Do you want a fun DIY idea that does not require tons of prep?! Make mystery bags!
What do you need?
All you need is a brown paper bag and various items that you can find around your speech room. For example: erasers, crayons, Popsicle sticks, magnets, puzzle pieces, game pawns, tissue, and paper clip.
Just throw these items into a bag and you are ready to go. You can make one bag for the entire group or one bag per student. You can have students work together with 1 bag or take turns. It all depends on the make up of your group and what goal(s) you want to work on.
What goals can you address?
The possibilities are endless!!! You can work on social skills, answering questions, describing, predicting, articulation, fluency, vocabulary, and so much more!
How do you use it?
- Guess the item: Students can reach into the bag and use their guessing skills to try and guess what is in the bag. How does it feel? Does it make a noise? What shape is it?
- Guess my item: One student can peak into the bag and give clues to the other students in the group. Can they guess the item based on the descriptions? You can also have the group ask that 1 student questions to try and guess it.
- What is the main idea or category?: You can put all items within a group into the bag. Can the student determine the group or category? What do they all have to do with?
- Make a story: Have the student(s) make a story using all of the items in the bag.
- What is missing?: You can have the students try and name items that would go well with the other items in the bag.
- Infer: You can throw artifacts from events and have them guess “where were you?” or “what happened to you?” Make it like they are solving a mystery.
The possibilities are endless! I don't know about you but I just love therapy ideas that don't require much prep but I can use with various groups throughout my day since it can be used to target so many goals! Ideas like this work great with mixed groups. You can easily have a group guessing items, then make an inference based on the items in the bag, and then make a story using all of the items.
Other ideas? You can send home a bag for homework! You can throw in items to represent what you worked on in your speech room. On the bag, instruct a parent/homework helper to have the student go through the bag, describe them, and explain what they all have to do with. Will these clues help that student recall what happened in your speech session?
Want more suggestions or to hear more about mystery bags in speech? View my video below from my Periscope on this activity:
If you are looking for other low prep lessons to use with your older speech students to work on a variety of goals, you should check out SLP Elevate! SLP Elevate is the first membership designed specifically for older students in grades 4+.
Wondering what is included?
Monthly high-interest thematic bundles that contain fiction and nonfiction articles and supplemental materials to target the various speech and language goals common for our older speech students. Previous themes have been Lego, Social Media, and Anime just to name a few!Baseline tools to help you determine what goals to work on and how your students are progressing.Digital Data Tool so you can easily collect data in groups, monitor progress, and see how your students are doing.Interest finder so you can determine what your students are into (great for icebreakers for back to school)Caseload tracker to stay organized.An exclusive Facebook community so you don’t feel alone.Bonus resources and training.
