Do you love dry erase markers? Want to learn about more fun ways to use them in speech?
If you know me by now, you know that I just love using items found around your therapy room to do quick prep and engaging therapy ideas. I have shared several ways I use dry erase markers on my Instagram account but I wanted to make a nice round up blog post so you can learn all about these ideas in one place! So….let's get started!
Following Directions:
Need a quick visual? Students struggling to follow multi-step directions? Just grab a dry erase marker and you can easily write out or draw out visuals for your students that need the audio and visual cues! Learn more about this idea by clicking HERE!
Impromptu Reinforcer/Game:
Students bored of drilling activities? Just make a quick bulls eye on your therapy table and you are ready to go! Students can toss “coins” from dollar stores or any other small objects! They can earn points or even the amount of times they need to produce their articulation sounds! And yes…you can write on a therapy table with a dry erase marker and it will erase!
Wind Up Toy Fun:
Grab a wind up toy, write targets all around your therapy table and students can have fun using their wind up toys to see where they land! In the picture above, we worked on categories!! I have done this idea with synonyms/antonyms, curriculum vocabulary, verb tenses, and articulation words!
Compare and Contrast Fun:
Students bored of Venn Diagrams? Turn your therapy table into one! Students will be so motivated to write and complete it! Want other fun ways to work on compare/contrast? Click HERE!
Quick Visuals:
Students need reading passages broken down into smaller parts? I teach my students to stop after each paragraph and to think about the main idea. I usually have them write it in a graphic organizer but there are times I just don't have one ready to go. Just write it on the table next to the story! Click HERE to grab this compare/contrast activity.
Game Visuals:
Student struggling to understand the steps to playing a game? Just give them visuals right there in front of them. Break the game down into steps! I did this with Zingo!
Sequencing Visuals:
Working on sequencing? Whether it is with pictures, sentences, paragraphs or more…students can benefit from placing the different portions into the spot it belongs. They need to visually see how many sequences were there. I just wrote 1, 2, and 3 right on my therapy table and my students were able to sort the paragraphs of my Sneaker Sequencing Cards into the correct spots to represent the correct sequence to make the story make sense. Grab this activity HERE!
Reuse Activities Easily:
Students not motivated to write? Don't have time to make tons of photocopies? Want to be able to use color ink but not enough to make copies for your entire caseload? Just laminate enough for one group and you can use dry erase markers on it! I did that with my Case Of The Missing Suitcases Inferencing Activity above! Students had so much fun marking off the different suitcases on the clipboards using dry erase markers! Grab this activity HERE!
Listening for Graphic Organizers:
Don't have time to laminate worksheets? Don't want to write on your therapy table? You can purchase these dry erase sleeves! Just put a worksheet inside and students can write on it! This is great if you want to only make enough color copies for 1 group and use all day or if you have a graphic organizer that you want to use over and over for task cards. I used these sleeves above with my Cupcake Listening for WH Questions activity. (Crocodile Dentist and Angry Bird were just reinforcers!). Grab this activity HERE!
Want even more ways? Watch my video below!
The FREE data sheet mentioned in the video can be grabbed HERE!!