Gratitude, Family and Turkeys in Speech Therapy

 Hi Everyone,

It is hard to believe that is it November. This is a great time to incorporate gratitude, family and food activities into therapy. Turkeys and parades are also fun therapy themes. I love to learn about all my students traditions and what they are grateful for.

THEME OF THE MONTH: Gratitude, Family and Turkeys

My theme for November centers around Thanksgiving and turkeys. It is easy to add family and food activities as we talk about our Thanksgiving traditions.

CRAFT ACTIVITY:

This month I like to use my Turkey characters. We make these early in the month so we can display them all month long. Then they go home right before Thanksgiving for the families to enjoy them.

Turkey Articulation and Language Craft

​LITERATURE BOOK:

Run Turkey Run and Turkey Trouble

These are my favorite books for November. These books are fun Thanksgiving books that incorporate family, food and turkeys in them.

• Run Turkey Run
• Turkey Trouble​

Book Companion

​​There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Turkey​

I use this series every month of the school year. In November I like to use the Old Lady Who Swallowed A Turkey. It is a great way to discuss parades and floats. I like to talk about the Thanksgiving Day Parade that is on TV.

GAME: Greedy Granny​

In November I like to use Greedy Granny. It fits in with our discussions of family and food. I use my articulation and language spinners that allow me to target individualized skills that each student needs. It can be used with the game or with the snacks that are included.

Game Spinners

​BOOM LEARNING DECKS: Turkey Trot Articulation

This month my favorite Boom Deck to use is Turkey Trot Articulation. You practice your articulation sounds as you move the turkeys around.

OLDER STUDENTS: Synonym and Antonyms Unit​

As I continue to target vocabulary development I start to focus on synonyms and antonyms. I liked to complete this 7-10 week unit. I created this product that includes vocabulary cards, task cards, games, and booklets to complete. It has everything that I needed to complete a unit on the concept of synonyms and antonyms.

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I hope that everyone has a great month of November. Enjoy your Thanksgiving.

Pumpkins and Halloween Themed Speech Therapy

 Hi Everyone,

I love the Fall weather up in New York. The leaves are beautiful and pumpkin decorations are everywhere. It is a great time to start Halloween activities. Halloween and pumpkins are a fun therapy theme. I just listed a brand new Halloween Articulation and Language Haunted House Craft Activity. You practice the targeted sounds or skills on the Halloween decorations as you decorate the Haunted House.

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THEME OF THE MONTH: Pumpkins and Halloween

My theme for October is all about Halloween and pumpkins. The schools in my area end the month with Halloween parades and parties.

CRAFT ACTIVITY:

This month I like to use my Halloween characters and I plan to use my new Haunted Houses. My Articulation and Language Halloween characters include a witch, mummy, monster, pumpkin, and vampire crafts that you add arms and legs that have speech targets on them. We hang them up all month and then I send them home.

Halloween Craft Characters

LITERATURE BOOK:

Spookly the Square Pumpkin and The Big Pumpkin

These are two of my favorite books for October. These books are all about how being different is a good thing. Spookley saves the day because he is square and not round. The Big Pumpkin is a great story that reinforces cooperation and that everyone has value.

• The Big Pumpkin Book Companion
• The Square Pumpkin Book Companion

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat

I use this series every month of the school year. In October I like to use the Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat. It is a great way to introduce Halloween vocabulary.

GAME: Pop the Pig

In October I like to use Pop the Pig. I use my articulation and language spinners that allow me to target individualized skills that each student needs. It can be used with the game or with the hamburgers that are included.

Pop the Pig Articulation and Language Spinners

BOOM LEARNING DECKS:

This month my favorite Boom Deck to use is Find the Creatures. You practice your articulation sounds as you hunt for a variety of Halloween creatures.

Find The Creatures

OLDER STUDENTS: Idioms Unit

As I continue to target vocabulary development I start to focus on idioms. I liked to complete this 7-10 week unit on idioms. I created this product that includes vocabulary cards, task cards, games, Boom Learning Cards, and booklets to complete. It has everything that I needed to complete a unit on the concept of idioms.

Idiom Unit

I hope your school is off to a great start and that everyone has a great October.  

Fall, Apples and Pumpkins in Speech Therapy

 Hi Everyone,

It is hard to believe that the summer is over and Fall is here. Up in New York it begins to look like Fall very quickly. It is a perfect time to visit an apple orchard or pumpkin patch. Fall, apples and pumpkins is a perfect therapy theme. A quick list of updates to my store. I have added a lot of new pages to my book Companion Down By the Cool of the Pool. It was one of my earliest products and did not have articulation pages, puppets, wh questions or adapted pictures. If you own this product go in and redownload it to get the changes.

THEME OF THE MONTH: Farms, Apples and Pumpkins

My theme for September is all about fall, apples and pumpkins. We often have classrooms going on field trips to apple orchards and pumpkin patches.

CRAFT ACTIVITY:

It is always fun to make characters. I love using my Articulation and Language Fall characters. There is an apple, leaf, acorn and wagon craft that you add arms and legs that have speech targets on them. I love being able to use colored paper for the legs.

Apple Craft

LITERATURE BOOK:

Going On A Pumpkin Hunt

There is a new book companion that I created to go along with this book. It is a cute story that follows the same pattern as Going On A Bear Hunt only in this book they look for a pumpkin. At the end they end up having an orange and round pumpkin pie. At the end of this unit we go on a classroom hunt. It is a great way to get to know where things are in the classroom or therapy room.

