Language - Hockey 3-Part Cards

It's that time of year.  Hockey time.
We are living in Canada now, and decided that Dew1 should enroll in the TimBits hockey league (he's 4) so he can learn to skate and start playing.  Before signing him up (thank goodness) we took him to the store to try on equipment.  It was at this point that we realized he wasn't ready.  He just isn't at the point where following directions isn't something we can count on, and it's way too many new things at once.  Learning to skate, trying on and wearing equipment, using a stick, listening to a coach, participating with a team ... all very complex and confusing to a spectrum sensory kid.

So we decided that baby steps were the way to go.  We bought a street net and street sticks and started playing in the driveway.  We thought that this would be a good way for him to learn the basics.  As we predicted, he'll play for a minute or two and then just run around chasing the puck.  That's fine because he's gotten up to about 5 minutes of playing over the past weeks since starting, and could you imagine if we'd paid all that money for him to play on the ice and he was pulling this?  He does have skates, so we are going to take him to open skating throughout the winter so he can become familiar and comfortable with that.  Then we'll start buying his equipment and wearing it piece at a time to get used to that.  By next fall, he will hopefully be ready!

So we stopped off at the local rink on Saturday and watched some of a practice.  He was fascinated - it's all starting to make sense to him.  But I realized that making a set of Hockey Language Cards for him would be exactly the right thing - he learns very well through his cards.  I've never made a set before but a quick google search found this template for me at My Montessori Journey, and away I went.

And, in a few short weeks, it will be time to start watching it on TV!  Yea for Hockey Night in Canada ... hmm, shoulda made a Don Cherry card *hee hee*.
Oh, and you might notice that just about every card is related to the Philadelphia Flyers.  That's because of our family allegiance.  But you can just google images replacements if you like :-).  When I have a chance, I'll make a more neutral set ... but done is better than perfect.

ps.  speaking of which, I just wanted to mention that I just realized that they are a word doc ... that works if you want to alter the pictures but not if you don't have word.  If you'd like to see them as a PDF just let me know and i'll post both.





Hockey 3 Part Cards

Language - Valentine's Day Cards

Ok, so I know that I keep tagging these as 3-Part Cards, and technically they are not.  I am working on making them 3-Part cards, but life keeps getting in the way.  I promise to get to it soon.

So Dew1's VB team was looking for some new vocabulary to work on, and with Valentine's Day coming up next month we decided that would be a good theme.

I came up with a few words - there really aren't too many for Valentine's Day - and here they are.

(ok, when I get the chance to make the cards, I'll take a picture of them and insert it here.  If I wait, I may never get the post up!)

I choose Cupid, Bow and Arrow, Chocolates, Valentine (card), and Heart.

The file is available for download here.

Valentine's Day Language Cards

Language - Thanksgiving / Fall Cards

Ok, so I lied.
As I was cutting out the Christmas / Winter cards, something just felt wrong.  It's a sunny, warm day, the sky is blue, the grass is green, and I'm going to start teaching Dew1 about snowflakes and candy canes?  It's just not right.

So I did make a Thanksgiving / Fall card set.  They came from the same place as the Christmas / Winter ones ... Montessori For Everyone's Free Download page.

However, when Dew1's Verbal Behavioural Consultant was going over the cards, we realized that there were several that were missing that would be good ones for him to learn.

So I hopped onto Google Images and did some quick searching, into Microsoft Word, and as fast as you can say cut and paste, I made up some cards to add to the deck.  There was only one to add to the Thanksgiving cards, so it ended up in the middle of it.



You can download it here:
Christmas _ Thanksgiving Extras

Language - Christmas / Winter Cards

It's that time already.

Well, not quite.  But between my Canadian stubbornness to deal with the fact that Thanksgiving wasn't a month and a half ago, and my procrastinative skills, I just haven't wrapped my head around Thanksgiving yet, and it's a week away already.  So I figured I'd get a jumpstart on Christmas.

I have spent a lot of time googling Christmas 3 Part Cards, and I'm just not finding what I'd like to find.

But this is what I did find.

A great set of Christmas/Winter Matching Cards at Montessori For Everyone, in their Free Downloads Section (even better!).  They are not 3 Part in that they don't have words labelling the cards, but that's ok for now.  I like the fact that they are photographs, multi-cultural, and nice, large, clear images.  They are meant to be used as cards as well as a matching game, so once he's set with what they are, we'll start matching.

I also found a set of Christmas flash cards over at Free ESL Flash Cards.  I think that once Dew1 masters the Montessori set, we'll move on to these ones.  The images are iconographic, and when it comes to the ABLLS that he is doing, I know they prefer photographs to images.  But that doesn't mean that I don't want him to be exposed to both.

I know that some people don't love cards, but Dew1 really responds well to them and enjoys them, and I figure that it can't hurt to expand his vocabulary any way we can :-)

So, I guess ... It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over here...


Update:

Well, Dew1's Verbal Behaviour Consultant looked through them and we decided that there were several cards missing (and 1 missing in Thanksgiving) so I did some quick Google Images searching and came up with the following file.

 

Christmas _ Thanksgiving Extras

Language - Halloween 3 Part Cards

I found these great Halloween 3 Part Cards on United Teaching's website - Free to download.  There are 12 of them altogether, plus a control chart.

Dew1 Loves them!  I realized that while he is still behind in speech and such, there is no reason to not try to teach him new words to expand his vocabulary.  I think his favourite right now is the Cauldron.  He also loves "cards" in general, so I try to keep new ones in his box for he and his VB teacher to work through during their session.

If only I had a printer that would take cardstock!  That is an essential feature for my next printer purchase.  Instead, I print them on regular paper, and then glue them to a cardstock weight paper, and cover them in contact paper.  It makes them a little more durable for Dew1.   If they are cards that we are really going to use a lot, I'll use the Xyron to stick them down (I hate gluesticks ... they never really stick ...) and then also laminate them with the Xyron.  But for something as quick and short lived as Halloween cards, glue and contact paper is all that's needed.  For even quicker, I won't stick them to cardstock, and will only contact paper one side.

I did not get into the full aspect of the 3 Part Card, as clearly he's not old enough yet, but I have filed the other parts away so when he is ready, they are good to go.  One of these days I'll come up with a better way to organize it all, but for now, this works.  Right now we are simply running through the cards and labeling them for what they are.  He does like to match, but I kept these as straight vocab cards.

I store his 'active' cards in Tupperware sandwich keepers. I had a set of 4 from my single days, and have repurposed them this way.  It works well as they are generous in size, hold the cards well, are durable, and slightly tricky to open so it forces them to ask for "Help to Open Cards". (Although Dew1 has become quite good at using his teeth to open the little latch ...)

I really like these cards, and United Teaching was a great resource.  They have other downloads, as well, some free and some at cost.  But thanks to them for helping me introduce Halloween to my son.