It’s Sunday and I’m sitting here working, collecting my thoughts and making plans for the new week. I can’t help but reflect on what a great week I had last week with my students. This is my first time to link up with Teaching Trio and share three of my favorite anythings, and I’m sure it won’t be my last!
I keep a joy journal at work and here are three things that I wrote about in my joy journal this week:
1. Flying Kites: Our local Wal-Mart donated about 50 kites to our school. I grabbed them for a project I plan to do next year. They were sitting in my room and one of my students asked me what they were. He had never seen or flown a kite before! I asked if he would like to learn how and we headed outside. We had such a good time. The wind was perfect. There was very little running involved. We talked about distances, higher/lower; the wind, faster/slower, and many more other basic concepts that were targets in his IEP. I had so much fun with this activity that I decided to pick one group each week until the end of the year to go outside and fly kites with. It’s officially one of my new favorite things to do in speech!
2. Cold Sand: I have fond memories of digging in dirt and playing in the sand as a child. We used spoons and tin pie plates to make mud pies. I have also made some very amateur sand castles when camping at local state parks. My three year old students love playing in the sand box. Since they choose to use it every single session, I decided to make flowers with words on them that targeted final consonant sounds to get more articulation trials in during a session. I gave each of the students a flower pot. They filled it with sand and “planted” each flower in it as they said it three times. They used the watering can to pour more sand on it once it was full. Of course we dug our fingers down deep into the sand and covered up our hands for fun too! That’s what makes cold sand one of my favorite things to do in speech this month!
3. Making Kids Laugh: We had a special take home activity this week where we partnered with HEB and sent home a package of muffin mix with each student. A handout accompanied the mix with a list of vocabulary words to use and questions to ask during the activity. The same day, Wal-Mart also donated this adorable battery operated mini SUV to the school. We made an impromptu sign and the name has now stuck! The vocabulary vehicle made it’s debut driving the muffin mix up and down the halls, delivering one package to each student. You cannot imagine the laughter and squeals of delight as they saw me squeezed into this tiny plastic car zipping up and down the hall! I guess that means that I would do just about anything to make my students laugh, making it the most important in my favorite things to do in speech!
Love outdoor activities with the kiddies! It's perfect weather for flying kites!