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Basic Concepts: Dinosaurs, Apples, Pete the Cat, and Toy Story!

I’m pretty much living and breathing basic concepts (and phonology while we’re at it!) this school year, so  I’ve been gathering lots of ideas and materials to teach concepts while still going along with each weekly theme in the preschool classrooms.  I always try to incorporate the weekly themes as much as possible into therapy, because I feel like it is much more meaningful and memorable to them when it involves the same topic they’re being immersed in all week in the classroom!

Here are some fun things we’ve been doing as of late:
1.  Fronts/Backs and Tops/Bottoms: Dinosaur style!

What kids don’t like dinosaurs?! I downloaded this *FREE* printable tot pack from 3dinosaurs for Dino week last week, and used the 2-part puzzle pieces on pages 10-15.  I cut them in half, put all the strips face down in a pile, and the kids took turns flipping over a strip, telling me whether they found the front, back, top, or bottom of a dinosaur.  As we found the counterparts, the kids matched up the dino halves in their piles and their peers’ piles.  We talk about how when you see the feet, that’s the clue that it’s the bottom!

2.  Where in the world do these dinosaurs go? Dino Spatial Concepts!

I used this activity without a barrier because most of my kids still need a lot of support and assistance with spatial concepts. They were given directions like “Put the dinosaur next to the volcano” and “Put an egg under the volcano”…

You can increase the difficulty level by giving details (ie” find a SPOTTED egg” or “Put the dinosaur with the LONG neck…”) and using more difficult concepts like above/below/beside/bottom corner, etc.. Find it for free HERE (Pack #3)

Doing something tangible (moving pieces around) keeps them engaged! I used this for my small group rotation lessons in the classroom because it allowed all the kids to be doing something at once, rather than sitting idly waiting for their turn. When you have 4-5 kids in a group and less than 10 minutes to work on a skill… having each student actively participating and learning is key!!

3. Dinosaur Stomp

–Check out my blog post from last year’s dinosaur week to see my dinosaur gross motor activity. The basic concept cards I made mention of are no longer on TpT, but the kids had to find a particular dino card and then stomp it with their dino foot (ie “Stomp the dinosaur that’s UNDER the chair”). You could do this with any basic concepts cards you have!

4. Playdoh Apples

We used this Apple picking scene from Speech Sprouts’ “Apple, Apple, Where Can You Be?” packet. Give your kids a ball of red Playdoh and put the “apples” in various places (above the crow, in the tree, in the basket, on top of the girl’s head, etc…)– trust me, they will L-O-V-E it!!

Increase the difficulty level by making it an expressive task and have the kids take turns telling everyone in the group where to put the apples! The Playdoh aspect of this was what kept their little hands occupied and kept them engaged in what we were doing. Who doesn’t love Playdoh?! (other than the maintenance staff who has to get all the playdoh slivers off the floor at night! They probably have nightmares…)

5. Pete the Cat: All Around The School Bus

This is another activity I used for my small group rotation in the classroom. We used this emergent reader book from Kinder Blossoms and read each page aloud, one at a time, without showing the picture at first.

Photo courtesy of Kinder Blossoms

Just like in the photo above from Kinder Blossoms, the kids then had to use their Pete & bus pictures to put Pete in the correct spot. After the kids all put their Pete in the given spatial location, we’d look at the page and see if we were correct! Again.. the kids were all moving their Pete the Cat at the same time, so they were all getting hands-on practice simultaneously throughout the activity. They LOVE Pete the Cat!

This activity also worked for concepts front/middle/back of the bus, based on the animals in the windows, on each page.

One of my coworkers also thought it’d be funny to put my picture in a book.. so she found my TpT profile picture and glued it onto the pages for my very own book.. ha. I have to admit, I laughed pretty hard when I saw it on my desk!



6. To infinity… and beyond!

Ok, remember when I said I try to stick to the weekly themes as much as possible? Well… sometimes I stray to get some extra motivation! I picked up this Toy Story book with a mat & figurines at a yard sale for $3 with two little boys in particular in mind!

I gave them a figurine and tell them to place the characters in different spots (ie “Put Woody in the box” “Put Buzz next to the bed” etc… VERY hands-on and interactive! If your students are obsessed with Disney Princesses or Superheros, or anything of the sort (like all of mine are!), you can find little toys like these all the time at yard sales & thrift stores for cheap. Collect a bunch, and then have them put figurines in different places around the room if you don’t have a picture scene to use!

What are some of your favorite activities for basic concepts?

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3rd time’s a charm trying to post this 😆😅 3rd time’s a charm trying to post this 😆😅 Loving 10 Lucky Leprechauns for a St Patrick’s Day book for the littles— my own 2 year old has loved it and so did a lot of my preschoolers last week! 

Super similar in style to “10 Fat Turkeys” — each page adds a leprechaun doing a different action (great for -ing verb practice!) and has a fun repetitive line (“Fiddle de fizz, tis magic it is”) 

Use this book for /l/ and /f/ sound practice too, with your speech sound kids! 

