Friday, June 7, 2013

Beach Themed Multiple Meanings Memory Activity

One of my favorite places to go during the spring and summer is the BEACH!! I love the sound of the ocean waves crashing on the shore, the smell of the salt air, the feel of the sea breeze, and even the sand beneath my feet. I created a fun resource using photographs of some of my travels to Key Biscayne, Florida (Bill Braggs State Park); Ormond Beach, Florida; Dunnedin, Florida (Honeymoon Island State Park); Ocala, Florida. 





This is a fun activity for use by speech language pathologists who are working in private practice in the summer, teachers instructing students in summer school, or as a back to school activity for teachers/SLPs to help students practice multiple meanings vocabulary. The purpose of this learning game is to increase students’ short term memory, working memory, and receptive/expressive vocabulary knowledge. 

Students will take turns looking for matches of homophone and homograph pairs. If they get a match, they get another turn. There are a total of 40 matches. I recommend that you divide the cards into a homophone set that has 20 matches and a homograph set that has 20 matches. At the end of the game, have students use their vocabulary matches in sentences to correctly convey the multiple meanings. There are 2 ways to win the game. The player who has the most matches as well as the player that can correctly communicate the greatest amount of his or her homophone/homograph pairs in sentences. 


This is available for purchase at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beach-Themed-Multiple-Meanings-Memory-Activity-716732

Thanks for your support, 

Tamara Anderson, M.S., CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist on Summer Break! 

Basketball Challenge- Speech, Language, and Academic Skills

Wow! I can't believe it's June already. I am thankful to have completed another successful school year. My summer break started 2 weeks ago. Hooray! The last 2 months of school was quite busy with the usual tasks of group speech-language therapy sessions, testing students, IEP meetings, special education team meetings, staff meetings, committee meetings, and tons of paperwork/computer work. Let's not forget our beloved high stakes CRCT, the state test here in Georgia. Among all those important and urgent activities, I made a deliberate effort that my students have fun while learning and practicing their speech and language skills in my therapy classroom.

I am pleased to share with you one of my newest resources that I created and used with my students during the months of April and May. The Basketball Challenge-Speech, Language, and Academic Skills is an awesome interactive activity that kept my students engaged during their 30 minute speech-language therapy sessions. I primarily used my English/Language Arts Common Core Vocabulary questions (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/4th-Grade-EnglishLanguage-Arts-Common-Core-Standards-Vocabulary-652220) with this activity. Here is how to play this basketball challenge. Most of my groups have 4 students, so they would divide into 2 teams, and select a name for their team.

I would write the name on the statistics sheet shown here.


Then, they would choose a basketball player.




I would place the basketball court and 2 nets on the table.


I would then place all the basketballs face down on the table.


Each student took turns answering a learning question, then they would pick up a basketball, dribble the ball to the net, and shoot the ball. It was the luck of the draw if they would get 1 point, 2 points, or 3 points.

During the game, I recorded the number of basketball points each student earned and the number of learning points they earned by answering questions correctly on the statistics sheet.

The game would end when their speech-language therapy session time was over. I would then calculate the accuracy percentage for answering their speech, language, and academic questions.

My students were so excited to see if their team won the game and also what individual player had the most basketball points and learning points.

This activity is definitely a win-win for both the students and the SLP. You can purchase it here to use with your students: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Basketball-Challenge-Speech-Language-and-Academic-Skills-717131

Thanks for visiting my page today!! I will have several new posts and therapy/educational products available next school year.


Tamara Anderson, M.S., CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologist on Summer Break!