"Lesson" of the Week

We've decided over at Learn2Hear that we would do weekly topics. Amy (a homeschooling mom) who is co-owner/creator of the group and I will post up topics of interest that we as parents/educators can use to increase vocabulary, use with our "at home therapy" to enhance language in our children with special needs. They can simply be used as talk abouts, not meant for sit down lessons necessarily, and they may seem for older/advanced children. We do this because we know you can come up with the primary words for the topics, like cold/hot, etc. We are adding things that will hopefully encourage parents to take it to the next level. Amy may also add a few homework, school related tips as well since she teaches her child on a regular basis. Please read the disclaimer and I will not put these on my blog after today, these will be exclusive to the members of Learn2Hear.
**Disclaimer: the weekly lessons are in no way to replace your professional
therapy. They are to only be used as a compliment to your therapist and only
intended to add language and vocabulary in the children of various ages. You
know your child best and will have to modify each lesson to work for you and
your family. I am not a licensed therapist and these are simply topics I use
with my own deaf children to increase language.
Week of 9/7
Topic: weather

With all of the hurricanes hitting the U.S. right now, take a minute to watch
a news broadcast, look at photos online, or look in a book/magazine, for
photos of some different weather. Here is a sample of many new words
that can be introduced if not already current in their vocabulary.
damage
flooding
heavy rain vs. light rain vs. sprinkles
hurricane
weather
meteorologist / weather man
electrical storm / lightening bolt / lightening strike
tornado
storm shelter / emergency shelter / emergency escape plan
straight line winds vs. breeze
heat
forecasts
higher/lower elevation
thunderstorms / pop-up thundershowers
degrees
sunrise / sunset
clear / cloudy / fair / mostly cloudy
eclipse / full moon / crescent moon
freeze / frozen
snow capped mountains
avalanche
heat wave / heat stroke
summer/fall/winter/spring
autumn
fog / mist / dew
tropical depression
radar / thermometer / temperature / siren alert / warning
weather alerts
and the list just goes on and on and on….a few other ideas for the younger
ones would be singing little weather related songs "it's raining it's pouring,
the old man is snoring" for example or "rain, rain, go away, come again some
other day"
http://www.dcrafts.com/weathersongs.htm for more songs
also include idioms like "it's raining cats and dogs" "cloud 9" "calm before
the storm" "chasing rainbows" "rain on your parade" and "under the weather"

Amy adds:
i'll add too- you can also talk about feelings during this. Andrew is most
"concerned" about those that are in a hurricane's path. And of course you can
incorporate a map to discuss north, south east and west... as well as practice
your geography and locations of certain states. I have found
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html
to be a good resource in general and for things such as social studies and
geography. you can do lots for free there and also pay a $20 to get better
printing features. i have done both.
here is a states page
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/
and take a look at this page!
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/weather/hurricane/classification.shtml


hopefully over the next week, you'll be able to incorporate at least something
from the list.