For an easy no prep activity, have a character swing from a vine (pipe cleaner, ruler, string, etc) to a target card like one of the leprechauns in the book! We worked in s-blends too with “swing” and telling the leprechaun to “stop” 💚🍀
❄️ It’s the most wonderful time… of the ye ❄️ It’s the most wonderful time… of the year! ❄️ 
“Turkey Claus” is the best way to transition from Thanksgiving to a Christmas theme and no one will ever prove to me otherwise 😂 🦃 🎅 

And not to get ahead of ourselves, but… Did you know there’s a Valentine’s version coming out in a couple weeks, too?!
Turn your @learningresources sorting houses into s Turn your @learningresources sorting houses into spooky houses for trick or treating!

1️⃣ Decorate them with Halloween stickers (turn it into a speech sound trial reinforcer or following directions activity!)

2️⃣ Put candy mini erasers in the houses (or, make it a silly game and do categories! Put different categories of mini erasers or mini objects in the houses and have them give the trick or treater something from a named category)

3️⃣ Put a person in the house 

4️⃣ Pull up Knock Knock Trick or Treat from @supersimpleofficial on YT

5️⃣ Use Super Simple’s free character printables and use them to go trick or treating at each door! Practice things like predicting who comes next based on the shadow, WH questions, “he/she/they are….” and imitate actions from the characters on the video (steer the ship like a pirate, dance like a ballerina, etc!) 

So easy and minimal prep! Tag an SLP friend below who could use this idea! ⬇️
Who else loves Room on the Broom?! I love it for t Who else loves Room on the Broom?! I love it for the core vocabulary modeling opportunities, rhyming text, repetitive lines, and the great vocabulary used throughout the story! 

ROTB unit with all kinds of story printables is now available on TPT… grab it for your next 2 weeks of Halloween therapy! 🧙‍♀️🎃
🍎🍎 Therapy materials don’t have to have to 🍎🍎 Therapy materials don’t have to have to be fancy!

Grab a cup, stick some apples on, and you have yourself an apple tree for “10 Red Apples” (or any other apple book!)

Some of my kids just aren’t into paper materials so I needed something that would add a “3D”/tangible aspect to the tree besides just sticking paper apples on a paper tree.  This did the trick!

What other books would you use this apple tree with? 
🍎 🍏 🍎
Dressing up book characters is always a fave in pr Dressing up book characters is always a fave in prek! 

“Pirate Jack Gets Dressed” is short and sweet with rhyming text and a focus on clothing and body part vocabulary and colors! All great for the beginning of the year themes like colors, pirates (Talk Like a Pirate Day is on Monday!), and All About Me!

I sent these free story pieces to my email list last week but if you missed them, grab them with the link in my profile! ➡️ @rockchalkspeechtalk
Is this book in your ocean themed collection yet? Is this book in your ocean themed collection yet? I *finally* checked it out this summer and I’ve been using it with almost everyone!

This book works great for…

⭐️sp and sw blends (repeated lines “I spy” and “Swim away”)

⭐️long a sound (“way” is repeated on every page) and I used “hey!” instead of “hello!” on each page

⭐️ Bilabials: I seem to always have 1-2 kids these last few years working on bilabials! “Me” is on every page, and you can use “bye” instead of “see ya later” on each page, too. The last page has tons of bilabials! (up up up, deep, mama (x3), me)

⭐️initial /d/ if you have a backer (down and deep are repeated on each page)

⭐️CV words “hi” and “me” (and “bye” if you use that instead of see ya later

⭐️Core words: down, in, I, see, look, me, go (when I pair with a sensory bin, I also use “like” “get” and “out”

⭐️Repetitive Lines: Makes it more engaging when the kids can chime in and “read” it with you!

⭐️Verbs: I love a book that has actions to act out on each page! Movement always helps keep my kids’ attention in sessions and especially at circle time in a bigger group!

⭐️Describing the ocean animals

⭐️Comparing and Contrasting ocean animals

Literacy based therapy is the easiest way to structure therapy sessions- centering it around a book always sparks ideas for play activities to use with and after the book to work on goals, too!
A Camping Spree with Mr Magee is always one of my A Camping Spree with Mr Magee is always one of my go-to books for a camping theme! 

⭐️ Full of s-blends and initial /k/ opportunities, it’s a great choice for when you have to have mixed speech and language groups (and who doesn’t have kids working on those sounds?!)

⭐️ Lots of opportunities for pronoun + be verb + -ing verb structure sentences, and regular past tense verbs, too!

⭐️ Lots of AAC core word modeling opportunities

⭐️ Multiple opportunities for “why” questions which aren’t always easy to come by!

⭐️ Rhyming text that has a great flow to it— especially love this during whole group!

⭐️ annnnd they make s’mores in the book, which is *obviously* a necessity in any camping theme 😂

Take a look at the mini unit with printables you can use for circle time and small group therapy- I just updated it so redownload from TPT if you already own it! I added ingredient icons and sequencing/retell pictures for the science experiment, 3 sets of Cariboo cards, and basic concept play dough mats for this unit to help you have even more of your goals covered with super easy planning!

We “packed the camper” at circle time this week and it was a hit! Easily adaptable for different language skills, too— Target receptive id or identifying based on descriptors like function, appearance, location, etc! 

Find it on TPT with the link in profile ➡️ @rockchalkspeechtalk

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