Welcome to Ms. Koenig's Classroom

General Information

Vocabulary Practice Ideas Learning vocabulary should be fun and taught within context. Here are just a few ideas to get you started. Encourage your child to use new and fun words that they learn in school at home. They love to hear you using new words and they love to teach you new ones, too!
Articulation Practice One of the best ways to practice articulation skills is within the context of your daily activities. Choose a few minutes each day and let your child know that you are going to listen for their good speech sounds. Gradually increase that time as your child increases their production of good speech sounds. When your child is just getting started with a new sound, they may bring home practice cards. Here are a few ideas that might make your practice time more fun. Remember to model the sounds and words for your child and make the activities fun! You will think of many other games to add to this list!
Ideas to support Speech and Language Development for the kindergarten parent. Kindergarten is an exciting step into the future! Talk, explain, and explore with your child every opportunity that you get!! Here are just a few suggestions to incorporate into your daily routines.
Parents Rights The parental rights form is to protect you and your child. Please contact me anytime with questions regarding your child's program, concerns that you might have, or a positive change that you see in your child's communication. The speech and langauge program is designed to meet your child's individual needs in a positive, caring environment.
Speech and Language Library Throughout the year, your child will be exposed to many wonderful literature activities to address their IEP goals and objectives. We will keep a list of our favorites from the Speech and Language Room and include others that the kids recommend for our Speech and Langauge Library. I encourage you to use our school library that is packed with terrific fiction and nonfiction literature and our public library full of the best books and authors around. See the Links section for books that you and your child will enjoy reading together!
Camp Communication Fees We want kids to take ownership in the Speech and Language Program. They are encouraged to take good care of our room and materials and be an active member of our Speech and Language Club.
Spelling Expectancies Spelling expectancies are general "rules" that we can use to help with spelling. We don't have the "brain power" to memorize all words so we must find efficient ways to help support spelling success. Your child uses these expectancies in the classroom.
Expanding Expression Tool The Expanding Expression Tool (EET) was developed by Sara L. Smith, Speech Language Pathologist (2004). The EET is a way of teaching kids how to give informative descriptions and definitions of objects. It's great for students who have difficulty organizing their thoughts and knowing what information is pertinent to their audience. The EET provides visual and tactile cues to facilitate learning. It can be easily adapted to classroom assignments involving oral language and written expression.

Did You Know?

Comprehension of similarities and differences are a key component to success in the classroom. Understanding begins at an early age. How are a train and a plane alike. They are both forms of transportation that take us from place to place. They are different because a plane has wings and moves through the air and a train moves on land and along a track. As a child develops through their elementary years, they begin to use this same premise for the successful comprehension of reading, science, and social studies. How are the characters alike, how are they different? How are continents, countries, land formations, wars, and chemical elements alike and different? These are essential skills to becoming independent problem solvers and comprehending academic and daily living tasks. Utilize comparing and contrasting in your discussions, it will help your child expand their knowledge!