How has the core word journey been going in your classroom or home?
This week’s focus is a great addition to our growing vocabulary, "Make".
An action verb, "Make" is flexible and frequently used, whether it's "Did you make a cake?", "Let's make a mess" or "she makes me laugh". Making choices, making art, or making something happen, "Make" opens up opportunities for expression and problem-solving for our learners.
If you're new to my Core Word Programme, its 36 sessions of speech and language content specifically designed (by me!) for the Gestalt Language Processors and pre/non verbal children in your life. Each week includes play ideas, sensory story suggestions, activities and games, and includes three different symbol languages.
Find out how 'Make' has been integrated into my sensory classroom activities this week.
Me and my class start by learning the sign, watching videos of the Makaton sign, and then finding "Make" on our core boards or AAC devices.
The sensory story that I have been using with my class is "What Makes A Rainbow" by Betty Ann Schwartz. A fun, interactive, colourful pop-up book, it features ribbons throughout that end in a rainbow. This repeats our core word whilst additionally giving context to what it means, by showing how "make" is tied to the process of creating something—the rainbow.
Each animal that the main character in the story meets adds a specific colour, which contributes to "making" the rainbow, giving children a clear and concrete example of the action the word describes. This helps their understanding of "make" referring to creating or forming something.
In this week's interactive games, my learners are asked to "Make" an expression on a child's face - happy, scared, tired, etc. These games can be completed on a whiteboard, or on individual iPads.
These interactive games are a fab, low-stakes way of learning whilst playing, as there are no wrong answers, and you can assess their understanding as they are playing.
The games lessen the demand on our children and reduce their anxiety, allowing their best work to come through.
Next, we move on to watching and listening to our core word. Each week of the programme there are links included to film, TV and music where the cord word is used, giving them further context and examples of the word in action.
As Gestalt Language Processors tend to learn in whole phrases or chunks of conversations, having these examples suits how they learn.
Also included in my Core Word Programme sessions are suggestions for tabletop activities, phrase examples and writing tasks. The writing tasks are excellent for practising letter formation.
Depending on your classroom setup, and the needs & preferences of your learners, these can either be completed online, on individual iPads or a whiteboard, or printed.
If you aren't already part of my Core Word Programme, it's always a great time to join! The 36 sessions fit perfectly to the academic year, you can start at any time, and there's plenty of content on my blog, and social media relating to the earlier weeks of the programme for you to catch up on. Follow along on my TikTok, Facebook or Instagram.
You can buy the full programme of 36 sessions here. If you'd like to try before you buy, you can access a free demo here.
Play session for Core Word Week 14 - "Make"
During play sessions, I've been using a laughing jiggle ball and demonstrating "Make it stop" by turning it off. A wriggly, noise-activated spider has been the next thing. I will whisper "Make it...." and then shout "GO" so that the spider moves. This helps to demonstrate the connection between "Make" and the action of the toy. Last up has been a spinner clacker, which I spin whilst saying "Make it spin".
Buy the laughing jiggle ball here.
Buy the noise-activated spider here.
Buy the spinning clacker here.
Up next is a Growing Sphere! In this section, I say that I am going to make the sphere bigger, whilst expanding the sphere and moving it around to keep it interesting and attention-grabbing. Then I say that I am going to make it smaller, whilst reducing its size.
The last up in my play sessions this week has been Rocket Balloons. During this activity, I lay out the different coloured balloons, announced the colours, and then the air pump. Then, I start to blow up a balloon, singing "We're going to make it bigger". Then I say "Ready, steady, go!", and let the balloon go. I then say "Your turn" and my learners can take their turn to blow up the balloons, sing the song, and let them go.
These activities help to demonstrate my core word in an exciting and interactive way.
There are a year's worth of core word based play ideas included in my Core Word Programme here. Separate from the core words, you can also get four years' worth of fun suggestions here.