Peek At My Week

So I will be honest here, it hasn't been the easiest getting back into the swing of things since winter break. We came back to school to a two day week, then we had 2 subzero "cold days", and the following week we had an "arbitrary Friday" (Friday schedule on a different day) and then a half day on Friday.  Long story short, we had 3 (partial) weeks where my head was spinning trying to figure out when I needed to be where.  To aid in keeping my sanity I decided to keep it simple last week...keeping it simple in my traveling speech room means that we play games! Of course, there is a lot of work along with the games, but instead of coming up with some elaborate reinforcer for the students to use I just grabbed a few favorite games off my shelf. Also, I like to see how the students interact with each other while they are playing games.

Game #1 of the week was "Don't Break the Ice".  This game is GREAT for therapy for several reasons. Reason number 1 is that it is sooo easy to play! Kindergartners can pick up the rules after a 30 second explanation/demonstration. Reason number 2 is that although its easy enough for kindergarteners to play, I have found that even my older kids (6th graders) seem to get a kick out of it! Reason 3 is that it is quick to play, this way the majority of the time the students are in therapy is spent on the actual "task cards" that I pair with the game. We used don't break the ice with our artic cards and with a question worksheet (I read the questions and the students verbally answered).  Don't have artic cards? I didn't either at the beginning of the year, but we use THESE which work great! 

Game #2 which is always a big hit with my younger students was CandyLand.  I purchased Candy Town Articulation Cards from Jenna Rayburn's TPT store.  They are the BEST! I don't know why, but for some reason I cannot put my finger on, it's just way more fun to play this game when you have the targets on the actual cards instead of just using regular artic cards with them.  She also has a language edition of these cards which I just finished prepping and cannot wait to use with my students! The little bags next to them are "snap bags" that my mom and aunt made for me.  I use them almost everyday in therapy.  They are wonderful! 

Game #3 was for my high school students.  I absolutely love playing The Game of Life with them! I sent out an email and was lucky enough to have one of my coworkers donate her game to the speech room! I also purchased the App for 99 cents! There are pros and cons to both the real game and the app.  The app is quicker and takes less "math" to complete, but it's difficult to continue a game from one session to another.  The real game takes more time to play and requires a lot more "math", but it is very easy to pick up where you left off from one session to the other.  Why do I love playing The Game of Life with my high schoolers? It opens up sooo many relevant topics of conversation if you are looking for them! The past few weeks we've been playing The Game of Life in conjunction with my NO PRINT FUNCTIONAL MONEY SKILLS UNIT TO ACCOMPANY THE GAME OF LIFE.  

Hope I helped give you a few ideas (or remind you of some of the easy for you, fun for the students) activities out there!