Topic “Understanding of Language/Comprehension”  

Two toys, one to be Sammy and the other to be Marvin

Picnic 'blanket' (optional)

Toy food

Pictures of the toy food, and pictures of Sammy and Marvin (can be very rough!)

1. Explain that Sammy and Marvin are going to have a picnic.

2. Have the child give them the food following your instructions.

3. Give instructions using 'before' and 'after' e.g. 'give Sammy an apple before you give one to Marvin'.

4. Select the pictures of the food you mentioned, and put them with the pictures of Sammy and Marvin in the right order (for who should have got the food first and who should have got the food second). Do not let the child see.

5. When the child has given the toys the food, have them check your pictures to see if they got it right.

Several different animals or toy people

One or two exciting vehicles, e.g. fire engine and police car

Laminated cue sheet with a picture of a person and then pictures of several actions e.g. jump, sit down, turn around, clap your hands. For example:

Dry wipe marker

A picture to colour - enough copies for everyone doing the activity, and for the adult too.

Colouring pens / pencils

A big book or folder to make a barrier

Explain that this activity is to practise listening, so the child must listen carefully. You will only say the instruction once.

Give the child / children a sheet (one each) and take one yourself.

Put the barrier up, so that the child cannot see your picture.

Give an instruction telling them to colour part of the picture, and colour it yourself. Make sure the instruction uses 'first', 'next, 'middle', or 'last'. E.g. if you have a picture of a robot you could say: 'First colour the robot's head blue and next colour two shoes red.' Or 'colour the middle robot red and blue.'

When you have all finished that instruction, hold up your picture, so the children can check if they got it right.

2D shapes in several different colours

Something to use as a barrier

Imagination!

Cue sheet for 'first', 'next', 'last', 'middle' (optional)

A very simple origami shape. See:

http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-for-kids.html

http://www.tammyyee.com/origami.html

Paper for folding.

Cue sheet for 'first, next, last, middle' (optional)

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.

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

You could also use stories from "Language for Thinking" (Stephen Parsons and Anna Branagan). Initially don't show the pictures but instead read the stories from p136 to the children, before asking the suggested questions on them.

You could also find short animated stories on YouTube for example, so that you can show the child the story after you have narrated it and asked the child questions on it.

Read chunks of the story to the child, or tell the story from the sequence cards. The chunks should be around 50 words long (a paragraph) and/or contain between two and three things that happen. (Use shorter chunks if this is too long for the child).

Ask a question relevant to the key information in the story. For example, suppose this was part of the story: "Lucy rode her red bicycle down the hill. At the bottom she couldn't stop and fell straight into the fish pond..." Relevant questions would be 'What did Lucy do', 'What happened to Lucy at the bottom of the hill': avoid asking questions about details which aren't particularly relevant to the story such as 'What colour was Lucy's bike?';

Ask the child the question then re-read the part of the story which contains the answer to the question;

Show him/her part of the story using pictures.

Try to guide the child to recall the information with the minimum amount of prompts necessary. Try to avoid the situation where you need to say what the answer is. If you keep needing to do this then the story is probably too hard.

- 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

PE equipment

Give sequences of one then two instructions, for example: 'Run to the post then turn around', 'Jump then run to the window', 'Throw the yellow ball', 'Jump three times then turn around'

Variations:

Have a fixed set of instructions, for example turn around, throw the ball, run to the post, jump in the hoop. Let the children take it in turns to be the teacher, giving the other children the instructions. It may be useful to have picture prompts for the instructions which the children can use.

No specific equipment

Paper, coloured pens, a barrier so that children can't see what each other is doing

Black sheet press have a range of ready made sheets for doing these activities.

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.

A teddy or soft toy

1. Tell teddy to do something, e.g. "jump" and then make him do it;

2. Do this three or four times with different actions, e.g. "run", "sleep", "sit", "lie down";

3. Give the child the teddy and tell them to do one or two actions;

4. Take the teddy back and tell him to do an action again, e.g. "run";

5. Tell teddy "don't run" (make sure he stays still!);

6. Tell teddy to run, then tell him "don't run" (repeat);

7. Give the teddy to the child, and then give commands using just run (or another action you chose in "4"). Change between saying e.g. "run" and "don't run". Help the child to keep the teddy still when you say "don't run".

8. Repeat with different actions.

No materials required

- 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

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

1. When the child is familiar with a book point to pictures and ask questions using short phrases beginning with "Where?" e.g. 'Where's Spot?'

2. The child should either point to the appropriate place, or say the name of the place where the object is on the picture (e.g. "basket", "car").

Puppet or teddy or doll.

Items to hide and somewhere to hide them.

- A hand puppet

- Selection of play food

1. Place the puppet on your hand and lay a few items of play food in front of you.

2. Explain that the puppet is hungry.

3. Give your child instructions, e.g. '(puppet) wants the bread', '(puppet) wants the banana'.

4. Encourage your child to give the puppet the piece of food you asked for.

5. After a few turns, swap roles and see if your child is able to tell you which food to give to the puppet.

- A selection of every day items

- A box

- Optional soft toy

- Optional action cards - click here to print

- Optional action dice - click here to print

- Post box - you can make your own with a cardboard box

Optional printable post box template here

- Picture cards to post - cick here for first words picture cards.

Laminated song symbols on a velcro strip

1. Sit opposite the child at the same height and make sure you have their attention

2. Start off offering the child a choice of two song symbols. Help the child choose a song if needed and then sing the song with lots of oomph!

3. Offer the child a choice of the song symbols again and repeat the process.

4. Repeat until you have an idea of the songs the child specially likes.

5. When you sing one of these songs stop before a main word e.g. sing 'Twinkle twinkle little .............' And wait. Will the child put in the word star? If they do, smile and continue.

6. Allow more and more gaps in the songs for the child to sing the words

Copies of idioms pictures, for example from Black Sheep press "Speech Bubbles" pack

School exercise book

Pen/pencil, scissors, glue

The following books may also be useful:

"Red Herrings and White Elephants: The Origins of the Phrases we use Every Day" by Albert Jack (Metro Publishing, 2004)

"Idioms at work" by Vera McLay (Language Teaching Publications, 1987)

Explain that you are going to do some work on idioms. Explain that idioms are phrases that mean something different to what the words mean individually. Give a few examples that you think the student might already know (e.g. "pain in the neck", "get lost")

Using the exercise book, let the student make a title page for their book, saying "Idioms Dictionary" and giving a definition of an idiom - you can help the student compose their own definition

Let the student choose one idioms picture, cut it out and stick it in the book.

Discuss with the student the literal meaning of the idiom, as well as what it actually means.

Have the student write a definition of the idiom in the book, next to the picture. Also have them write a sentence using the idiom in context.

Continue to build up the collection of idioms over time.

This activity requires the purchasing of a particular commercial product. Please help to further develop this sheet by providing an example or description of alternative resources to use in this activity.

Flash cards made from the idioms pictures from Black Sheep press "Speech Bubbles" pack

This activity requires the purchasing of a particular commercial product. Please help to further develop this sheet by providing an example or description of alternative resources to use in this activity.

Idioms pictures from Black Sheep press "Speech Bubbles" pack of cards showing the meaning of the idioms.