Rainbow Sensory Bin

Thanks to Felice at Thedabblingspeechie, I've been inspired to create some new sensory bins for my kiddos.  This past week at school, we've been doing a weather theme with the A.M. classrooms and my preschoolers LOVED feeling the materials in this weather-themed sensory bin while working on basic concepts, as well!

I bought some blue glass stones from the floral section of Dollar Tree and put those on the bottom as "rain drops."  I bought one bag, but probably could have used another to fill out the bottom a little more! I placed cotton balls on top of the stones as the "clouds," and then put my cut-in-half rainbow cards in the bin, dispersed among the clouds.

I had my students pull out one card at a time and we identified the concept (“Is coffee hot or cold?”) and then placed it on the table. As students took turns, if an opposite was pulled from the bin that matched a previously-chosen opposite card, I had them find the friend who had a matching card (“Does anyone have the opposite of ‘big?’ Big and….” They would then match up each side of the rainbow to make a full rainbow, and we left the rainbow sets in the middle of the table. 

The activity was a hit so I wanted to share it with all of you! I made a set with clouds instead of rainbows, as well, in case you need cards with less visual stimuli.  Download it for FREE here in my TpT store!  Happy Spring! :)

Going "Buggy" In Speech!

Ah, Spring has finally arrived in Kansas and in the speech room! The next couple weeks in preschool have a theme of "Things that live and grow" so we're learning about plants and bugs.  This week in particular, I'm focusing on ladybugs!

This morning, I grabbed some red bulletin board paper from the workroom, my Jenga box, and a Sharpie, and went to town tracing circles & creating an activity for my articulation/phonological kids! It only took about 10 minutes from start to finish... But then I had to spend another 10 minutes trying to get Sharpie dots off my therapy table... (Note to self: invest in some washable markers....) 

I tossed cards onto the ladybugs, face down, and when it was their turn, the kids picked a card to swat and practiced the word on the card.  It was super easy to switch out target cards for different students and groups.  I had the kids swat their colored cards in particular to make sure they got the right practice (i.e. s-blend kids were looking for pink cards, /f/ kids were looking for red cards, etc...)

I borrowed some fly swatters from a coworker, and they just happened to ladybugs, as well, so it worked out pretty perfectly!  

Both the boys AND girls loved it! Some may have gotten a little TOO excited to use the flyswatter, but thankfully I only got whacked with it once today ;-) 

Do have any fun bug activities you're using in your speech room??