|
Using Computer Activities to Enhance Language Learning |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Most of us have computers in our homes. Our children are familiar with them and may even use them independently. However, much of the learning while using a computer will come from the interaction between you and your child, not from interaction with the computer. Your preschool child's language development is nurtured through shared reading, conversations, singing, poetry, and sharing stories and experiences. Using your computer to enhance language learning will involve exploring and talking about the computer activities together. This web page contains over 250 links leading to hundreds of activities designed for young children. I created this page for the parents of my preschool students and for the wonderful preschool teachers that I work with daily. Please note that these are my personal web pages and they are not connected in any way to the school or to the school system. These pages have been provided to me at no charge and I have no control over ads or pop-ups that appear on this site. |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Teacher's Favorite Web Pages - click here to see descriptions of the sites or on the quick links below to take you directly to the sites. Kiz Club Speechtx.com Fisher-Price Online Games and Activities Scholastic.com Sesame Street.org Starfall.com Noggin.com Story Place, the Children's Digital Library Peep and the Big Wide World Preschool Express.com Carl's Corner
Activities For Very Young Children Practicing Speech Sounds: Articulation and Phonology
For Parents and Professionals Teaching Children the "Language of School"
|
||
|
Activities Listed by Topic |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
The ECSE teachers that I work with love this site. Kiz Club appears to be an ESL site in Korea. It was off-line for about a month and when it came back on-line, I was not able to access this at work so I download new items using my home computer. Story Patterns for popular children's literature can be found at this site along with mini books that can be printed or read on-line. I have found great clip art and there are many are also flash cards, worksheets, crafts and other activities to print and play. You will find activities for rhyming words, positional words, counting and more. Don't forget to look at the page marked "resources" for many activities.
Speechtx.com offers clip art and activities for articulation therapy, "how-to" pages for technology, has downloadable PowerPoint books for many language concepts, offers suggestions for language activities, and has activities to go along with many popular children's literature selections. Sign up for her free monthly newsletter.
Fisher-Price Online Games and Activities are grouped by levels of keyboarding skills. Infant activities respond to tapping at the keyboard, while activities for toddlers and preschoolers involve more use of the mouse.
Sesame Street.org is a fantastic web site. You can spend hours on this site and still have much to do. Click on Games and choose Browse All Games to see the many games and activities. You can also create your own page, My Street, to save your favorite activities. Activities that I have used in therapy are Make a Monster, KEYBOARD-O-RAMA and Limbo Elmo.
Starfall.com has great seasonal activities, a wonderful introduction to letter sounds, and some easy to read fiction and nonfiction books. Good for the beginning reader, but also very good for those children who need to increase their sentence production and practice answering questions. Black and white versions of the books on the site can be printed by clicking here. There are games or movies to go along with most of the books.
Activities at Scholastic.com Clifford can be found at this site. Play Clifford's Match Game, Dress Clifford or play my favorite, Peek-a-boo Puppy. Vocabulary introduced in this game includes spatial concepts such as behind and under and descriptive words such as stripes and purple. Items are also identified by their function (look behind "the toy that bounces" or "in the thing that is worn on a hand."). At School House Scramble you can put sequence cards in the correct order. Go to the Learning Arcade to play a variety of activities with Barney, Clifford, Franklin, and more.
Look at all of the games and activities at Noggin.com. Noggin is an educational channel dedicated to preschoolers 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, but available only with digital cable or satellite. Their web pages are full of free educational activities for your preschool child. Storytime is my favorite activity on the site. Familiar stories like "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" unfold with new endings. Sequence pictures of the story in Storyteller Puzzle and create a scene with Story Stickers. There are coloring pictures and more.
This award winning site Story Place, the Children's Digital Library is sponsored by the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. The Preschool Library contains fourteen books with audio and animation. Along with each book is a computer activity, a craft to print and make, and a reading list of books related to the theme of the animated book. You may also want to look at the stories in the Elementary Library.
