Core Vocabulary: Mr. Potato Head App: Create & Play

One of my VERY favorite apps to target language is the Mr. Potato Head: Create and Play! app.

With this app you can target SO much language and core vocabulary.  Better yet my students LOVE it!  Engagement, giggles AND targeting skills, what more can you ask for??!!

Who do you want to be?:  "who", "I", "you" Choose from about 30 different people such as princess, pirate, clown,  girl/boy, etc.

Where do you want to "go"?  "where", "you", "go" and 15 various locations such as circus, ocean, birthday party, outer space, etc.

What did he/she/it do?  OMG!  This app is so fun and creative.  I can't EVEN begin to tell some of the actions and/or core vocabulary you can target but I'll try: up, down, bad, good, eat, sleep, drink, finish, look, jump, make, ride, sleep, turn, etc.

Check this free app out! You won't regret it!  mr-potato-head-create-play

You get cue cards! You get cue cards! You all get cue cards!

     One of my "go to" tools to supports students is to use visuals.  The visuals I use most often are my lanyard cue cards.   I almost feel naked without them, lol!

       Visuals support so many of our students. We use visuals to teach, to prompt, and/or to remind our students of what is expected.  Classroom rules and/or expectations are often posted but some of our students require more than that. For others, we use visuals to teach or just to remind them of the hidden rules.  

      Here are just a few examples of when I've used my cue cards to support students in just the last week...Here's what they were doing the and cue card I showed them to demonstrate the expected behavior.

•        rolling around on the carpet → sit on floor
•        looking out the window → look at board
•        running around the classroom → sit in chair and/or walk
•        yelling out answers → raise hand or quiet mouth
•       grabbing things →  quiet hands or wait
•       yelling → deep breaths or ask for a break

One of my biggest pet peeves is hearing staff tell my students what NOT to do rather than WHAT TO DO!  If we want people to be successful we should be clear with what we are expecting!!

I recently updated the cue cards for my school district, I'm sharing them with anyone who wants them.  Let's be clear with what is expected!  We use visuals to support ourselves each day.  Why wouldn't offer the same for our students?

You get cue cards, you get cue cards, we all get cue cards! 

6 sets of cue cards or just 1 set of cue cards?  

Print them back to back on card stock, laminate, hole punch, put them on a book ring and USE! :)

Becky

no, not, don't!

We definitely had some fun teaching the core vocabulary of no, not, don't in our primary classroom. 

The "mystery item" was the PieFace game.  All their little eyes were definitely on me which isn't always the easiest feat.  This game offers so many opportunities to target core vocabulary such as NO!, I don't want to, I don't like, not me! please don't make me, etc.  Believe me I was being sincere with my protests but in the same breath I will do just about anything to hear my students voices.  They made me "go'" and play some "more".  Good thing my mystery box was also packed with baby wipes and a hair tie, lol. 

Only one of my students was interested in braving it.  After being splashed with the whipped cream, he verbalized "I don't like" quite sincerely.

What would you put in the mystery box to teach no/not/don't? 

Core Language Group...the mystery box

Don't you love my interactive core board?!  I love it and so do my students! The power of communicating with these 60 words is incredible.

Within my 30 minute group, I utilize a variety of materials to keep my students engaged but try to stay within the same structured format using a mini schedule.  I use songs, quick repetitive books, some type of practice on the smart board, a fun YouTube video, and then the students favorite part...the mystery box.

My students LOVE to see what is in the mystery box at the end of each group. One of my students jumped up last week, ran to the core board, and pulled off "open".  I seriously teared up and may have raised the roof, lol!  But seriously, I just love when my students make these connections and recognize the power of communication.   

So "what is it"...  the mystery item varies depending on the core word of the week but so far it has included: balloon rockets, car tracks, gears, windups, my iPad, etc.  Today the mystery box item was "Pie Face". Yes, you heard me right, I let the kids splash whip cream on my face.  The language, the engagement, the joy made it worth it.  I told them, "I don't like" and "I don't want" but really in my heart I was saying "I love".  Crocodile dentist was the plan for tomorrow's mystery item but I believe Pie Face will return again tomorrow. 

Pictures to follow tomorrow... 

How do you build excitement and engagement during your language groups??  What would you put in the mystery box?

Are you okay?

