More EET Love!!

Have you fallen in love with EET (expanding expression tool) yet?!  Are you still learning more about it?!  Are you deciding how to incorporate it into your speech rooms?  Are you deciding how to get your hands on it?!  Thanks to an amazing program, Donor's Choose, I was able to get the ENTIRE kit purchased for my speech room!!  How did I do this?!  You need 6 points in order to request materials from a store other than those being recognized by the website.  After getting about 4 smaller projects funded, I had enough points to request anything I wanted!  WOOHOO!  As you can see below, I got the entire EET kit and 5 student strands (one for each student in my groups).

What is the benefit of having the entire kit vs. just the "strand" or a man-made EET?

• You have the manual!  Easier to learn how to use and suggestions!  I still have to keep reading through it but I am so excited!
• It comes with pictures great for teaching how to use the EET
• It comes with a poster that can be hung or balanced on a table.  It is a great visual to teach students how to use the tool!  It tells what each bead means and probing question to elicit the correct responses!
• It comes with dice and stickers!  Great for creating your own motivating activities!!  I cannot wait to use them!!  Stay tuned for posts to see how!
• By having the student strands, I can now hold the larger strand and each student can hold their own!  No more waiting, watching, and grabbing!  Also, the student strands are cheaper to replace!  No more cringing when a student drops the strand accidentally.

Now keep in mind, I just received this package this morning!  Well, clearly I threw out my entire lesson plans for the day and made it an EET day!  I introduced it and we practiced using it!  

We used the EET to describe school vocabulary (I'm still working on the "school" theme).  I modeled how to describe it and touch each bead as I answered.  Then I walked/talked each student through as they described another school item.  I used real life objects and images (school bus, pencil, notebook, calculator, computer, glue, scissors, ruler, and eraser).  Then, students were able to pick a school supply of their choice and completed a graphic organizer from my EET graphic organizers companion pack!

I decided to pull out one of my favorite games, MEMORY!!  I love how many common objects are included!!  Once a match was found, students were able to pick their "bead" of choice in order to describe it!   I loved seeing which "bead" they picked most!  Clearly, it was "group"/category and "what does it look like?"  So, how did I handle this, I banned it! HA!!!!  They had to pick another one!!

By using these two simple, easy activities to begin with, I got to see which "beads" they struggled with most.  I plan to use the following activities I've created to help teach how to describe using each of the beads in upcoming lessons!!  I cannot wait!!

What Does It Do?

What Is It Made Of? Circus Fun!

What Parts Does It Have?

Where Do You Find It?

Don't worry, I will be creating more for the other beads!!

How do you use EET?  How do you teach how to use it?!  What else do you want to learn about this amazing tool kit?!