Last week I got a comment on my Bug Jar Craft, or more of a request for an explanation…how do I make this work and get in the repetitions I need to ensure my students make adequate progress? Which got me thinking about how well trained my students are with this and how I am sure it can seem like there is so much going on that no is actually doing speech…but we are! So I will explain exactly how it works, using this weeks craft…sea turtles!
First, I always have all of the supplies ready to go. This turtle is a pattern I found and I just copied it to green construction paper. I always have a stash of random construction paper shapes, so I grabbed all the squares and put them in a baggy. I keep these in a basket right next to my table for easy access. I also have a red caddy with scissors, glue, and pencils that students can grab what they need at the table. 
I usually either use the Artic Buckets or Jumbo Artic pages already printed from my data binders to use as stimulus. We also sometimes have brainstorming sessions about words that go with the theme…but not always. I find myself doing that with students who also have language goals and need the vocabulary exposure. I always have instructions ready to go. My kids know the drill…they come in, listen to instructions about the activity and get started. While they are working on the activity, I do round robin drilling. I go around the table and each students says 5 words/phrases/sentences. They know that when it is their turn with me, all materials are down and they are focused on me and what they are saying. For this activity, they wrote their speech words on the squares and then glued them on the turtle's shell.
Another important thing is that I always have an example for them to look at. This way, they are not asking me questions when I am working with other students. Once they get all their words on the activity, then they are allowed to color, cut, or decorate their project. If they happen to finish early, they grab whisper phones and practice their words.
I hope that answers some of the questions about how this works in my room! It is a well oiled machine at this point, but I have been doing therapy this way for a couple of years now. If you have more questions, please feel free to ask and I will answer 🙂
I also hope you like our sea turtles! They turned out really colorful and the kids had fun with them 🙂
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Do you typically do these crafts with language kids too? If so what are some of your suggestions for words? I’ve often done adjectives (I used your bug jar idea last week and we thought of words that describe spring), but I’m struggling to think of other things language kiddos could write on their squares, etc.
Yes! Usually if it matches the story we read that week, we can use different parts of speech from the story (i.e. all the past tense verbs or adjectives, etc) but I have also targeted synonyms, antonyms, categories, and multiple meanings. So for example, if we were targeting expressive categories, they would generate different category labels and write those down. Then when they take it home for homework, they are practicing naming items belonging to that category. Or if we did a specific part of speech like past tense, they write it in present tense on the craft, then their homework is to name the past tense form or use it in a sentence in past tense form. Does that make sense? I think you can pretty much target anything.
Yes, I love those ideas, I never thought to have them write down a category label or present tense! We did synonyms last week, I said a word and they had to write a synonym on that bug, but your ideas are very helpful, THANK YOU! Do you always read a book that goes along with your craft for that week?
Yes, I use a book each week!
Do you have a list of go-to or favorite books? I am wanting to start using books more in therapy but the thought overwhelms me when I start to think of what books to pick. Also, do you read a book and do re-tell the 1st day then a craft for their 2nd day of therapy that week(if they come twice). Hope that made sense. Thanks!
I am actually working on a post about my absolute fave books to use! Stay tuned!
Thank you for posting this, I love the idea of adding more crafts into therapy! How many minutes are your typical sessions?
You’re welcome! My sessions are 30 minutes long 🙂
I love all your crafts. Thank you for explaining how you incorporate them into your articulation and language groups. I usually only do crafts with my artic groups. I am looking forward to using these crafts with my language kids too. I can’t wait to make the sea turtles next week.