Topic “P8”  

Pictures of a fridge, washing machine, cupboard, suitcase

Pictures of food, clothes.

Take it in turns to instruct each other to put e.g. 'socks in the washing machine', 'put the pasta in the cupboard'

A clothesline - either a picture or a real line and pegs

Pictures of clothes

A TV guide

Outline of a pizza base

Pictures of pizza toppings. Or - draw a base and draw the toppings onto it.

1. Take it in turns to instruct each other to put clothes on the line, e.g. 'Put the jumper on the clothesline.'

2. Go through the TV guide and find favourite shows. Say what you are watching on TV'. e.g. 'I'm watching cartoons on TV

3. Put toppings on the pizza base e.g. 'I'm putting chicken on my pizza'.

Action pictures

Place pictures

Pictures of furniture and objects

Pictures of people

Outline of a bus / train / classroom

Pictures of different vehicles

An interesting object to use as 'treasure'

everyday objects, shopping bag, table

One pupil sits at the 'shop'. Another is asked to go and buy an object.

pictures of everyday objects, post box

Take a picture of an object, say or sign what it is, and post it

pictures with paper clips attached, magnetic fishing rods, 'pond' e.g. a flat box

Eight picture cards, small piece of paper with a fish drawn on it

Picture cards or objects

Use one of the pre-made flowcharts or use the blank flowchart to make your own one.

You can find these charts on www.commtap.org:

Template for creating your own question flowchart: Blank 3 question challenge

Pre-made flowcharts: The Animal Challenge, The Food Challenge

Labels to write the answers on

Write one answer per sticky label. Stick one of the labels to the back of the child / children.

Using the questions on the flowchart, they must work out what the word on their back is.

Object cards (optional)

Prompt sheet with a series of boxes in order, e.g.

1. Ask the child to tell you about something they have done, e.g. making a snowman.

2. Encourage them to tell you what they did first, next, next, at the end, using the prompt sheet.

A timeline drawn on paper or a string

Bag

Objects to do with a familiar routine, e.g. getting up

Use an event retell sheet with columns for 'who', 'what', 'when', 'where'.

Simple everyday stories, for example:

'Going to the shops to buy new red shoes, nearly not finding red shoes, happiness at finding them at last'

'going out to play in the rain and jumping in puddles. Mum is cross'

'playing football with Dad and Dad kicks the ball into a tree'

'going on the bus on the bus and loosing teddy. Finding him next day at the bus station'.

Tell a story to the child using miniature people, some eg's in next column.

Get the child to retell the story to you. This works well in a small group or in a one to one situation.

Use a retell sheet to help the child answer 'wh' questions about the story. The child can write the answers and/or draw a picture. The child can read the story back to an adult.

Barrier games designed to elicit 4 word phrases e.g. Black Sheet programme

Sheet with boxes labelled "...will...", "...is..." and "...has...":

Simple sequencing pictures showing an action that is about to happen, the same action happening and the action when it is complete, for example Black Sheep Press's 3-step sequencing pack. Alternatively, you could make your own (e.g. take photos of the child, or draw them) or you could print them out from a picture resource such as "Flash-Pro" if you have it, or use other commercially produced sequencing pictures such as LDA or Colorcards.

Glue or Blu-tac

Pen or pencil

1. Put the sheet with the boxes labelled "....will....", "....is...." and "....has...." in front of the child and help the child to read the words.

2. Mix up the pictures from one of the sequences.

3. Help the child put them in the correct order, putting them in the correct boxes on the sheet.

4. Ask him/her to describe the sequence, using the words "will", "is" and "has" in his/her description (e.g. "the boy will eat the apple, the boy is eating the apple, the boy has eaten the apple"). You may need to give the child some support to use the right form of the verb at this stage.

5. Help him/her to stick them in the correct places on the sheet (use Blu-tac if you want to be able to re-use the pictures).

6. Help the child to write a description (using the words "will", "is" and "has") under the pictures.

Sequencing pictures as above.

Sequencing pictures as above.

Card with a large '?' on it (some sets of cards come with this card included).

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 B 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 the questions where the child must use what they can see in the picture and also some wider context to answer the questions ("LfT level B questions"). E.g. 'What will happen next?' 'How did he...?' 'What is a ....?' 'How are these the same?'

Basic kitchen equipment - dependent on what you make.

Whiteboard or paper

Pen

Camera (optional)

1. Choose something very simple which the children are familiar with, e.g. making toast.

2. Explain to the children that you are going to make toast, and that they are the 'teacher'. They need to tell you exactly what to do, in steps.

3. Ask them what the steps are, and write or draw them on the paper or whiteboard. Do not correct their answers.

4. Carry out the steps exactly as they have told you. Allow them to identify any errors and to correct them.

5. Record the accurate stages at the end of the activity.

6. Photos of the stages of the activity can be used as a sequencing task as well.

Photos taken in the activity above

Paper

Scissors

Glue

Paper

Pen

Shop!

Some money

Paper

Pen

Whiteboard

Copies of pages of text the child can read easily

Red pen

Green pen

(1) Talk about how 'the' and 'a' are used differently - 'the' is used when we are talking about a thing and we know which one we are talking about. 'A' is used when we are talking about a thing and we could be talking about any example of that thing.

(2) Tell the child to read the text you give them. Explain that each time they come to the word "a", they should put a red circle round it. Each time they come to the word "the", they should put a green circle round it. Each time, ask them to explain why you use that word, and how changing it would change the meaning of the sentence (e.g. how "the children went inside the house" is different from "the children went inside a house").

