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A Hands-On Natural Language Project

Spoon People

Materials:  

Plastic Spoons
Cotton Balls
Pipe Cleaners
Felt Pens
Construction Paper and Tissue Paper
Scissors and Glue

Directions:

You can make little puppet people from plastic spoons you find laying around the cafeteria after lunch.  Just lick 'em off really well (mmm!) and then glue on some cotton balls for hair and beards.  Twist pipe cleaners around the "neck" of the spoon to create the arms.  Draw on some faces with the markers.  Then make paper clothes and glue them on too.  If you really get carried away you might try making some spoon creatures (bugs, dinosaurs, dogs, etc.)  How about a little paper house (or cave) where they can live.  Finally, put them all into action with a story or play starring The Spoon People. If you're not much of a play writer, you can borrow a story from children's literature ... choose something upbeat such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (just kidding).

*_{Inspired from a great little book called 365 Days of Creative Play by Sheila Ellison and Judith Gray, Forward March Press.}

Language Areas
addressed during this activity include:

• Listening and Following Directions
• Basic Concepts (over, under, around, etc.)
• Vocabulary Building (such as "twist" or "attach", etc.)
• Predicting and Guessing (such as "What do you think we'll do next?")
• Descriptive Attributes and Terms ("bald with a beard" or "tall and chubby")
• Problem Solving ("How will we get these pieces to stay together?") 
• Question and Answer Practice

Use your language facilitating techniques during construction. After the Spoon People are made you can address some specific goals by acting out a play or story with lots of repetition in the areas you want to work on.

Individual Goals:

Therapy Notes and Comments:

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