End Of The Week SLP Blues-Mother's Day Edition

Mother's Day is right around the corner.  I wanted to make sure my students thanked their mom the way they deserve to be thanked!  Here are some ideas to help your kids create a thank you (click on the title to see original post):

Language:

Social Story About Mother's Day
Use this to introduce your activities. 

Descriptive Words + Picture of Mom
This activity was supposed to be for math, but I think it would be great to use in speech.  Each student has to go to different stations where they have to ask for items, how much does it cost etc.  Then they can explain to the group how they made their picture of mom. 

Mother's Day Step Book
This would be cute if you had the topic of "Thank you Mom for..." and then each step of the book had something the child was thankful about regarding their mom. 

Mother's Day Sequencing Activity
This particular idea has a favorite recipe from your mom, but you could have the kids come up with and sequence their "Perfect Day With Mom."

My Mom Has...
Thought this was really cute.  Have the kids draw pictures of their mom and then talk about "My mom has feet to dance with me.", "My mom has arms to wrap around me and hug me." etc. 

Mother's Day Newspaper
This is a fun fill-in-the-blank activity

Mother's Day Adjective Flower
I feel like I should make my mom this craft! She'd still put it on the fridge or up at work guaranteed! I can see it now...." Did your granddaughter make this for you?", "No, my daughter in her late twenties!"-Love you Mom



Articulation:

Mother's Day Acronym
If you're feeling optimistic then you could do this activity with your older kids.  Have them come up with words that have their sound in it, that also describes their mom.  Then figure out if the words have the letters to make up the word "Mother" or maybe just "Mom"....don't want you all pulling your hair out or anything.

My Mom Is...
Just use the first part of the last page in this download and work on descriptive words and/or descriptive words that have specific articulation targets in them. 
If you want to get more creative with this idea you could make this cute ice cream cone. 

Love You To Pieces Card
This might be seriously reaching for it, but you could get newspapers or magazines and have your students cut out items that have their sound in it.  Then they have to glue all the pictures into the shape of a heart for the card.  This is one of those gifts that only a mother of a child with a speech impairment could love.  J

Apps:
I Love Mom Picture Book-free

This book has wonderful pictures and you can even change the words and record your own book to go along with the pictures.  This would be great for you language kids.  They can re-create the story that goes along with the pictures. 




I would just like to say that I have been so touched by the emails I've received from mom's out there that do everything they can to help support their kids and their speech and language development.  You guys are amazing and your children are extremely lucky to have you. 

Happy Mother's Day

Appy Hour

5 more weeks of school, 5 more weeks of school, 5 more weeks of school...

Dragon Dictation-Free
I used this with some of my kids that are working on getting their sounds in conversation.  They say a sentence and Dragon Dictation writes what they think you said.  My kids had to really articulate all the sounds so that it said their sentence. 

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Dog Story-Free
This helped get the conversation started about opposites. I also have the kids act out the opposites as we read the story. 

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Seasons!-Free
Love this one! A scene pops up with a voice describing what kind of weather is happening.  The kids have to figure out what doesn't belong. (ex. someone shouldn't wear gloves and a scarf in the middle of summer).  Lots of good conversation happened while playing this game!

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Comparative Adjectives-Free
An entire app dedicated to talking about comparative words (big, bigger, biggest).  I used this with a group and also read the book "Pig, Pigger, Piggest".  Then each kid had a turn to grab three objects around the room and put them in order and another student had to decide what comparative words to use. 

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Pediastaff's TxTools-Free

This is a brand new app just put out by Pediastaff.  There are 4 features to this app: Tally This, Percent Right, Age Finder and IEP Scheduler.  I have already started using the Percent Right feature with my articulation groups.  Each kid gets a turn to listen to a friend and decide if they said the word right or wrong.  It is super helpful that there is an "undo", because my kids were getting a little heavy handed with the "right" button.  Also, the age-finder is great when getting ages for evals. 

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AbleNet's Sounding Board AAC-Free for a limited time

This app is switch accessible and really user friendly.  Just add pictures from the picture bank they already have or you can upload your own pictures.  Then you label the picture and can even record to make it a voice output device.  I'm not sure how long this will be free, so get it while it is!



Happy "Appy" Hour J

May Take-Home Program

May is a crazy month, so here are take-home programs made and ready to send home.

May Articulation Homework

May Language Homework

Keep checking back, I will have a summer program to send home with your students.

Important Reminders

I think it's really easy to get caught up in our jobs, life and everyday stressors.  Sometimes it's easy to get frustrated with parent demands, but in the end those parents make or break all your hard work.  They are hugely important in the success of your students! It's so important to remind yourself what these parents are going through on a daily basis with their child. Here is a great article written by a parent that puts things into perspective. Click on the picture to head to the link.   

Make sure to check back on Thursday for the "End Of The Week SLP Blues-Mother's Day Edition"