Speech Sound Lesson Breaks

Speech Sound Lesson Breaks

This collection of speech sound activities was created by the student speech pathology team as part of the ‘Sounds’ Like A Good Story Programin 2007.

The activities are designed to promote student’s awareness of the sounds we use in speech (not letters) and allow them to practice sounds they are having difficulty saying clearly. The Speech and Language Checklist contained in the ‘Sounds’ Like A Good Story Program can help you to identify if a student is having difficulty producing a sound.The activities are not sound-specific. You can use them for any sound you like. You can adapt or expand any of the activities to meet the needs of an individual student or the class.

Go Shopping

Use catalogues or magazines to cut out pictures of things that contain a target sound. For example, if you choose to make the game about the ‘s’ sound, the students would need to cut out pictures from a magazine or catalogue that have the ‘s’ sound in them. The students are then required to create a collage with these pictures.

What Sound Am I?

The teacher or student can choose the sound and lead the game. The leader must give the rest of the class clues about what sound they have chosen to be. For example, I am the last sound in ‘class’, I am in the middle of ‘duster’ and I start the word ‘school.’ What sound am I? The other students need to guess what sound the leader is. This activity can be conducted in pairs or groups.

Circle Card Game

Place picture cards in a circle on the floor. Each picture needs to beof something that contains a target sound. The students need to sit or stand behind one picture each. The teacher then throws a bean bag or ball to one student. That student is required to say what their picture is and produce the target sound correctly. The studentthen throws the ball to another child until all students have had their turn.The students move around the circle to another picture and the game starts again.

Sound Hangman

Choose a word that contains a target sound. Draw dashes on the blackboard for each letter in the word you have chosen. The student’s are required to guess the word you have chosen by shouting out sounds they think are in the word. If a student says a sound that is in the word, fill in this sound on the appropriate dash drawn on the blackboard. If a student says a sound that isn’t in the word, begin to hang the man. Students must guess the word before the man is hung.

Sound Brainstorming

This activity can be conducted in small groups or as a whole class activity.Give the children a piece of paper and ask them to write down as many words as they can think of that contain a target sound. Depending on the age and abilities of the students you can give them a time limit to create the list.To create more interest in this activity, it could be designed as a race between groups. The first group to come up withthe most words in a set amount of time wins. This game could also be played at home with parents, siblings, friends etc.

Sound Bingo

You will need to create assorted picture or word bingo boards for a target sound and flash cards that correspond with these boards.Each student should be given a sound bingo board and enoughcounters to place on all the pictures or words on their board.

The flash cards should be randomly chosen and called out. If a student has the word or picture that is called out on their sound bingo board, they need to put a counter on that picture or word. When a student has a counter on all the pictures or words on their sound bingo board, thestudent needs to call out bingo. The student must then hold up their board and tell the rest of the class all the pictures or words on their board so that the rest of the class can confirm that the student had won. If this is confirmed, the student wins the game.

Treasure Hunt

Hide items that contain a target sound in a specified search area. The students must then go on a treasure hunt to find these items. Once the students have found the items, they need to bring them back to the classroom and show the other students the treasure they have found.

Card Games

There are many card games you can play about sounds. For these activities, you will need to create a set of cards for a target sound. These cards can have pictures or words on them that contain the target sound. You will need to create at least 1 pair of each picture or word in the set of cards.

Snap (At least 4 cards of each word is required)

The cards are shuffled and distributed evenly. The students should not let others see their cards. Each student takes a turn of placing a card face-up on the pile in the middle. Every time the student places a card on the pile, they must name the picture or word they put down. When two of the same cards are placed on top of each other, the first student to place their hand on the pile and say snap wins the cards in the pile in the middle. The game then resumes with that person. The final winner is the student who has all the cards.

Memory

All the cards are placed face down in random order in front of the students. Each student takes a turn in turning over two cards. The student must name each card as it is turned over. If the student finds a matching pair, they keep these cardsand have another turn. The student with the most pairs at the end of the game wins.

