Mrs. Johnson

Good Nutrition

In our Speech/OT group, we are starting the year in Ms. Costello's and Ms. Stephenson-Simmons's classes with a study of good nutrition. Our News-2-You story this week was about the new My Plate program that takes the place of the food pyramid. My Plate is easy to understand and use. Here is a website for more explanation:

My Plate

This week we read the story and worked on story questions and vocabulary. Vocabulary words were: healthy, fruits, vegetables, and My Plate. Next week we'll be working on a hands-on activity. Students will cut and paste foods onto a plate to create a healthy meal.

If you have any magazines or pictures of food that the students can use for cutting and pasting, and you wouldn't mind sharing, please send them in. We'll we doing this activity on Wednesday, 1/25/12. Thank you!

 

The Nutcracker Ballet

We have just completed a two-week study of the Nutcracker Ballet in Ms. Simmons and Ms. Costello's classes during the weekly Speech/OT group. We started last week with a preview of the News-2-You newspaper story about the ballet and we also saw a quick video of an interview with some of the performers in the ballet.

This week, we finished reading the story and filling out a Who, What, Where, When, Why graphic organizer using our Braidy strategy to help us. Using the graphic organizer, we summarized the story in one sentence.

We learned how to say Tchaikovsky, the composer of the music, by breaking the word down into smaller parts: CHI - COF - SKI. There are two smaller words in the bigger word that sound like words we know, such as COUGH and SKI. The students had fun coughing in the middle of the word!

We also used map skills to learn more about Russia, where Tchaikovsky composed the music.

We will  be using our fine motor skills to make refrigerator magnets next week as we wrap up our Speech/OT group for 2011.

Hard to believe the year is almost over! We hope you enjoy your holidays and we'll see you back in 2012!

Retelling stories

Students in my language classes are using the Story Grammar Marker to help learn and retell the parts of a story. Braidy, as we call our Story Grammar Marker, is a yarn braid with symbols attached that helps us remember all the parts of the story. These include the character (who or what), setting (when and where), kickoff (problem), feelings (how the character felt about the problem), plan (how the character is planning to solve the problem), actions (what the character does to solve the problem), and the ending.

Try reading a story with your son or daughter. Then talk about all the parts of the story. Go beyond just the who, what, where, and when. Ask what the problem was and how the character felt about it. Did the character have a plan to fix the problem? How did he/she actually fix the problem? Was it successful?

The Story Grammar Marker is a way to help students dig deeper into their reading. It can be used with fiction or nonfiction. Try it the next time you read a magazine or newspaper article.

If you need help with the Story Grammar Marker, please let me know. I will be more than happy to get you started.

Conferences

Parents, I hope you have enjoyed the opportunity of sitting down with your child's teachers this week. It can be a great time to get a glimpse of what your child is doing in school.

I have tried to get to as many conferences as I can this week, especially for my new sixth grade students. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend all of them. Parents, if I did not attend your child's conference and you would like to speak with me, please email me at my email address listed under the "Contact Mrs. Johnson" link on the left side of this page. Thank you.

Letters to the Troops

I have joined forces again with our Occupational Therapist, Ms. McNeill, to provide Speech and OT services to our students in Ms. Costello's and Ms. Stephenson-Simmons's classes.

Over the last couple of weeks we participated with the school in writing letters to the troops for The Big Thank You campaign organized by two local radio D.J.s. The purpose of the campaign is to write letters of thanks to all the many soldiers who are away from home to be given to them on Thanksgiving.

Our lessons focused on what the military is, what the five branches are (for those like me who weren't sure...Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard), and what soldiers do to protect our country. We brainstormed patriotic words and then wrote the letters and decorated our papers with flags and a word splash on the back. Students were encouraged to demonstrate their very best work. The final product was wonderful.

Be sure to ask your children about the letter he or she wrote.

20,000 Hours

Did you know that it takes 20,000 hours of practice to become an expert? Parents, you probably know this if you have spent years learning your profession, a sport, or hobby. I took piano lessons as a child and never seemed to make a lot of progress. Well, I suppose it's because I usually got serious about practice the morning I was supposed to go to my lesson. No wonder!

I encourage my students who are working on their articulation skills to practice at home and everywhere because it will take much more than 1 hour in the speech room every week to really change their R or S sounds. At 1 hour a week, we can get in 30-35 hours of practice during the school year. If we figure 35 hours, then it will take 571 years to become an expert! It is not my intention that students have to put in 20,000 hours of practice or even become experts, but to get really good at something, it takes hard work and practice.

So, how do you practice? You don't need special equipment or worksheets. All you need are words, and words are everywhere! I have included some ideas for you under the link at left, "Ideas for Home Practice."

I want to give a special thank you to Michelle, mom of one of my current students, for many of these great ideas. She and her family have made speech practice a game that they work on everywhere. Rewards are built into the game, but the biggest reward is the good speech that her child is earning.

I challenge you to use one of the activities under "Ideas for Home Practice" or create your own. But please Practice! You'll soon be experts, too.

 

Welcome!

Welcome new 6th graders! I look forward to meeting you all next week! I'm Mrs. Johnson and I'll be your Speech teacher this year. My room is in the Media Center just inside the 7th grade hall entrance. Next week during homeroom, I'll come by to introduce myself and answer any of your questions about Speech class.

Welcome back to the 7th and 8th grade students! Hope you had a great summer!

See you soon!!