You will like PBS Kids. Build a Neighborhood lets you create a scene in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Play Hide and Seek with Jay Jay and find many more Clifford games and activities (different from Scholastic). See Barney, the Bernstain Bears, Caillou, and more.
Peep and the Big Wide World is a great preschool site based on the animated series which highlights science concepts. Children can match animals to homes and complete patterns. I liked Trash Stash, a great sorting game and Bunny Balance which targets the concepts heavy and light. The site also includes simple science activities for parents and very nice resource guides for teachers. Teachers and parents will like Jean Warren's site, Preschool Express.com. Ideas for lesson plans, art, and motor activities are provided. I like the monthly calendars, alphabet activities, and simple games that can be used at home or at school. Carl's Corner is an incredibly huge web site created by Cherry Carl, a retired (or should I say semi-retired) teacher. The printable books can be used for therapy or home practice. There are printables for just about any language arts related activity. |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
These activities all react to random pushing of keys. Some switches can also activate these games. |
||
|
|
||
|
Push any key to see actions or pictures at Sesame Street.org's KEYBOARD-O-RAMA, Sounds Around Town, Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and Peek-A-Boo. Click on Games and choose Browse All Games to see the many games and activities. |
||
|
|
||
|
Tap and Color, The ABC Zoo, and many other activities can be found at Fisher-Price's Online Games (click here to see all infant games). |
||
|
/sn/ /r/ /s/ /fl/ /h/ /br/ /d/ /t/ /l/ |
||
|
|
||
|
Many of the stories and activities listed on this site can be used to reinforce correct production of speech sounds. I frequently use books to reinforce speech sounds. When I use the computer, I will often use the stories at Starfall.com or Kizclub.
|
||
|
Articulation practice activities found at the California Avenue School in Vista, California. Help for Kid's Speech, supported by the Scottish Rite Foundation of Florida - This index has links to practice activities for specific sounds (scroll down to "Speech Sounds"). There are many free articulation activities at Speechtx.com. A list of books, stories, and games that reinforce speech sounds. Many PowerPoint Books for articulation practice can be found at Louisiana's Jefferson Parish Public School's Speech Therapy Department page (click on Articulation Activities). Sound Sorting Pictures - Sounds sorted by consonants, vowels, or consonant blends - great for articulation practice The Internet Picture Dictionary - pictures arranged by beginning letter sounds. Many activities at Carls Corner's Alphabet Avenue are great resources for articulation activities. She has free, printable books for most consonant sounds. Activities are arranged alphabetically by sound. Pictures that can be used when teaching speech sounds can be found on her Sort City page. On her Blends page, you will find many activities to teach the production of consonant blends. On R-Controlled Road you will find many r-controlled word family activities and many more mini books on the High Frequency Word page.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Activities listed by topic. |
||
|
|
||
|
Tap and Color at Fisher Price.com Click and Color and Little People, two coloring activities from Fisher-Price Free printable coloring pages Paint nursery rhyme pictures at Enchanted Learning Read Color Story on-line and then, print a copy to color. An Oobi color game from Noggin.com The Story of Shapes from the Storyplace web site, What Color? at Do2Learn Please Put It On The Shelf - a shape matching game Play The Shapes Game at Inkless Tales. Shape matching, shape people, shape bingo and more to print and make at Do2Learn Match Shapes at the Literacy Center Education Network |
||
|
ABCs, Beginning Sounds, and Rhyming Words |
||
 |
||
|
ABC's Let's Get Ready to Read, Introduction to Letter Sounds at Starfall.com Oobi's Rhyme Game at Noggin.com An ABC book found at Primary Games Alphabet ABC and A is for Ant can both be found at Kizclub ABC activities to print and color at Kizclub.com Clifford's Letter Roundup at Scholastic.com Mr. Rogers' Alphabet Wall at PBS Kids Click on any key to Learn Your ABCs at Fisher-Price.com. See animals as you press the letter keys at The ABC's Zoo and match letters, pictures and sounds while playing Phonics Learning Game. Alphabet Action - Click on a letter to hear its name and see a picture. This is one of the free games at Learning Planet.com which charges a subscription fee to view most activities. Really cool site! Visit Bembo's Zoo to watch letters turn into animals. Match rhyming words. Play Reggie Loves to Rhyme at Scholastic.com Match pictures that rhyme at The Hungry Thing At Carls Corner's Alphabet Avenue you will find an enormous amount of ABC activities and printables. |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