Go Fish

Each student is given 5 cards and the remaining cards in the set are placed face down in the centre of the group. The aim of the game is for the students to get as many pairs as they can. Each student takes a turn in asking another student for a card that will match one of their own cards. For example, “have you got a sock”? If the other student does not have the cardthe student asked for, they tell the student to “Go fish” and the student must then pick up a card up from the pile in the middle. If the other student does have the matching card, they need to give it to the student who asked for it. If a student runs out of cards, they need to pick up 5 more cards from the pile in the middle. The game continues until there are no cards left. The student with the most pairs at the end of the game wins.

Sound Basketball

The students start at least 5 metres away from the basket. The studentspick up a card from a pile and say the picture or word printed on that card. Each correct word allows the student to move one step closer to the basket and have a shot at the goal.Each basket gives the students two points and another turn at the game. Once a student has moved right in front of the basket, they start again at another angle 5 metres from the basket. The student with the most points wins.

Going To The Shop

The first student says, “I’m going to the shop and I’m going to buy….” The student must buy something with the target sound in it. If the target sounds was ‘s’, the students can buy anything with a ‘s’ sound in it. For older students, they must repeat all the things the students before them have bought before they can buy something else. For example, if the target sound was ‘s’ and the students before Billy had brought a snickers, some sausages, and a salad sandwich, Billy must say “I’m going to the shop and I’m going to buy a snickers, some sausages, a salad sandwich and a stationary set.

Active Listening Story

Read or tell the students a story. Whenever you say a word containing a target sound in it, the students need to perform a set action. For example, if the target sound was ‘s’ and the set action was to clap your hands, if you said “we searched for the scissors” when telling your story, the children must clap when they hear the ‘s’ sound in search and scissors.This can be played as a game of elimination. If the students perform the set action at the wrong time, or if they do not perform the set action when it is required, they are out.

Sound Catch

Students play in pairs and throw or hit a ball to one other. As the students throw or hit the ball back to their pair, they must say a word that contains a target sound. To make this game harder for older students, they can put the word containing the target sound into a sentence.

Word Search

Give the students a newspaper or magazine article and ask them to highlight all of the words that contain a target sound.An additional task is to ask the students to create their own story incorporating the words that they found.

Picture Riddles

Place the word that corresponds with the picture next to the picture and leave the targetsound blank. For example place a picture of a rabbit next to a word ‘_abbit’. The student must then complete the word. This activity is most suitable for younger students.

Snakes and Ladders

Similar to the original snakes and ladders game, there is a board with one hundred squares and various snakes and ladders. However in this game each square shows a picture of something that contains a target sound in it. When the student lands on a square, they need to say the name of the picture they landed oncorrectly to be able to move on. To make the game more difficult, the teacher may ask the students to say another word that rhymes with the picture they land on. If the student can not think of a word that rhymes, the person to their right canhave an extra turn.

Sentences to Complete

Createcloze passagesor sentences with missing words. The missing words should contain a target sound. The students are required to complete the passage or sentences by filling in the missing words. Provide the missing words in a word list for the students so they can choose the missing word. Ensure these words are put into the word list in a random order.The students may like to make their own cloze passages or sentences to complete and swap with other students. This activity can be more difficult if there are more missing words in the word listthan actual spaces. This activity can be simplified by indicating the number of letters in each missing word by using dashes.

Sound Spelling

Give the children a spelling list for the week that contains words with a target sound in them.If this is too difficult to create, you could attempt to use two or three sounds instead of just one.

Sound Crossword or Find a Word

Develop crosswords or find-a-words that contain words with a target sound in them.

T.V Sounds

When the students are watching television, ask them to write downall the words they hear that contain the target sound inten minutes.

Sound Stroll

As the students are walking home or walking to the bus, they can make a note of all the people or objects they see that contain a target sound in them. When the students get home, they can tell their parents, caregivers and siblings all the things they spotted on their walk.

Produced by the Riverina Schools Project Partnership, 2007.