Sentence Block Building

This is an adapted Pinterest project for sentence building which has been really popular with my clients this week.

Materials Needed:

• Blocks or legos
• Address labels that match size of blocks
• Picture Symbols or Google images search.

I used the Avery address labels and return address labels.  I think it would be nice to color coordinate based on noun/verb etc. but wasn’t able becuase I didn’t have enough of one color.  I tried to use similar sizes for the different parts of the sentences, though.

Then I just typed in the words that I wanted, printed them off and put them on the blocks.  I also put Boardmaker pictures on the sides of the blocks for non readers and to reinforce the meaning of the sentences I made.

I tried to organize present tense on one side and past tense on the other side (tickles/tickled) to help teach which is the correct form to use in the sentences.  I also found adding popular singers, super heroes, sports teams added increased motivation for the clients.

Here are some ways I’ve used them in therapy:

1.  Fill in the blank activities:  I create part of a sentence and then the student finishes it.  Ex. He ___ riding a bike (is/are)  The child puts in the correct sentence.

2.  Basic Sentence building: Start with N-V-O and then add adjectives etc.  Who can build the tallest sentence.

3.   Pronouns: Start with a basic sentence and then have the child replace the Subject with the correct pronoun.

4.  Mixed up sentences:  Can you put the sentence in order?

5.  Subject Verb Agreement:  Start with one sentence (ex. Darth Vader is walking) What happens if we changed it to Storm troopers?  What else needs to change?  I like that this adds more of a physical component to something which may seem more abstract.

I think there are lots of ways these could be used in therapy.  How would you use them?