PrAACtically November: AAC Resources for a Year of Core Vocabulary

Are you looking for some ways to help your AAC learners become more competent in using core words? Need to get staff on board with modeling core vocabulary? Trying to get familiar with where core words are stored in a particular SGD or AAC app? Here’s an approach you may want to try: Choose a dozen or so core words to focus on each month. In previous years, we shared lists of some core words to help you do just that.

It’s just about time to turn another page on the calendar, and that means we’re busy preparing materials and activities for our November core words. In today’s post, we’ll share resources from our original Year of Core Vocabulary series that you can print and use. If you are in a school setting, stop by later in the week when we share resources for November words in the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words series. Each series uses a different set of words each month, but you can also pick and choose the core word resources to use even if you are not following along with the month-by-month plan.

Set 1: A Year of Core (12 words/month)

Set 2: A(nother) Year of Core  (16 words/month; Note: These are different than the core words covered in 2013)

Those posts have links to downloadable grids with the core words for each month that can be used as a focal point for lesson planning.

Our words for November are listed below.

• Set 1: body, dress, full, guess, hi, live, maybe, one, ride, tired very, walk
• Set 2: at, count, drive, first, few, his, least, light, none, push, real, sharp, stand, street, sun, table

The resources below are available thanks to the generosity of Carly Hynes, Brian Whitmer, Barbara Fernandes, Nancy Inman, Bill and Lori Binko, Heidi LoStracco, Alison Wade, Russell Cross, Gail Van Tatenhove, Eric Sailers, Rachael Langley, Alysha Kaufman, and others.

1. Templates for you to plug in your own symbols: Set 1 words, Set 2 words
2. Minspeak/Unity version: Set 1 words
3. PCS versions: Set 1 words, Set 2 words
4. Lesson Pix: Set 1 words
5. Symbol Stix: Set 1words
6. Smarty Symbols: Set 1 words, Set 2 words
7. CoughDrop: Set 1 words; Set 2 words
8. WordPower: Set 1 words (Note: This is a large file that contains the resources for several versions of WordPower)

Rachael Langley’s calendars, like this perpetual calendar for November’s Set 1 words, are a big hit among professionals and families alike. Look at all the fun things she came up with!

You can get an older calendar, featuring the second set of core words, here. Download, print, and display for lots of fun ways to practice those high-frequency words!

Reading with children is a great way to expose them to core words, and it’s something we do with them anyway. Why not take the time to model and elicit a few core words as you read. The beauty of core vocabulary is that you can use it with ANY book. Here are some suggestions for those that give us an opportunity to use and practice the Set 1 words.

• Inside Your Outside: All About the Human Body by Tish Rabe
• The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole
• Parts by Tedd Arnold
• The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
• Full, Full, Full of Love by Trish Cooke
• Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
• Hi! by Ethan Long
• Hi, Cat by Ezra Jack Keats
• A Life Like Mine: How Children Live Around the World by DK
• Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky by Elphinstone Dayrell
• Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe by Susan Patron
• Curious George Rides A Bike by H. A. Rey
• Bear Is Not Tired by Ciara Gavin
• One Very Tired Wombat by Renee Treml
• The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
• The Wolf Who Didn’t Want to Walk Anymore by Orianne Lallemand
• The Listening Walk by Paul Showers

Book recommendations for Set 2 words are listed below. (Thanks, Carly Hynes, for these suggestions!)

• You Choose by Nick Sharratt – at, count, drive
• Journey by Aaron Becker – at, light, tree, sun
• Count the Monkeys by Mac Barnett – count
• The Hug by Eoin McLaughlin – count, first
• Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems – drive
• The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry – few, least, none
• Looking for Moose by Lisa Root – few, least, none
• The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright – his
• The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig – his
• 12 Dancing Princesses by Rachel Asadora – light
• Follow the Moon Home by Philippe Cousteau – light
• What’s Next Door? by Nicola O’Byrne – push
• That Is Not a Good Idea by Mo Willems – push
• Poo in the Zoo by Steve Smallman – real
• Scientist, Scientist, Who Do You See? by Chris Ferrie – real
• Fossil by Bill Thompson – real
• Time Flies by Eric Rohman – sharp
• Macca the Alpaca by Matt Cosgrove – light
• Greta and the Giants by Zoe Tucker – sun
• The Water Princess by Susan Verde – stand, sun

Core words are wonderful for their flexibility. We can highlight these words as we talk, teach specific lessons to strengthen use of the words, and model them throughout the day. Here are some suggestions for sentences using the first set (2013) of words in short sentences. Many thanks to Alysha Kaufman for putting this together.

Here are some sentences for the Set 2 words, compliments of Carly Hynes and Lisa Youngblood.

Hope you have great month of talking and connecting with AAC!