Welcome back to my Core Word of the Week Programme!
This week, the focus is on the core word “You”—a powerful pronoun that can be fundamental to social interactions and communication.
Whether it’s encouraging participation, asking questions, or showing interest in someone else, “You” opens the door to richer, more interactive conversations. Let’s explore how I'm bringing “You” to life in the classroom this week!
If you're new to my core word curriculum, it's 36 sessions of speech and language content that I have designed specifically for the Gestalt Language Processors and pre-/non-verbal children in your care.
Each session includes links to Makaton sign videos, sensory story suggestions, classroom activities, play ideas, phrase examples, writing tasks (online and printable), interactive games, links to music and TV clips of the core word in action.
The sessions are completely adaptable to any communication method, whether that's signing, speech, symbols, AAC devices or others, you can start the sessions at any time, and there's a thriving private Facebook group of users ready.
- The sensory story that I am using to model "You" is "I Love You as Big as the World" by David Van Buren.
This simple, colourful book features the core word frequently, allowing a fun and engaging way for your learners to see the word being modelled. Included in the core word programme are more sensory story suggestions.
- In my interactive game this week, my learners are asked to "draw you", and get the chance to draw themselves, a fun way to practice using the word in context.
- There are links included to TV, film and song clips that model and demonstrate "you".
- There are writing tasks which can be completed either on a tablet device, laptop, whiteboard or can be printed. There are different versions of the writing task so that you can pick the right one for your learners, depending on the level that they are working at.
- Classroom activities, phrase examples and play session ideas are also included, offering a variety of engaging and fun methods to model and teach the core word "you".
My core word programme covers 40 core words for meaningful communication, split across 36 sessions, which fit perfectly in an academic year. It is always a great time to start and I have plenty of content to help you along the way.
Check out my blog posts here to see what I've done for previous weeks of the curriculum, or my TikTok, Facebook or Instagram for lots more Core Word content.
You can buy the full programme or individual sessions. If you'd like to try before you buy and see whether the programme could work for your learners, you can access a free demo here.
I’d love to hear how you’re using “You” with your learners! Whether it’s during playtime, storytelling, or everyday conversations, at home or in the classroom, join the conversation and let me know.
Play ideas for Core Word Week 9 - "You"
I created a play session for the core word “you” to use daily. This enables the children to observe and practise this new word in a safe and predictable session.
The first item was an air pump. With this, I modelled "squirt you!" around my group of learners. Next up was a big red foam finger. This allowed me to repeatedly point at everyone in the classroom, saying "You!" Last up was a water spray bottle. Whilst spraying the bottle, I said "Spray you", "spray you" and "you are wet".


Next up, was the activity "You are____". Here, I use a large mirror to show my learners their faces and comment on their expressions, such as "Happy, you are happy" and "Silly, a silly face, you are feeling silly". I make sure to spend time letting them all look at themselves in the mirror, to demonstrate the concept of "you". We have had so many great expressions through this activity!
Lastly, in this week’s session was the activity "Hat on". From a box of fun hats, I choose and wear a hat, "Jordan is wearing a hat!". After each turn, I say "Your turn!" to my learners, and they get to pick and wear a hat.
As well as modelling "You", these fun and interactive activities allow my learners to practice turn-taking.
You can see me demonstrating these play activities here, here, and here, and find lots more ideas on my Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
There are a year's worth of core word based play ideas included in the core word programme, which can be found here.
You can also get four years' worth of fun suggestions (separate to the core words) here.