where the child looks for the answer in the picture and just uses a little background knowledge (the LfT level A questions). E.g. 'Find one that is....', 'When did...', 'What does this do?' 'What else is a X? etc.

Stories could be taken from reading books, or from picture sequence cards. (For example 'And then' published by Schubi).

Read chunks of the story to the child, or tell the story from the sequence cards. The chunks should be around 100 words long (a couple of paragraphs) and/or contain between two and four things that happen. (Use shorter chunks if this is too long for the child).

Ask the child to retell the chunk you have read.

The child could also be asked to reconstruct the story using drawing, using miniatures (e.g. playmobil), selecting and ordering cards from a set of picture sequence cards.

For the child to gain more information from stories and explanations at other times he/she will be assisted by the use of visuals to support this, and also by being asked a question before hearing the story or explanation so that he/she has something to focus his/her listening on.

Familiar picture story books - the story should involve at least two people/animals etc.

1. Read the book to the child - make sure they can see the pictures - (note this is NOT a reading activity - the child does not need to read the book);

2. As you go through the book, say what each person is doing and what they are going to do on the next page, for example "Daisy is wearing a hat", "Sam is going to put a hat on";

3. Next time round, ask questions like "who is wearing a hat?", "who is going to put a hat on": accept the child's answer, however if it is incorrect, you can say "I think Sam's going to wear the hat", then turn the page, and say something like "oh, yes, he put the hat on". If the child got it right, then you can say something like "Yes! Sam put the hat on!".

You can use purpose designed pictures, or you can make your own:

Make a set of pictures using a digital camera with at least two children you are working with. You could also use two soft toys such as a teddy and a doll.

Make a sequence of pictures showing the children doing various actions, such as putting on a hat, kicking a ball, drinking something, eating a cake.

First picture: show the two children;

Second picture: one child doing the action e.g. putting a hat on - and the other child waiting to do the action;

Third picture: the other child doing the action (the first child should also be in the picture having done the action - e.g. if they have just put a hat on, this picture should have them with the hat on).

Put the three pictures in this order in a book.

- 2 different soft toys

- 2 plates

- 2 boxes or baskets

- big/little food pictures - click here to print

2. Put the 2 soft toys in front of your child, and put a plate and box/basket in front of each one.

2. Select four or five pairs of pictures (i.e., big and small apple, big and small burger etc.) and spread them out - putting the big and small pictures next to each other. Say the name of each picture as you put them out.

3. Ask your child to put an item of food on the doll's or teddy's plate or basket (e.g. "put the big banana on teddy's plate").

- boy/girl figures - click here to print

- big/little everyday items - click here to print

Two soft toys

cups and plastic food

Laminated symbols for who and what

Use symbols you already have, or get them using the Commtap Symboliser.

1. Set up a tea party together and talk about it using 2/3 word phrases e.g. "teddy's got the cup" and "dragon's got the banana";

2. Play at drinking and eating etc.;

3. Show the symbol for "who" and ask "Who has the banana?" To start with give the model answer "Look.........teddy's got the banana";

4. As the child gets used to this type of response give fewer clues e.g. "Look, ... t....." etc.

Small figures

Small furniture

Small animals

1. Use these to play games so that the boy sleeps on the bed or the camel jumps on the chair etc. Ask "who" questions as above using the "who" symbol;

2. Model the correct answer if needed.

Favourite book

See above activities for resources, plus laminated "what" symbol

Any of the above equipment

Home made dice:

(Stick "who" and "what" symbols onto sides of a square box to make a dice)

Use symbols you already have, or get them using the Commtap Symboliser.

Any of the above equipment

Several "Who?" and "What?" symbols

Bag

For the symbols, use symbols you already have, or get them using the Commtap Symboliser.

e.g. a pop-up or a picture book

When the child is familiar with a book and the possible answers to likely questions point to pictures and ask questions using a short phrase e.g. 'Where's Spot?', 'Who's that?', What's that?'. You want a two word answer e.g. 'under bed' etc.

Digital camera

Book of photos taken at school

If a digital camera is not available use ordinary cameras and photos.

Dressing up cloths

Cooking toys

Dolls

Tea set

Simple outline drawings, e.g. pictures of food, everyday objects, or pictures related to the current class topic

Coloured crayons or pens

Safety scissors

1. Put three or four pictures in front of the child;

2. Make sure the child understands the names of the items in the pictures (e.g. ask them to "find the apple");

3. Ask the child to colour or cut out one of the items (for example "cut out the fish", "colour the house");

4. Guide or prompt the child if they are having difficulties working out what to do;

5. After a few goes, you can give the child a go at telling you what to do.

Various PE activities, for example

ball and beanbag

or

Crawl tunnel or bench or mats etc.

- printable shopping game pictures - click here

- You could substitute the printed pictures for real objects.

1. Print and cut out the pictures.

2. Put the bag and the trolley in front of the child.

3. Lay the shopping items out on the table.

4. Explain to your child you would like them to do some shopping and put the item in either the bag or the trolley.

5. Some examle instructions you could use:

- put the carrot in the bag

- put the pizza in the trolley

6. After a few turns, ask you child to give you an instruction.

- Animal post boxes and food pictures - click here to print

- Toys - tea set, 2 different soft toys and play food.

- 2 hand puppets

- Play food