Language Activities

Activities to do at Home

One great way to work on language skills at home is to read with your child. Talk about unfamiliar vocabulary in the book, ask comprehension questions as you read together, and have your child summarize the story after you've read it.

As school starts, remember to take breaks and enjoy the weekends. Enjoy, explore, relax, and have fun! If you're able, get out and do activities such as going for a hike or walk, visiting the beach, park, zoo (if the opens up)- use these experiences to teach new vocabulary, or practice describing what you see, smell, hear, and feel. Play I Spy or 20 Questions in these new environments. Summer activities can be very rich sources of language development.

• • Here is a a nice resource about encouraging literacy at home for all grade levels.

  • And here's a handy resource specifically for encouraging speech and language skills for all ages.

  • Here is a word map that you can use to learn new vocabulary. Print as many copies as needed to learn and remember new vocabulary words.

  • This is a nice resource with some worksheets for a reading and writing journal.

  • Checking out books from the library is another great summer activity that also builds language skills. Here is information from our school librarian, Ms. Glaser, about accessing the library this summer.

  • Don't forget to visit my Resource tab for online learning activities that are fun and engaging. Great for rainy days, when your child can't play outside.

Additional Language Activities:

Word Ladders

• If you enjoy Word Ladders, you can find a bunch of them here. Do as many as you'd like, and have fun with them!

Calendar Activities

• Students with language difficulties often struggle to understand calendar concepts. Here are some great calendar activities to practice over the summer, in order to develop this knowledge.

Mad Libs

• This is a fun way to practice parts of speech. Have your child fill in the parts of speech by telling you the answers as you write them into the story. Then read the story together for a laugh! You can find Mad Libs stories here. Also, here's a reminder of the parts of speech.

Fact or Opinion?

• This worksheet is a great way to practice if statements are Fact or Opinion. Appropriate for grades 3 and up.

Expanding Expression Tool (EET)

• Students grades 3 and up have used EET to practice describing things. You can find a copy of the tool here. Use this as a reference to encourage detailed description. The more your child practices, the better he/she will be at describing!

Guess the Monster

• Work on verbal description and asking specific yes/no questions with this fun activity. If you don't have a color printer, no problem! Just pull up the monster page on your tablet or laptop, and use plastic chips or even sticky notes to eliminate monsters on your "board". Download it here!

Guess the Weather

• Similar to Guess the Monster, but very appropriate for our unpredictable Chicago weather! Download it here.

Guess the Flower

• Similar to Guess the Monster, but a flower theme instead! Download it here.

Scavenger Hunt!

• You can do this one indoors or even better yet take it outside and get some fresh air while you're at it. This scavenger hunt works on Basic Concepts, which we often work on in speech! Find it here!