I am always looking for interactive ways to target articulation skills. I love interactive articulation activities for several reasons.
First of all, I work primarily with PreSchoolers and Kindergartners. These little friends just aren't made for sitting! Working at a table doing drill type activities is just not fun for them (or me either, really)!
There is also more and more research that keeps showing that movement is essential to learning. If I can incorporate fine or gross motor movements into any activities, I definitely want to do it! The Interactive Articulation activities that I have created or found so far always incorporate some sort of fine or gross motor movement. Sometimes it's digging or scooping in sand. Other times it's stirring, operating tongs, squeezing items, or throwing something.
Sensory disorders are also on the rise. Many of these activities incorporate materials that are great for students with sensory disorders. Many students find focus when they can run their hands through sand, Easter grass, cotton balls, etc. And, as we all know, increased focus leads to increased learning.
And finally, I like Interactive Articulation Activities because I see quicker generalization for my students. I find that it might take a little longer to get the skill initially, but it quickly carries over to sentences, conversation, and classroom settings.
I have two different tubs for my interactive articulation/sensory bins. They are both simply rubbermaid containers I picked up at walmart. You can choose a size that works best for your speech room. I have one that I only use sand in. Sand can be a pain to clean up, so I don't want to have to take it out of my tub anytime I want to change material. I keep the other types of materials in large ziploc bags. I use my other tub to change these materials out depending on the activity. I have used Easter grass, cotton balls, water, beans, etc in my other bin. I have used a cooling rack, pans, and bowls from my own kitchen. I have also used a fly swatter. Now that you have an idea of what materials you might need, let me get down to the resources that I love to use.
The first one up is Rake 'Em Up, which you can find here. Simply cut apart and laminate the leaf cards and add them to your sand bin. The students can use a sand rake to "rake up" their leaves.
Have them say the word on the card as many times as you want, then they can add it to their pile of leaves.
Next up is Articulation Grilling, which you can find here. You'll need a set of tongs and a cooling rack for this activity.
Cut the hamburger and hotdog cards apart. I taped two of them back to back before laminating. That way the students could "flip" their burgers to get a new target word.
Articulation Fishing is always fun, too. You can use Activity Tailor's activity for this.
Simply cut out the fish, add the paperclip, and put in a bucket. Then create magnet fishing pole by attaching a string to a pole with a magnet at the end. You can also use this activity again in the winter. I put the outside ring of blocks in my Don't Break The Ice game and put the fish in the middle. Then we go ice fishing! You can find the resource here.
I love to use this next activity during our "Growing Vegetable Soup" unit based around Lois Ehlert's book. You can find the Vegetable Soup Articulation Activity here.
I use one large bowl, a few smaller bowls, and some spoons. We "mix up" the vegetable soup by placing the articulation cards in the bowl after the students say the word. Then we can "serve" the soup by putting it into the smaller bowls. We also "stir" our soup and talk about what we see floating in the soup to get in some more articulation practice.
For a fun flower based interactive articulation activity, check out The Dabbling Speechie's Flower Garden Sensory Bin.
You can put the flowers in Easter grass or beans. The students pick the flowers and then label the pictures on them. You can find the activity here.
I use the next activity the week before and the week of the Firefighters visit to our school. The kids LOVE gettin