I'm a pretty positive person and tend to wear a smile as my resting face, lol.  With that said yesterday just about everyone I interacted with said "hey...are you okay?".  I really tried to fake it but I guess I just don't have the best poker face.

Nope...it was a particularly rough day on top of a rough week. I'm a solver.  I LOVE challenges.  I love problem solving but some days or weeks can be just too much.  I really have a hard time seeing my teammates stressed out or even worse hurt.  Sometimes the behaviors in our classrooms can really just drain us.   For lack of a better word, it sucks.

I consider myself blessed to be a part of an amazing team!  We ended our day by going to our local watering hole.  We laughed, we problem solved, and then we chose to our end of day by agreeing to unplug and take care of ourselves this weekend.   Without a doubt, Monday will come.  By taking care of ourselves this weekend, we will be better able to address the issues and behaviors at hand.

I fell asleep watching a movie with my family at 7:30 last night.  So sad but SO needed.  Today, I went out to lunch with my hubby, took a nap, and now I"m working on my lessons for the week while I catch up on all my Dateline and 20/20 shows.  Tomorrow, we are headed to Six Flags as a family.  I''m not gonna lie, I'm still stressed about what Monday will bring but I know that by taking care of myself, I'll be ready.

How do you take care of yourself?   What do you do when things aren't "okay"?  What are you watching?

Listen and Do

Do you have students who you know ARE listening but who don't always demonstrate that they are by following through?  Many of my students REALLY struggle with this!  Many of my students understand the concept of following the group plan but don't always demonstrate the skill without prompts.  Is it prompt dependency?  Processing time?  There are so many variables...What to do??  The intermediate teacher and I decided to provide some explicit instruction and practice with our students during group last week.

First, the intermediate structured learning teacher, defined what "listening" is by reviewing whole body listening with the students.  She utilized the Whole Body Listening book from the We Thinkers curriculum. 

I then introduced a social story to teach the idea of "Listen and Do".  While reviewing the story, we prompted "listen" and "do" on our classroom core board.  We then practiced this skills with a game of following directions.  We utilized the "pretend to be like a" Boardmaker activity that I used when teaching the core vocabulary of "like".  The students had a blast listening to the various animals and vehicles and then pretending to "do". 

https://boardmakeronline.com/Boardmaker/Play/20728881/false

Finally, we ended the week by practicing many of the "all calls" the general education teachers are using in their classrooms.  We thought this would be a great way for our students to demonstrate to their peers that they are a part of their classrooms, help them to recognize that this is a cue for them to attend to a direction, as well as to "listen" and "do".   J emailed the general education teachers requesting all of their all calls and then I created a slide deck for our practice.

How do you support your students to "listen" and "do"?

Becky

What do you "like"? Or what do you want to be "like"?

What do you like???

I like a lot of things...coffee, wine, date nights, sleeping in,... :)
The things we like make us happy, they fill our buckets, and are what we seek.  Here's my plan to teach this vocabulary to my primary classroom this week.

Mini-Schedule	Core Group Mini-Schedule
Video	Power Words 16 Part 3 “Like” (TeachersPayTeachers)
Book	https://boardmakeronline.com/Boardmaker/Play/20640911/false
Practice	https://boardmakeronline.com/Boardmaker/Play/20642629/false
Song	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frN3nvhIHUk&t=0s&list=PLfglx-VvJeZGir6oQtz6RHupzMYeyGhVp&index=2
Mystery Item “Do you like?...I like!	Balls, cars, bus, ipad, ipad, candy, popcorn, farm animal, gears The mystery box this week will be filled with things that are liked. What do you like? Great opportunity to practice "I like"

We will also target what we can or want to be "like".  I can pretend to be "like" anything I want to be and so can my students.  Here's the plan to target to teach being like something else.

Mini-Schedule	Core Group Mini-Schedule
Video	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LIiyadPA6E&list=PLfglx-VvJeZGir6oQtz6RHupzMYeyGhVp&t=74s&index=13
Book	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUcdM5KbqwE
Practice	https://boardmakeronline.com/Boardmaker/Play/20643193/false
Song	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwRmivbNgQk&list=PLfglx-VvJeZGir6oQtz6RHupzMYeyGhVp&index=9&t=0s
Mystery Item Be like...	various vehicles and various animals

What do you like?  How do you teach "like"? :)

Becky