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Topic “L1c”
think and talk about events in the past and future
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Which day? Sheet of paper with 3 boxes drawn on them for yesterday, today and tomorrow. A counter. Optional: sets of symbol cards or pictures showing a variety of activities - including activities the student may have done. You can create symbols cards using the Commtap Symboliser for PowerPoint. | 1. Talk about each day, one at a time. Get the student to draw or write things they have done or will do in each box. Use the picture symbols if the student is having difficulty coming up with things. 2. When you have finished, explain that there is going to be a quiz. Describe an activity and the student must say if they did it yesterday, did it today or will do it tomorrow. 3. Have them step the counter over onto the right day. | This works best when there are key things which are different about each day! |
| The Story of Fred Set of three pictures - one showing a picture of a child, one showing a picture (preferably of the same person!) at a similar age to the student and one a picture of an older person. These could be photographs or drawings. Choose three ages which are appropriate/relevant for the student.
Large 'thought clouds ' on A3 or A4 paper: Sticky tape Pens Picture symbol prompts if required. You can create symbol prompts using the Commtap Symboliser for PowerPoint. | ||
| Calendar Calendar Pens | This is an ongoing activity. You could take photos of the key events, and put them on the calendar. | |
| Daily Schedule/Picture Schedule Any activity or set of activities where the student might use a schedule or have a visual timetable. You can create a visual timetable/schedule using the Commtap Symboliser for PowerPoint. |
tell an adult what happened
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Naughty puppet "What happened?" prompt (e.g. from Black Sheep Press Narrative Pack) Large hand puppet (such as "Molly" from LDA) or large rag doll or soft toy. Classroom equipment | 1. Stick the "What happened?" prompt on the board. 2. Produce the puppet and introduce it to the children. 3. Explain that you are going to practise talking about what happened, and that Molly (or whatever you call the puppet) will help the children to do this. 4. Explain that Molly is sometimes a bit naughty. 5. At this point, the other adult makes an excuse and leaves the room. 6. While the second adult is out of the room, make Molly do something naughty (e.g. take rubbish out of the bin, hide something in the cupboard, kick someone, jump on the furniture, or play with the light switch etc.) 7. The second adult returns to the room (send a child to collect them if necessary). 8. When the second adult comes back, ask the children to explain what happened while they were out of the room. 9. Steps 5-8 can be repeated a number of times if necessary. 10. The children can write up what happened in their literacy books. | This works best as a group activity. This activity compliments the "What happened?" work from the Black Sheep Press Narrative Pack. You need two adults for this activity - or alternatively you could have two puppets. One of the puppets goes away whilst the other one does something a bit naughty. The children then have to tell the puppet who went away what happened. Having the children describe what happened to a person who didn't see is more natural than asking them to talk to someone who also saw the event. It gives them a reason to communicate. To start with, have Molly do one or two things while the adult is out of the room. As the children become more used to the activity, increase this number. This gives them more to remember. If working with a mixed ability group, the more able children can be asked to use the language of sequencing (e.g. "first", "second", "then", "next", "last" etc.) |
think and talk about events in the past and future
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Which day? Card with 3 boxes, for yesterday, today and tomorrow A jumping frog (or any other toy animal that jumps!) | 1. Talk about each day, one at a time. Have the child draw or write key things they have done or that they will do in each box. 2. When you have finished, explain that there is going to be a quiz. Describe an activity and the child must say if they did it yesterday, today or if they will do it tomorrow. 3. Have them jump the frog onto the right day. | This works best when there are key things which are different about each day! |
| Walter the Worm Set of three toy animals - a small one, a medium sized one, and a large one - all the same colour - for example three plastic worms
Large 'thought clouds ' on A3 or A4 paper: Sticky tape Pens | * It is better to do this over at least two sessions. If the child is finding it easy to think about this, you could repeat the activity but have the child think about when he was a baby, and then about when he is grown up. | |
| Calendar Calendar Pens | This is an ongoing activity You could take photos of the key events, and put them on the calendar | |
| Visual Timetable Any activity where you use a visual timetable This activity is also suitable for working with children at lower levels: for example to develop communication about past present and future experiences (English Speaking P7), and sequence pictures of daily events (Maths Shape Space and Measures P8). You can make a visual timetable with symbols using the Commtap Symboliser for PowerPoint.