||
|
Fishy Count at PrimaryGames.com One Little Ball, a counting story Math Games and math related vocabulary activities can be found at this site. The Recipe Game at Noggin.com Barney's Color, Shape, and Number Matching Game Simple Card Games at Preschool Express - This is not a computer game, but gives great ideas for teaching numbers, sorting, and counting while using a deck of playing cards. |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Mother Goose and other poems and stories can be found at Inkless Tales. Hey Diddle Diddle - Click on the graphics to see the actions and sing along to the music KidzSing Garden of Song - Nursery Rhymes Paint nursery rhyme pictures at Enchanted Learning Nursery Rhymes with Teletubbies A Rhyme a Week: Nursery Rhymes for Early Literacy. Includes pictures or props and lesson plans.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Make Pizza and ice cream cones at Inkless Tales |
||
|
Explore Mr. Roger's Home at PBS Kids. |
||
|
Billy Bear's Sticker Fun put furniture and
other items inside a house Create a Room at Do2Learn |
||
|
|
||
|
Vehicles to color on-line or print and color at Enchanted Learning Make a truck at Enchanted Learning Tonka Trucks Sounds at Scholastic.com Engine Nine, Party Line, a story with activities, at Storyplace.com Car Race at Starfall.com Vehicle Match at Meddybumps.com |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Click and drag dresses to this online paper doll Build snow families at Growley.com Make a snowman at Starfall.com Make a Funny Face at Golden Books.com Dress Caillou in clothes appropriate for the season. Dress Speckle for the weather at the Clifford site The Feelings Game at Do2Learn At Sesame Street.org, play Your Amazing Body, Let's Grovercise, the Weather Game and Make-A-Monster. These are just two of the many sites on the web for paper dolls. While choosing clothes for the paper dolls, you will have the opportunity to practice labeling clothing items and to talk about the weather, seasons, and appropriate clothing for certain occasions and weather. |
||
|
|
||
|
Elmo's Fire Safety Game found at SesameStreet.org. Click on Games and choose Browse All Games to see the many games and activities. Animated Fire Safety Song and pictures to print Firefighter Hat Color Matching Game - Many other simple file folder games to make at this wonderful site
|
||
|
Play Know the Noise at Sparky the Fire Dog's site Read, It's Time to Fight a Fire and dress a firefighter at Storyplace.com Community Club at Scholastic.com. Click on the workers to learn more about their jobs. Read Where's My Hat? at CBeebies.com |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Animal Cams at the Toledo Zoo Visit The Pet Shop at Chateau Meddybemps Spatial Concepts with moveable animals at Chateau Meddybemps At Kizclub.com you will find animal Flashcards and stories. This creative site has story patterns to use as props for many popular books such as Quick as a Cricket, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?, Brown, Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, and From Head to Toe. Animal Match to print and play Go to SesameStreet.org to match animal sounds at Elmo's Mixed-Up Farm, match Footprints to animals at Elmo's Footprints Game, and play Chicken Dance Elmo, a counting game Visit NOGGIN to play Memory and to make silly creatures while playing Mix and Match at 64 Zoo Lane
|
||
|
|
||
|
????????????????????????? |
||
|
|
||
|
Play Sort It Out on Clifford's site. Play with Nina the Naming Newt and help her find objects that belong in the appropriate location. Group objects while putting together Moby's Mobile from Harcourt School Publishers What's Different? at Do2Learn Practicing Categories Game at Speechtx.com (click on "categories" under "PowerPoint Downloads" - you must have PowerPoint on your computer to play this game. After the game has loaded, click on "view slide show.") Pictures to use for sorting activities can be found at Carl's Corner on the Sort City page. You will find pictures for all speech sounds as well as pictures for word families, seasonal activities, colors, shapes, food groups, and more. |
