Any baseball fans out there in speech land? I thought I would combine baseball season with one of my most used therapy tools, the Expanding Expression Tool. Let’s pause and all agree that you won’t just use the EET programs without purchasing the EET kit first. Sara Smith created an amazing program and we want to support our fellow SLP by purchasing the kit! So let’s look at how we are incorporated baseball and the EET in the speech room! 
We used my big white board, a few baseball foam cutouts and dry erase markers! I love an activity that is easy to store 🙂 
The first step is to make some EET baseballs. You will need 7. I used these yellow foam cutouts. I’m pretty sure they came from the Dollar Tree, but they were from last year. I drew the prompts on each baseball! 
The set up looks like this. To score points, students have to use at least 4 of the 7 descriptors. They have to get a ‘homerun’ to score! You can see some of the vocab we described today in red above. It was all baseball themed. 
For our game I made the ‘Green Group’ and ‘Blue Do’ prompts mandatory. We worked on developing a sentence similar to this: ” A COACH is a type of PERSON that HELPS KIDS LEARN TO PLAY BALL.” “A HELMET is a type of SPORTS EQUIPMENT that PROTECTS YOUR HEAD.” We were focusing on answering the category and function descriptions in a natural sentence. 
Next they got to pick 2 more prompts to finish their description and pass 3rd base/home plate. I set a cue level before the game. This week it was 3 cues – while I introduced the activity. They knew they could get 3 prompts/explanations and still earn their point by getting around all the bases! That basically meant I helped with the first 3 bases and they did the 4th independently. Next time we play I will give them two prompts and then we’ll keep reducing it until we’re independently scoring home runs! I was surprised at how difficult it was for them to transfer their learning to this new format! It’s always good to practice in new ways and this reminded me that just because they can use the skill is some formats, it won’t necessarily carryover independently! Don’t forget to have the EET strand out on the table to help them connect what they are familiar with to the new format! Are you using the EET in your speech room? Are you doing anything baseball themed?
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I found this great website which has powerpoint presentations for “do” and “group” “looks like” and “parts” which has been great for when i work with larger class groups. I have been using EET for planting theme for vocabulary during initial introduction as well as during hand-on-planting activities.
http://blog.wsd.net/slp/eet/
forgot to put the link in
That is actually a little blog I do for SLPs that I work with in my district. Funny that you could find it, but I am glad you found it helpful. 🙂
Well thank you for putting it together!!! It makes my life a lot easier!
Hi There…I just tried accessing the blog because YES it does look great… but it won’t let the public register….I am an SLP from Manitoba Canada …Is there a way I could get onto the blog and look at the EET info etc….I am thinking I may need a user name and password already registered ??….Hoping this is a possibility?….Thanks
Trudy Campbell SLP Virden Manitoba Canada
tcampbell@flbsd.mb.ca
Love, Love, Love the EET program. I would highly recommend it! Wonderful language therapy tool. And thanks for another fun way to use it!
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Last week my lang. group read Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert. I picked specific vocabulary words to review that corresponded to their curricular sci. vocab.This week each kiddo received a paper butterfly. We reviewed the target vocab. and assigned each word at least two EET descriptors as a group. Each time a student was correct determining ADDITIONAL descriptors, they received a colored circle corresponding to the EET chart. The children enjoyed the activity, and were very attentive because they didn’t want to miss the chance to acquire a decoration for their butterfly.
I am seriously considering putting EET on my wishlist for next school year. I’ve have seen/heard so many great things about it. I :pray: that there’s money in the budget for it..
While driving home from work today I was trying to think of a new game to use in my resource style room, and I was thinking baseball! Thanks for giving me another idea of how to make playing baseball in the classroom work! I hadn’t thought of making a diamond on the whiteboard! I think I might make little baseball players for each kid…like their players on my behavior incentive board (check out here). Love all your ideas!
We are ALL Special!
Jenna, LOVE this! Good for end-of-the-year motivation (for myself as well as the kids). Thanks!