End of the Week SLP Blues-Winter Edition

On the eleventh day of posting this Speech Lady gave to me, some ideas for the last week of therapy. 

Back in the day when this Speech Lady had time to make all kinds of therapy activities I had not one, not two, but three winter posts here , here and here.  Don't worry I'm laughing at myself thinking about a.) how busy I was at work and b.) my days in Austin and the snow.  Chicago has no pity on me now. 

End of the Week SLP Blues-Halloween Edition

Seeing as I'm working in a pre-school, I'm doing way more hands-on sensory activities.  Card games rarely work for me, unless there is a gross motor component to it.  That's why I liked this one below.  Have the kids all around the room and then they have to walk around and ask friends if they have the picture they're looking for.   

 "I have. Who has?" game from Carrie over at Carrie's Speech Corner.

 

Lessons for Little One's Blog has all kinds of Halloween activities.  I would use this tissue paper candy corn activity with my kids working on articulation and think about your kids with Apraxia...Holy drill practice! Give them a piece of tissue paper for each time they say a word/word in a sentence etc. 

Here's another fun (and edible) activity to get lots of practice.

link

Over at No Time For Flashcards, she's also making spider webs out of tape.  I would put targeted sound cards or different verb cards all over the spider web.  Then they have to stay on the lines to pick up the card, say the word or put the verb in a sentence. 

 

I'm thinking 10 target sounds/words and they get to pop a balloon.  I would LOVE to do this in a classroom!

 

I'm for sure doing this! A sensory bag with eyeballs in it.  I'm also thinking it would be fun to add little spiders and worms.  Think about all the wonderful spontaneous language you'll get.  My kids are going to flip over this!

 

I love Halloween and am excited that my school has a "Halloweenie Roast" every year.  The whole school is turned into a fun haunted house and the kids go around to their classrooms and trick or treat. 

 

 

Has anyone else been eating way too much candy to prepare for the holiday or am I the only one? Anyone, anyone?!?

 

Halloween Prep & Appy Hour

My Halloween outfit is coming together (I'll be a ballerina) and I'm reminiscing about my Halloween post last year.  I haven't decided yet how I'll incorporate Halloween into my new class.  Pretty sure it will involve some pretty hands on activities.  I'll keep you updated on that through Facebook or Instagram.

Make sure to check out what I used last year in my classroom.

Here are some fun and free apps to use for the holiday.

Holiday Pic it!-Free

Take a picture of you or your student and they can choose to put Halloween items on certain parts of their body or face (i.e. Put the pumpkin on your head). 

Carve-A-Pumpkin -Free

I modeled what I wanted the kids to do by saying, "Put the triangle eyes on the pumpkin." Then they got a turn to give me the directions. 

There are so many awesome Halloween activities out there.  Make sure to check back on Thursday for "End of the Week SLP Blues". 

National Talk Like A Pirate Day

September 19th is "National Talk Like A Pirate Day".  Check out this past pirate post for all kinds of ideas on what to do in speech therapy to celebrate those lovely pirates! Aaaargh!

Beginning of the Week SLP Blues-Father's Day Edition

Welp, I warned you all that I might drop the ball on posting regularly.  To make up for that here are some fun Father's Day activities to use with your students this week. 

Lay out scrap paper or pre-cut shapes for the tie.  The students can either ask for shapes and colors or they can follow directions you give to them on how to decorate it. 

You could do several things with this idea. You could have the kids create coupons for dad (i.e. I will help you wash the car.) or you can come up with words to describe their dad and if the word has their articulation sound in it then they put the card in the pocket. 

Great activity for vocabulary development.  The kids think of all the words that describe their dad and then see if they can arrange them so it spells out father.

This is a cute question and answer game to use with your students.

Cute activity for building vocabulary.

* Click on pictures to get to site links.

Check out my Mother's Day post for some other ideas that you could turn into a Father's Day activity. 

I couldn't post about Father's Day without saying something about my dad.  I may be biased, but I'm pretty sure I have the best dad out there.  He has been supportive with every decision I've made in my life and is there cheering me on every step of the way.  Lately it's been my turn to cheer him on.  My dad is currently on a health and fitness journey and I couldn't be more proud of him.  I can't imagine life without him and am thankful he's motivated to stay around for a long time to come.  I love you Pops and can't wait to celebrate Father's Day with you at the beach!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Better Speech and Hearing Month

If you're visiting this site and not quite sure what a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) is, or you're a student trying to understand what it takes to be an SLP here is a great handout from SuperDuper Inc.

Here are some posters and other handouts from Speaking of Speech.

Here is a great article that gives parents a "check list" of sorts to help them decide if their child might need assistance from an SLP. 