||
|
|
||
|
Storytime at SchoolExpress.com has 25 storybooks to read on-line and blackline books that can be printed for each story. Many cute versions of traditional stories such as The Three Bears, Little Red Hen, Gingerbread Man, and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. BBC Little Animals Activity Center The stories are very nice. Games are more for beginning readers Kiz Club appears to be a site from Japan. In addition to many stories that you can read on-line or print to color and read, there are flash cards, worksheets, crafts and other activities to print and play. Activities for rhyming words, positional words, counting and more. This award winning site Story Place, the Children's Digital Library is sponsored by the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. The Preschool Library contains fourteen books with audio and animation. Along with each book is a computer activity, a craft to print and make, and a reading list of books related to the theme of the animated book. Fun with Spot - This site has simple games and stories Storybooks at lil-fingers.com. Many books for you to read. A few also have audio. There are also games and holiday activities. Mercer Mayer's Little Critter Read a story to your child at Primary Games.com Storyline Online sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation. Great books read by celebrities. Listen to stories by great Storytellers at Bookhive Starfall.com has great seasonal activities and short stories. Good for the beginning reader, but also very good for those children who need to increase their sentence production and practice answering questions. Black and white versions of the books on the site can be printed by clicking here. There are games or movies to go along with most of the books. Starfall.com now has a wonderful introduction to letter sounds and some easy to read fiction and nonfiction books. Children's Story Books On-line - books for children of all ages Binkey's Story Scramble - Read the three part story and put the story cards in the correct order. CBeebies, a British Broadcasting Company, children's television channel, sponsors this wonderful site. I love the stories. You will see some of the same characters and games found on the PBS site, however, it is worth a look. Stories and Rhymes can be found by clicking here.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Hop Pop Town has games and music for both the preschool child and the younger elementary school child. The Berenstain Bears official web pages has more for the elementary child, but there are a few activities for your preschool child. I like the paper dolls, you can view pictures of Honey Bear, the newest member of the family, and watch a videos. You can play a matching game or read a story at Primary Games.com. There are many games and activities at this site for Preschool to second grade students. Pick a Duck at Billy Bear's site. Games and more at Seussville.com Preschool Games can be found at Lego.com Many nice games, targeting science concepts, can be found at Peep and the Big Wide World Ready to print board games can be found at Carl's Corner.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Read, Watch, and Listen to The School Run , a school bus story, at CBeebies.com Find the farm animals at Fun With Spot, A Day Out on the Farm. Singing Babies video clips - This is a commercial site selling videos and DVDs featuring babies. On this page you can view a video clip showing a portion of "Old MacDonald Had a farm." I have never seen these videos and am not endorsing them, but thought that the video clip was cute and may entertain those children with earlier developing language skills or those learning to recite the rhyme. Learn the nursery rhyme, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and paint a picture Make pumpkin faces at Chateau Meddybumps or sort pumpkins by color and size. Match the leaves with Caillou Play Zoe's Halloween to make a scarecrow and Dress Elmo for Fall at Sesame Street.org. Click on Games and choose Browse All Games to see the many games and activities. Download Pilgrim, Pilgrim, What do you see? and other holiday mini books at Carl's Corner's Holiday Highway. |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Decorate a Christmas Tree or a house for the Gingerbread Baby at Jan Brett's site. Elle's Christmas Page, build snowmen and decorate entire rooms and a village with Christmas lights and decorations Download Santa, Santa, What do you see?, S is for Santa and other holiday mini books at Carl's Corner's Holiday Highway.
