PREK Game review - Thinkfun Smatch

I LOVE incorporating games into my therapy and discovering new games.   So I thought I would share one that isn't so new but I haven't pulled out in a while…. so to my little kiddos it was NEW!


SMATCH by Thinkfun!  Basically it is a matching game, but to make a match you need to spin the spinner and the spin dictates if you have to make a match by color, number, or group.

Normally I would have the cards turned over  to hide the pictures.  But since today was the first time I was playing it with this particular group of PREK loves I had the cards facing up to make it easier to become familiar with the game.

They LOVED being able to push down on the spinner to tell what type of match they should make.  Even how to operate the spinner became a lesson in following directions :).  You could also work on plurals because you are either matching a picture of one item or two…. so it is perfect for that goals as well.

I am thinking that I could even create additional category and number cards to expand the game. 

What is your favorite game to use in therapy?

Andrea

Ringing in the New Year!

Finally we are back in school!  We did have one day last week and then a snow day on Friday.  So we are starting off with some New Year celebrating in PreK. 

Today we had  fun wearing New Year's Eve glasses during therapy... the kiddos just loved them.  We walked down the hall with them and they wished everyone they met "Happy New Year"!  It was a blast and a great way for them to practice greeting others.  They all used great eye contact too, as they wanted to make sure that everyone noticed their "NEW GLASSES".  Who would have guessed they would be so useful.  HMMM maybe there should be glasses for every holiday :)

Here is  a pic of my son and I wearing the glasses on New Year's Eve

Sparkling cider in the "clinky" glasses to ring in the New Year!

Since we have been on vacation for two weeks I wanted to do something simple to help everyone get back into the groove of school.   So I found a freebie online of a New Year's party hat with some blank dots.  Here is the link for the New Year's party hat.

We practiced following some simple directions:

"color one dot blue and one dot red" or "color two dots yellow"

They also had to make choices of color crayons. 

It was an easy way to get back into the routine of school and practice following directions, pragmatics and some fine motor.  Plus they really had a lot of fun wearing the sparkly glasses!


Happy New Year!

Andrea