These handouts are amazing from Live, Speak, Love

I had a request for some ideas on how to incorporate BSHM for our preschool kiddos.  Depending on their level of language and understanding, you could talk about how to take care of your voice and how there are different levels of vocal intensity.  I have a chart on my chalkboard that I have to use with kids all the time.  It's pretty basic, but does the trick.  Here it is for you to download.  You could do a matching game of sorts and have them decide what voice they should use during certain circumstances,  "You're in a library, which voice do you use?" "Use the whisper voice." etc.  I think this is a good opportunity to talk about the parts of our body that we use for speech.  Get a cut-out of a person and have labels for lungs, larynx, tongue, nose, brain, ears, teeth, lips etc. 

Discounted apps galore at SuperDuper Inc., Smarty Ears, PocketSLP , Hamaguchi , Sounding Board

Check back tomorrow to find out what made me become an SLP.

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

Luck Of The Irish

While I won't be doing many activities in speech therapy this year for St. Patrick's Day (we're on spring break), I didn't want to leave you all without a few ideas.  I found these awesome ideas through Pediastaff's pin board for St. Patrick's Day.

This is what Speech Lady Liz would be doing in therapy

Click on the picture to get to the site link.  

Fun activity for talking about attributes

Articulation cards for /r/.

Multiple meanings, sequencing and evaluating statements

Phonemic Awareness

Synonyms

Working on blends

Plurals Bingo

So my thinking with this activity, is to print off my word sheets on the bottom right corner of this page and print on different colors of paper.  Then the kids cut and make the rainbow with their words and the different colors. 

What couldn't you do with this activity? These gold coins could be used for articulation(write initial, medial, final, word, phrase, sentence on the coins) or it could be used for language (put directions, prepositions, wh-questions etc.)

Great activity that works on putting simple sentences together and the concept of "on".

And lastly,

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Clover

A fun book to read to your kids that has some St. Patrick's Day vocabulary and love that she gives you the sentence strips with the pictures.  Hello sequencing!

These bloggers really have some great ideas! Make sure you go and follow their blogs and/or like them on Facebook...I know I have!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from a 25% Irish speech lady :)

Happy Heart Day!

I know many people consider Valentine's Day a Hallmark holiday.  Not me!  If celebrating love is wrong I don't want to be right.  Here is how we're celebrating Valentine's Day in speech therapy-

Antonym match-up game here.

Figurative language book here.

Laminate book and velcro extra pictures.  Students get to choose which picture to place in the blank.  See if the students can tell or create any other idioms, similes etc.

Cupid Shuffle articulation game here, here.

I found these mini mailboxes in the $1 section at Target.  There are a ton of different ways to use these cards.  Have students put sound cards in each other's mailboxes.  Then, when they pull one out they have to put it in a word (receive a heart) or a sentence (receive a cupid).  The most cupids at the end gets an extra sticker, or however you do rewards. You could make these cards into a memory game and when they get a match they have to say a sentence with their sound in it.  Then, if they say it correctly they get to put the match in their mailbox.  The possibilities are endless.  :)

    

Heart preposition and/or following directions activity here

Use the big and small hearts to give simple and/or complex directions.  For expressive language, place the hearts on before and have the students tell you where the hearts are i.e. The small heart is on the table.

Are you having a deja vu? I've done this activity for Halloween and Christmas.  It's been a hit what can I say?! Here is a step-by-step on how to make the articulation heart "ornament".  Use these pictures provided to turn this articulation activity into a following directions activity.    

The different parts of my heart.  I got this idea from this website.  I use this with kids working on social skills.  In social group we talk about our different "smarts".  Some kids have "math smarts", "lego smarts" and some have "social smarts" etc.  For this activity you can talk about "heart parts".  There are many parts of one's heart and they all have to do with emotions.  I give them an example of my heart and how half of my heart is just for the people in my life that I love.  The other parts include the things that I love, the things that make me proud, the things that make me sad and the things that make me scared.  I listed some examples for them.  Then it's their turn to pick the emotions in their heart and they can separate them however they like.  Great opportunity to talk about emotions. 

Hope this gives you all plenty to do in the next couple weeks.  Don't forget Groundhog Day on Thursday.  See all my Punsxy Phil activities here. 

Happy Valentine's Day my lovely, wonderful, talented, beautiful, funny, smart readers! :)

Happy Groundhog Day!