A story, The Gingerbread Man Billy Bear's Gingerbread Sticker Fun Santa's Countdown from Preschool Printables.com
Kwanzaa activities and coloring pages Read the on-line story, What is Kwanzaa? at primarygames.com
Hanukkah activities and coloring pages
Build a snow family at this Christmas site or build a snowman at Starfall.com. This site has many great reading and pre-reading activities. Another Build a Snowman Winter Coloring Pages to print Make a Snow Globe at Golden Books.com Winter games and puzzles to play on-line. Winter Theme Activities and Pictures for teachers from Speechtx.com (a pdf file) DLTK's Winter Activities for Children Six winter mini books named below can be found at Carl's Corner by clicking here: Things to do in the Winter, Five Little Snowmen, From Snowball to Snowman, What do You Wear in the Snow, Mitten Mitten What do You See? and Inuit Inuit What do You See? Go to Jan Brett's site to see many activities and crafts to go along with the story The Mitten. There are many book related activities and crafts at her site. Three Little Kittens, a rebus rhyme.
Penguin facts, photos, and activities Read the story Rumble Grumble Gurgle Roar at Nickjr.com; a story of a little penguin, narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. Penguin Party at lil-fingers.com Two mini books about Penguins at Carl's Corner
Hearts, a story, at lil-fingers.com Download Will You Bee Mine? and other holiday mini books at Carl's Corner's Holiday Highway.
Groundhog's Day, a cute activity at Starfall.com. Teachers, check out "Explore Shadows" at Peep Explorer's Guide
The 100th Day of School at Starfall.com
Watch Little Bill, Thank You, Dr. King
|
||
|
|
||
|
Create a spring flower Grow a flower at Starfall.com Arrange your own flowers at Merry Tulip's Flower Shop Egg Decorating and an Egg Hunt at Meddybemps.com Monarch Butterfly Activities Find a Four Leaf Clover at Starfall.com Word Hunt at Starfall.com - Children don't need to read to play this game. See rabbits and chicks at One Little Rabbit Match animal sounds at Elmo's Mixed-Up Farm, watch flowers grow in Snuffy's Magic Garden and play the Weather Game with Elmo all at SesameStreet.org. Click on Games and choose Browse All Games to see the many games and activities. Read, Watch, and Listen to The Enormous Turnip at CBeebies.com From Seed to Sprout, a mini book and a sequence activity at Carl's Corner |
||
| Summer | ||
 |
||
|
At the Monteray Bay Aquarium play games and watch and learn about animals that live in the ocean This Fish Story includes and an on-line activity that teaches positional words. There is a printable craft and book list to go along with the unit. Make a Sandcastle with Clifford the Big Red Dog Match the sounds in the shells when you play Clifford's Shell Match at Scholastic.com Count Fish at Meddybemps.com Make an Ocean Scene with Billy Bear. Read Surfer Girl at Starfall.com Betty Lou Goes Skin Diving at SesameStreet.org. Click on Games and choose Browse All Games to see the many games and activities. Dora Mermaid Costume Pack - Print and make a crown, a necklace, and a bracelet. Three mini books about summer at Carl's Corner Red Crab, Red Crab, What do You See?, A mini book about sea life at Carl's Corner
|
||
| For Parents and Professionals | ||
    |
||
| Teaching Children the "Language of School" by Jean Warren | ||
| Parent Helpers (Great for teachers, too!) | ||
|
A brushing chart from Preschool Printables.com Sticker Charts to print from Preschool Printables.com Writing Paper from Preschool Printables.com Make your own " Talking Switch" Linda J. Burkhart gives instructions to make a talking switch out of a talking photo frame. Toys as Language Developing Tools Learning Spatial Concepts by Dorothy P. Dougherty |
||
| Resources | ||
|
The American
Speech-Language-Hearing Association
T/TAC
Online
The Virginia Department of Education's The Assistive Technology Training Online Project (ATTO) provides information on AT applications that help students with disabilities learn in elementary classrooms. Includes links to tutorials for many programs including Clicker, PowerPoint, and WORD. Stuttering Foundation of America American Sign Language Browser - click on words to learn the sign
Stuck for words?
WORD RETRIEVAL ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN International Rett Syndrome Association General Articles about Autism from the Indiana Resource Center for Autism TinSnips, a Special Education Resource for Autism
|
||
| Back to the Table of Contents | ||
 |
||
| Diana Bryan Quinn MS -CCC-SLP | ||
| Speech Language Pathologist | ||
|
|
||