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name 3d shapes eg sphere
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| 3D shapes Printed cards with pictures of the shapes and their names. Selection of 3D shapes. | 1. Use simple 3D shapes like cube, sphere etc. 2. Make a model with them and label the different shapes you can see. 3. Match the shapes shown in the cards with the 3D shapes. 4. See if the child can name some of the shapes they can see. 5. Ask the children to use their shapes to make the same model. See if they can name the shapes as they go, and tell you where they are. | Start with a small number of different shapes - e.g. cubes and cones. |
| 3D and 2D shapes Printed cards with shapes and names. Selection of 2D and 3D shapes. |
form lower case letter shapes
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Formation of a letter / linking to it's sound (1) Some or all of the following: Feely letters / magnetic letters & bag (or water tray) - use lower case letters Play dough (or similar) (LDA Rol 'n write alphabet letters and marble, if available - see www.ldalearning.com) Small sand tray with dry sand or salt Finger paints?! (Messy but fun!) Rough surface (e.g. carpet) Smooth surfaces Paints Big white board & pens Small white board & pens Selection of coloured pens / pencils | 1. Child closes eyes - selects feely letter or magnetic letter from a bag (or water tray). 2. Child guesses letter by feeling the shape. (Make sure they holding it the right way round.). 3. Child opens eyes & watches while adult models using forefinger to trace over the shape of the letter saying the sound - child copies. 4. Child makes the shape of the letter using play dough and / or in similar material. 5. Child rolls the marble on the Rol 'n' Write letter (if available) watching the direction the marble rolls, then goes over the letter with forefinger, saying the sound. 6. Child traces the shape of the letter with forefinger (while saying the sound) on different surfaces - rough carpet, smooth table, soft cushion, etc. 7. Child copies the shape of the letter (while saying the sound) using different writing tools - painting, wax crayons, big white board / pens in different colours etc (as available). 8. Go onto the next activity 'Formation of a letter / linking to it's sound (2)', or end with adult tracing a letter shape on child's back / child guesses it. | This activity is best done one to one - especially for children struggling to remember grapheme phoneme correspondences (gpc's). Child should already be able to recognise (read) the letters by sound or name. As a general rule - work on two or three letters at a time but move at child's pace. Child will need the necessary motor skills in order to do this work - although these activities could also link to a child's Occupational Therapy work. Additional activities: Could also - make the lower case letter shapes in collage, in pegs on a peg board, in Lego or in cooking with a letter shaped pastry cutter. Or outside - in soil, in wet sand, 'water' paint on the ground etc / try to link to child's interests. Links with other TAP activities: This activity links to TAP Activity ER P8 recognise half the letters of the alphabet - but can be used for digraphs and trigraphs as well. It also links to "PA Phon listen for beginning and ends of words") on www.commtap.org. |
| Formation of a letter / linking to it's sound (2) (Based on the principle of 'Multisensory Links' from the Dyslexia Institute) Small white board & Pens A4 sheet of paper divided into quarters Pencil Coloured pencils or felt tipped pens | This activity follows on from the previous activity. Remember to Teach: *Correct grip of writing tool *Use of hand rather than whole arm movements *Correct sitting *Correct position of paper. If the child knows the letter names as well, instead of just saying the sound when writing the shape of the letter, encourage the child to say for example: "SSSS" (letter sound) "is Es" (letter name). For letters that are frequently confused or reversed e.g. b / d - it will help to have a picture clue to show from step 1, and focus on the starting point of the letter - so for letter b have a picture of a bat and ball and focus on the top of the handle of the bat as the starting point (unless the school encourages full cursive writing in which case all letters start from the baseline - check the school policy). Further activities Link to ICT - useful letter formation demonstration and activities: Words and Pictures Magic Pencil Handwriting at https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize. |
use sequencing words in a range of contexts
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| The races movies Digital camera or camera phone to take a video clip 3 characters e.g. plastic worms First Next Last 'podium' drawn on a sheet of paper (optional) or medals (optional) First, next, last prompt sheet | 1. Set up a race course, and talk about beginning and end. 2. Have the child help you make the worms race, and film this. 3. Watch the film clip back and have the child describe the race and who came first, next, last. 4. Put the worms on the podium in the right places, or award each worm the right medal if you have them. | You can use any toys, or the children can race. It can also be played out and about by observing e.g. cars at traffic lights etc. |