In case you forgot Groundhog Day is coming up this Thursday, February 2nd.  I grew up celebrating Groundhog Day.  I know what you’re thinking...who really celebrates Groundhog Day?  Well my family does!  My dad grew up there and my family lives in Punxsutawney, PA.  I have been to Gobler’s Knob.  My grandfather’s pharmacy was in the movie "Groundhog Day".  My grandmother was named Woman of the Year in Punxsutawney, PA.  I have danced to the Pennsylvania polka (maybe I shouldn’t admit to that).  So when Heidi Kay over at Pediastaff asked some bloggers to create Groundhog Day activities, I couldn’t pass it up.   

Here are several activities to use for all of your groups on Groundhog Day.

Irregular past tense activity here.

Groundhog Prepositions here.

Groundhog, Groundhog What Do You Wear? here.
This is a good opportunity to talk about the weather and different seasons.  Use the clothing cards included and have the children decide what Punxsy Phil should wear depending on the season. 

6 More Weeks Of Winter/Spring Is Right Around The Corner Articulation Game, here.

Throw the cards in a "tree stump" and the kids take turns and try to collect as many "Spring" cards as possible as they practice their articulation words.

Here's an example of my tree stump.  I just used a coffee can and put brown paper around it and added a groundhog image from clipart.  

If you're looking for any other information on Groundhog Day visit their website.

Happy Groundhog Day everyone!  

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Jolly Kwanza too,,,

I was hoping to get this winter themed post up weeks ago.  Alas, this speech lady has been bogged down with evaluations, progress reports, IEP paperwork, Medicaid and all that “fun” stuff that we get paid overtime for (cough, cough not).  Sorry to be a Scrooge, but had to get my “Ba Humbugs” out before I was able to talk about the festive activities that have been going on in speech therapy. 

Christmas

Articulation

"Oh Christmas Tree"

We made Christmas trees out of articulation words that are winter themed.  Colored the pictures green, added a star on top and these labels so parents knew what this activity was all about. 

Ornaments

This activity may look familiar.  I did something similiar in my Halloween post. I used a circle template and then had the kids fold the circles in half. Then, they glued one half of the circle and connected all of them except the last two.  I use four circles for each ornament.  Before you glue the last circles together use string and white glue to create something for the ornament to hang.  Add articulation words to each side of the circle and you've got yourself a speech therapy ornament. 

Language

Hot Chocolate

This was a great activity for beginning sequencers.  They had to sequence how to make hot chocolate. First, I did a demonstration. Then, they completed their sequencing.  After that, they had to follow their own directions to make their hot chocolate.  Thank goodness it got cold in Texas or the hot chocolate wouldn't have been so warm and cozy!

Snowman Activity

This was also an activity from my Halloween post that worked out so well I decided to make it for the next season.  Have the students follow or give the directions to another to make a snowman. Great for working on those quantity, quality and spatial concepts.  Here is the template I used.   

Social Story

Christmas time can be stressful, but it's also a great opportunity to work on those social skills that our kids with Autism need to work on.  I have made a social story about receiving gifts.  There is nothing I dislike more than when a child receives a gift and huffs and puffs because "That's not what I wanted!".  So, to prevent this from happening here are two pages of a social story to read to your kids and send home with parents. 

Social Story Page 1

Social Story Page 2

The Grinch

The Grinch is a great character to talk about expected and unexpected behaviors as well as describing words, antonyms, synonyms etc.  Videos are a great interactive way to work on inferencing as well.  I work closely with a teacher who uses it all the time and it inspired me to do a holiday version. Here and here are two links to Grinch videos. 

Chanukah:

Here is a great post by Jenna Rayburn that has activities for Chanukah.

http://speechroomnews.blogspot.com/2011/11/its-that-time-of-year-hope-youre.html

She also has some great Christmas activities too!

Kwanza:

Heidi Kay over at Pediastaff challenged some bloggers to create therapy activies related to Chanukah and Kwanza.  While the activity I came up with is pretty simple in nature, it was a really great motivator.  These chain links can be used in a couple different ways.   

Articulation:

I introduced Kwanza to the kids first.  I explained what the colors mean and the basic traditions of the holiday. Then, depending on what level they are at, they get to add a link for every sound or sound in a sentence that they produced correctly.  I tried to keep the conversation centered around the holiday.  Whoever has the longest chain at the end of the session gets an extra sticker.

Language:

Because many children at my school do not celebrate Kwanza or Chanukah, they don't know much about the holidays.  I wrote on the white board "Holidays" and the kids had to either tell a personal story (they get a red link), ask a question (they get a green link) or comment on someone else's response (they get a black link).  They want their links to be a mix of colors and not all one color.  Whoever has the longest chain at the end of the session gets an extra sticker.  It was a good way to work on pragmatics and other expressive language goals and get kids to talk about their holiday traditions and ask questions about others.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and enjoys spending quality time with family.  I'm seriously looking forward to it and my goal is to be paperwork free by December 22nd! Happy Holidays!