Today I am doing a product swap and giveaway with Rose Kesting of Speech Snacks. Rose runs a fun and unique blog. In her posts she combines her interest in nutrition and healthy cooking with her professional knowledge as a speech-language pathologist. I’ve collaborated with Rose in the past on a variety of projects and have always been impressed with the quality of her speech and language products, which are typically aimed at language remediation of older children (upper-elementary, middle school and high school ages).
This particular product entitled “Wintertime Wellness:Language Building, Problem Solving & Reading Comprehension” is aimed at teaching students aspects of health and wellness as pertaining to the cold and flu season, which is of course a perfect topic for the month of February, which is at the apex of the snowy, sneezy, and germy winter season. The packet contains a reading passage as well as problem solving situations, vocabulary, and figurative language expressions. Part of it can be used as a game in language groups in which the players can match cards or respond to questions in order to collect a certain set of cards to win.
Main Packet Contents:
Card Organizer and Cards: “Kick your cold” and “Germs on the loose” which can be used to play the following games: Sniffle-time Problem Solving, Fit as a Fiddle Figurative Language and Stay Healthy Synonyms.
Types of Games:
Sniffle Time Problem Solving includes problem solving scenarios in which a student reads or is read to a short passage which contains a problem related to being sick. The student then needs to figure out how to solve a specific problem (what to say, what to do, etc) as well as assume first person perspective and imagine how someone might feel in a particular situation.
Fit as a fiddle figurative language cards contain idioms, similes and metaphors pertaining to health/wellness. Here the student is asked to match the expression with the correct meaning. This is also a great opportunity to ask older students to make up and write down sentences which contain these expressions in order to ascertain how well the student actually understand and use figurative language concepts taught to them.
Stay Healthy Synonyms cards are similar to the figurative language cards in the sense that the student gets to match the word with its definition on corresponding cards with associated images. Similar to above, older students can write sentences using these synonyms to solidify their newly learned vocabulary.
Add-On Activities:
- ”The Common Cold Vs. The Flu—What’s the Difference?” reading passage with accompanying comprehension questions with focus on main idea, details and synonyms.
- Letter writing templates with vocabulary words and one idiom focus on letter writing to a sick friend
- Compare/Contrast cold and flu Venn Diagram
- A recipe card for making homemade chicken soup (I particularly enjoyed this one since it can be used two ways: the student can do a sequencing activity in the classroom describing how to follow the recipe and then practice making it at home under adult supervision of course)
I found this packet to be incredibly useful because of how multifaceted it is. It is connected to the common core with respect to topic (health and wellness) and content areas (vocabulary, comprehensions, figurative language, etc).
The information it has is timely and relevant and is useful not just to address language goals in academic setting but also contains real life application (students need to know this information in order to take the necessary precautions to stay healthy).
I enjoyed using this packet with the clients on my caseload and they didn’t even realize how much they’ve learned just by playing a few fun games.
You can find this packet in Rose’s TPT store Here for $4.00 or you can enter my Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance of winning your own copy. But wait there’s more!!! Rose is doing a review of one of my newest products: Executive Function Impairments in At-Risk Pediatric Populations so if you head on over to her PAGE and read her review you’ll be able to enter both giveaways!
I love the reading passage with accompanying comprehension questions esp main idea and details. and always need work with sequencing
I love the problem solving activities in the written paragraphs.