| Movie stars Digital camera or camera phone to take a video clip Pictures of actions the child can do (optional) First next last prompt sheet | You could have them put the pictures of the actions into the order they did it and then describe the film clip. They may need to use the prompt sheet. This can be generalised to make clips of the child doing any sort of everyday sequence of actions, which the child can watch and describe using the target words: these could all be collected on a computer, or on a digital photo frame. | |
| Walk the walk A wind up toy (e.g. "Simon the Sheep") Pictures of things it might see or do on its walk A prompt card of first next last / beginning middle end | ||
| Making Sandwich A sandwich assembly play kit (e.g. from the Early Learning Centre). Or you could use real bread and fillings (make the sandwiches small so you can have a few goes) Pictures of the key parts (bread, cheese, tomato, lettuce, butter etc) First next last prompt sheet | You could vary this by making soup with different ingredients. You could 'feed' the sandwich to a toy or to an adult if you are working with a younger child. You could make real sandwiches! You could film this with a digital camera or camera phone so the child can show it to another person, or simply watch it back. |
predict infer and analyse from a picture and story
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday situation with a picture and a story 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 1 and the level C questions. This programme has questions for a range of ability levels. | 1. Choose a scenario picture. 2. Show the children the picture and read the story to them. 3. Focus on questions that require more working out and understanding of the context, e.g. 'What will happen if he...?' 'Why is it made of that?' 'If you were X, what would you say / do?' 'Why can't he?' (LfT level C questions). | Use some simpler questions to start with (LfT Level A and B if you are using this publication). If a child gives a short answer, prompt them to expand it. If the child finds these questions easy, move on to having them read the story rather than you telling it. Go back to using simpler questions and move up through question levels again. |
knows alphabetical order
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Using an alphabet rainbow to learn alphabetical order Two sets of plastic or wooden lower case letters. Keep the two sets in separate bags. An A3 landscape chart of the letters set out in alphabetical order and made into a rainbow arc using WordArt | 1. Check that the child knows all the letter names. Teach any they are unsure of. 2. Point to the chart and ask the child to read the alphabet with you. 3. Give the child one set of letters and ask them to make their own rainbow using the chart as a guide:
4. Ask the child to close their eyes and tell you the order. 5. Set out the the letters the child is able to recite in alphabetical order with the second set of letters, for example:
6. Select the next few letters which the child does not yet know the order of from the second set of letters, for example:
7. Ask the child to match the target group of letters with the first set, saying the name of each letter as they do so. For example:
8. Take the target group again, jumble them up, ask the child to put them in order again, saying the names as they do so. 9. Ask the child to close their eyes and put the letters one by one in their hand (in order) and ask them to identify the letter. Repeat, faster and faster. 10. Repeat steps 1-9 daily until they know the target set. Once the child is confident with this set of letters: 11. Add these letters to the known ones and introduce the next group of letters. Other exercises: 12. Ask the child to close their eyes and point to where they think a particular letter is in the array e.g. m. 13. Repeat 12 using a simple dictionary, high frequency word chart set out in alphabetical order, phone book, index of a topic book, library classification chart etc. | Use a record sheet. Make a plan with all the adults working with the child to teach the remaining letters. Make sure the child points with you. Do this daily. In this way you will identify which bits they know e.g. a-g. Keep a record of this by colouring in an A4 copy of the chart. This is the 'target group'. If a-g are already known, the target group may be h i j k. Remember that l,m,n,o,p is a tongue twister. This helps to show why it is important to know alphabetical order. The alphabet rainbow can be used to teach spellings and phonically regular patterns - letters are pulled out of the rainbow to build words. |
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