Going on A Pumpkin Hunt

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Leaf

I use this series every month of the school year. In September I like to use the Old Lady Who Swallowed A Leaf. It is a great way to introduce fall to my students.

A Leaf Blew In

The last book I use in September is A Leaf Blew In. This adorable story is set on a Farm. A leaf lands on a cows nose and all sorts of fun happens. In upstate New York we have a lot of leaves that begin to fall in September.

GAME: Sneaky Snacky Squirrel

In September I always use the Sneaky Snacky Squirrel. The squirrels are busy everywhere here collecting nuts for the winter. I pair this game with my articulation and language spinners that allow me to target individualized skills that each student needs. It can be used with the game or with the acorns that are included.

Squirrel Game Companion

BOOM LEARNING DECKS:

This month my favorite Boom Deck to use is Feed the Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving Characters. This set can be used in September, October and November. It has fall animals, pumpkins and turkeys to feed articulation targets.

OLDER STUDENTS: Multiple Meaning Words Unit

My caseload usually had 1-2 groups of older students. One area that always needed to be targeted was vocabulary development. I liked to complete this 7-10 week unit on multiple meaning words. I created this product that includes vocabulary cards, task cards, games and booklets to complete. It has everything that I needed to complete a unit on the concept of multiple meaning words.

Multiple Meaning Words Unit

I hope everyone has a great September.  

BACK TO SCHOOL SPEECH THERAPY

THEME OF THE WEEK: Back to School

My theme the first week of therapy is always about Back to School and getting to catch up with my student. So much happens in 2 months and I love hearing what they have been doing. It is also a great time to see what skills are transferring to conversational speech and what still needs some work.

CRAFT ACTIVITY:

I love using these Back to School articulation and language wreaths for my established groups. It targets both articulation and language skills. I have included all about me pages for the new students that can be used the first week of school. We often hang these up for open house.

​Back to School Wreath​

LITERATURE BOOK: If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School Don't

I created a new book companion for this really fun book written by Elise Parsley. It is a fun way to introduce show and tell. I like to just use the tell part throughout the school year. Tell me something about many different categories.

GAME: Alligator Game​

I am all about repurposing games and activities. I like to use my crocodile dentist game this week, but I rename it an alligator to go along with my literature book. I have created a game companion that can be used with the game or by itself. I often use it without the game. We collect the alligator's teeth.

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​Alligator Game​

BOOM LEARNING DECK:

I still love using Boom Decks. They are a quick and easy way to engage the students.

​Find the Teacher is a great deck for Back to school. Practice your articulation sounds as you search for the teachers. The students get to move the teacher nd students around the classroom after they find her/him.

I did also created a new Boom Learning deck for the book The Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books. This is a book I always love. I use these books every month of the year.  

I hope you find some ideas here that get you off to a good start this school year. Enjoy what is left of your summer. Until next time.​

Yearlong Literature Books in therapy

 

 Hi Everyone,

I love being able to use literature based activities in Speech Therapy. I started using literature books because I was looking for a way to make therapy more relevant to my students' class work. It ended up making it so easy to integrate therapy into the classroom.

I ended up creating book companions for some of my favorite and most used story books. I follow a very predictable pattern with my lessons. I have found this leads to more carryover for my students.

Depending on the book I choose and the groups goals I use a book for 2-4 weeks. A frequent question I get is how do I use the same book for so long. This is the typical pattern I follow.

• Present story vocabulary
  • I start by pulling out the vocabulary that I am going to target with each group. My book companions have vocabulary cards. I create a ring of vocabulary words for each group. I use these all year to progress monitor vocabulary growth.
• Read the story
  • Every session I read the story. I like to use books that take 5-7 minutes to read. During this time I ask "wh" questions or focus on skill activities.
• Story comprehension
  • After reading the story I use my book companion comprehension questions and story element sheets.
• Skill activities during repeat readings
  • During repeated readings I focus on individual skills that my students need. If a student is working on categories I might ask them to name all the animals in the story. When targeting past tense verbs I will ask them questions that require a past tense verb in the answer. Articulation students questions focus on their sounds. This is a perfect time for individualized questions.
• Story retell activities
  • After we have read the story a few times we start to work on retelling the story. I like to use small toys or puppets when we start this. My book companions have a sheet to help with scaffolding this activity and puppets the students can use.
• Alternate story
• I like to end the unit with an alternate story. This is a great way to wrap of the story.

Every therapist and teacher seems to have favorite books. I think when you love a book it shines through to the students. These are my favorites:

Kindergartners

• The Old Lady Who Swallowed Series ( I use these seasonal books all year long)

First Graders, Second Graders and my special education classrooms

• January: Sneezy the Snowman
• February: A Loud Winter's Nap
• March: Be Brave Little Penguin
• April: The Impatient Caterpillar
• May: Mel Fell
• June: Down By the Cool of the Pool
• Summer: Fairy Tales
• September: Giraffes Can't Dance
• October: Spookley the Square Pumpkin
• November: Run Turkey Run
• December: Snowmen At Christmas

I have found that some years I find a new book I love, but these are my go to favorites.

I hope if you are using literature books in therapy you and your students love it as much as I do.