Toy animals of various sizes, colours and kinds

Cards showing each letter of the alphabet

Pictures of single objects starting with a vowel

Pictures of single objects starting with a consonant

Pictures of single objects starting with a vowel that the child can stick into a book

Scissors

Glue

Book

Pen

An old catalogue such as the Argos catalogue.

Big and little food pictures (cut out), 2 baskets and 2 trolleys, each with a picture of a girl or boy.

1. Place the baskets and trolleys with some matching food pictures where the child can see them.

2. Ask the child to put the big or little items of food in the girl or boy's basket or trolley

e.g. put big apple in girl's basket / put little banana in boy's trolley / put big biscuit in girl's trolley.

Encourage the child to put the food into the appropriate basket or trolley.

Toys/pictures of table, cupboard, chair and bed.

Pictures of dog and cat actions (cut out).

Big and little toy animals

Doll and teddy

2 barns and fields

A ball.

Two goals, one red and one green.

Two baskets, one red and one green.

4 pieces of classroom equipment e.g. pencil, pen, ruler, rubber.

2 boxes of different colours

A sheet of paper or the child's writing book

A pen

A long piece of card (to write sentences on)

A large marker pen

Scissors

1. Explain that you are going to play some sentence games and need to begin by writing a sentence.

2. Start from the child's experience so that the writing will have meaning for them. For example: "Tell me what you did last night.", "Tell me about your friend."

3. If necessary, and appropriate, discuss how to add to (or enrich) the sentence with an "extra clause", or an "adverb", or "adjectives" (see the comments for an explanation).

4. Write the agreed sentence in the child's book or on paper (in preparation for writing it on the card), encouraging the pupil to remember the sentence as you write it slowly. Constantly read what you have written so far, asking s/he to repeat what it was you said.

5. Ask the child to read the sentence to you as you write it slowly on the long piece of card.

6. Ask the child to cut up the card into separate words.

7. Re-read the sentence together then muddle up the separate pieces of card.

8. Ask the child to re-make the sentence, encouraging re-reading.

9. Ask the child to close his/her eyes, take a word away, ask the child to deduce the missing word by re-reading.

Commercially produced sequencing cards e.g. Black Sheep press (see general resources), Colorcards - available from many educational suppliers.

First/last or first/next/last template.

1. Use the first/last template to model the sequence of first and last.

2. Start with 2 picture sequences of a simple event e.g. 'rain falling' 'girl puts up umbrella'.

3. Talk about the pictures. Ask the child 'What is happening in the first picture?' Discuss the consequences of the first picture (getting wet) and what the girl does (puts up the umbrella)

4. Put the two pictures into the template: one in the FIRST column and the other in the LAST column.

5. Do this with a range of 2 sequence picture stories.

6. Turn the cards face down and take turns to turn them over and put them in the right part of the FIRST/LAST template. Can the child tell the story?

7. When the child is confident using the FIRST LAST template to order 2 picture sequences move onto using 3 picture sequences and use the FIRST/NEXT/LAST template.

8. Follow the procedure for working with 2 picture sequences.

Clothes pegs

String for a washing line.

Sequence cards

Published cards of 3 step sequences (LDA or Colour Cards do some good ones).

Sequences of 3 pictures on paper (Black Sheep Press have a wide range)

Digital camera photos of the child or people he knows doing every day activities

Ready made picture sequence cards, for example 'And then' (published by Schubi), pictures taken from a storybook.

Sources of picture sequences:

From https://www.learningresources.com/:

Step 1

1. Start with three cards: the three cards can make up a whole story, or be part of a longer one;

2. Tell the story with the cards introducing each card one by one;

3. Get the child to have a go at retelling the story.

Step 2

Using the same cards, this time give the child the cards all mixed up - the child needs to put the cards back in the right order and tell the story.

Step 3

1. Using three cards which the child hasn't seen before, mix them up and give them to the child to try and work out the story;

2. When the child has put them in an order that he or she is happy with (not necessarily the right order) get him/her to tell you the story (see 'comments' column for ideas of what to do if the cards are in the wrong order)

Step 4

Continue with more cards from the same story if the whole sequence is more than three steps long.

Step 5

Try working with longer sequences.

2 sets of moveable letters, or letters printed clearly on cards

1. Make sure the child knows the concept of 'same' and 'different' (if not, this can be taught using objects, or pictures of objects).

2. Choose 2 letters that do not look or sound similar (e.g. s and m).

3. Put one of each letter in front of the child.

4. Hold a second copy of one of the letters, and say 'Look, this is the same as this'. Put the letter down next to its pair.

5. Give the child the extra letter, and ask 'Which is the same?' they should put the letter down next to its pair.

6. If the child does not know, or does it wrong, model again.

7. Repeat with the second extra letter.

8. Ask the child to match the letters 3 or 4 times in this way, or until they are clear which pairs of letters are the same.

2 sets of moveable letters, or letters printed clearly on cards

2 sets of moveable letters, or letters printed clearly on cards

1. Define child's sitting space with carpet tile or tape. Always use the same space for big book time. (This might not be necessary for all children).

2. Start with short periods of shared sitting and listening to a story and build up to longer times. Using an egg timer may help to establish the idea of good sitting initially. When good sitting is established the timer can be removed.

3. If asking a question about the shared book to a group always use the child's name to alert him/her to a question - even a question addressed to the whole class.

4. Start by asking questions you know the child can answer.

5. If necessary focus the child's attention by taking his/her hand and pointing to/touching the relevant part of the book

6. Allow the child a chance to pre-read the big book so that events are already familiar.