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.

​

​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.

Using Sports in Speech

Hi Everyone,

This crazy school year is finally over. Now is the time to enjoy the summer and maybe prep for the Fall. I hope that the Fall finds us all back in school. I think one of the things I have missed the most is Sports.  Football, basketball and baseball have all been on my mind.  I created a Sports Custom category in my store, so that my sports products are easy to find. Click here to check it out.

I created this Football themed Freebie that I wanted to share with you. My spin, say and cover activities are always fun. I made a free football set that targets initial articulation sounds, past tense verbs and fall vocabulary words.

                      CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD the Football Spin, Say and Cover freebie.

You can color the footballs, smash dough onto them, use dot art stampers, mini objects, erasers or pom poms to cover the footballs. If you are still doing teletherapy you can screen share the pdf and allow your students to annotate the footballs.

If you are missing sports I have been busy making printables and Boom Cards using football, basketball, baseball and soccer themes. I couldn't be more excited that basketball is back!!!! July 31st is not that far off. I made a game that can be played with or without a small basketball hoop.  You could also use a garbage can or make the small bag hoop that is included in the file .

Articulation & Language Basketball Game

If you are missing Baseball I made a fun set of Articulation Boom Learning Cards. I don't know if we will see baseball summer.

Articulation Baseball Boom Cards

Football is right around the corner. Will we see training camps this summer? Hopefully we will. One of the things I will be making this Fall are my Football Articulation and Language Craft Characters.

Sports Articulation & Language Craft Characters

I hope that you enjoy your summer break and the Football themed Freebie when we all go back to school. Enjoy your summer.

Interactive Speech Therapy Idea

I love activities that are both interactive and easy.  I recently found these amazing spinners on Amazon.  Math teachers have been using them for a while.  I just love them for Speech therapy.  I place them on top of the worksheet or game and the kids love them.

Spinners

I created a whole set of spin, say and cover activities that I can use with them.  (If you don't have the spinners you can also use a dice, or paper clip and pencil.)  They are so easy to use.  Print the page that meets each student's goal.  Place the spinner on top.  Spin and then say the targets.  After that you cover 1-3 items.  You can use dot markers, dough, mini erasers, markers, paint sticks, small objects, crayons or game pieces to cover the pictures. It is so easy and fun. It is also perfect for mixed groups. Each set has initial, medial and final articulation pages, vocabulary, verbs and rhyming.

Seasonal BUNDLE

Seasonal BUNDLE

I recently sent a sample of my Spring bees Spin, Say and Cover to all of my newsletter followers.  It included initial articulation targets, spring vocabulary and verbs. I love this new product and wanted to share it will my followers.

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Penguins in speech and language therapy

One of my favorite themes to use in Speech is Penguins.  They are cute and adorable making them one of my favorite animals.

Penguin Book:

The book I am using in this theme is Be Brave, Little Penguin.  It is a really cute story about a little penguin that is afraid to go swimming.  He feels alone, because all his friends are swimming and having fun.  Little Penguin’s mother helps him get over his fear, so at the end he can play with all his friends.  One of the things I like to do with this story is talk about how his friends could have helped. I am also continuing to target vocabulary skills with this book.

·        Vocabulary: penguin, igloo, ocean, scared, brave, splash, dive, monsters, kiss, tall, short, fat, thin, biggest and smallest                                                                        

·        Verbs:  Swimming and diving                                                                   

·        Pronoun:  he, his, them, their, and her

Be Brave, Little Penguin

Penguin Games:

A fun interactive game I love to use is Pile Up Penguin.  The goal of the game is to put your penguins on the iceberg.  If they fall off you have to take all the penguins that fell.  The first person who has no penguins left wins. 

This game can easily be turned into a reinforcing game. 

·        Select articulation or language cards for each student.

·        Have your student say each target as they put the penguins on their cards.

·        Then have each student take turns putting on a penguin.

·        If penguins fall off have them put them back on their cards (saying the target again)

·        I like to let the winner knock all the penguins off. 

I created a game companion that also goes with this game that I use in place of the cards. I also use the mats as smash mats.

I also created a spinner game if you are not able to get a Penguin game.  This spinner is perfect for a Penguin theme or Valentine’s Day. As you play the game you collect hearts.  The person with the most hearts wins.

Penguin Interactive Activity:

The last activity I use is a Feed the Penguin articulation and language fish. 

·        Each student creates a penguin.

·        I put the fish all around the room.

·        Each student looks for a fish with their target sound or skill on it.

·        They practice the target and feed the fish to the penguin.

I hope that you found some activities that you can use with your students.  I have combined all of these activities into a BUNDLE.

Using Winter Snowmen In Speech Therapy

.Hi Everyone,

Here in the Northeast January means cold and SNOW.  I am excited to use snow and snowmen as my theme all month long. It is fun and engaging for my students. We all hope for lots of snow, so we end up with a snow day!!!

January Books

This month I am using 3 books that pair perfectly with snow and snowmen. The first book is The Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow .  This series is always a big hit in my therapy room.   It is a cute story about all the pieces you need to create a snowman. We will be targeting vocabulary skills, rhyming and past tense verbs.  When we are done with the book we are going to create our own snowman.  I made rhyming snowmen so that I could pair it with this book. We are going to generate rhymes and cover the spots.

 After reading that book I like to use Snowmen at Night.  This is a great book to target verbs.  The snowmen eat, drink and play all night long.  I love to make snowmen with white dough when I use this book.  We then use the snowmen to act out the story.  It is a great way to encourage language skills. At the end we create our own book to take home.

The last book I am going to use this month is Sneezy the Snowman . It is an adorable story about a snowman who catches a cold. The children try to warm him up.. I love all the vocabulary that is included on the book: snowman, cardinal, cocoa, hot tub, scarf, melt, build, wind, swirled, shiver, sneeze, coat, ice cream, camp fire and snowflake. It is also a great book  for making predictions. If we have snow outside I bring some into the therapy and we make small snowmen. It is fun to watch them melt.

January Games:

Winter games are always fun.  This month I am using Don’t Break The Ice and my Snowman Spinner Game..

•         Don’t Break The Ice is a fun game for articulation and language drills.  I like to give my students articulation or language deck cards.  Each students practice their target words or language skills and then they take a turn at the game. 

•         I also use my store’s Snowman articulation and game spinners. They target articulation, verbs, and vocabulary skills. Each student collects snowballs as they play the game. We use the snowballs to create snowmen and snow forts. I use this all month when I have a few minutes left at the end of the session. 

  

These are some of my favorite January therapy activities.  I hope everyone has a great January. 

Fall Speech and language therapy Ideas

Hi Everyone,

I love themed based therapy and this month I am focusing on FALL. Although I hate that summer is over there are so many great things about fall.  Here in the Northeast apple orchards, pumpkin patches, hayrides and changing leaves are staples of fall.  I am excited about using this theme all month long.

September Book:  When the Leaf Blew In

I always like to start the month off with a book.  One of my favorite fall books is When The Leaf Blew In.  This is a great circular book that starts with a leaf causing a cow to sneeze.  The cow’s sneeze caused a bird to fly out of the barn.  The bird causes a pig to dive into the mud. The story continues until the end when a Robin causes a leaf to go back in the barn.  This book is great for sequencing skills, farm vocabulary, basic concepts, past tense verbs and articulation skills.  My kids love using my farm animals and a barn to retell the story.  I like to give my articulation kids an index card with a picture of word from the story.  Their job is to say that word correctly throughout the session.  This is a great story for repeated storybook readings.  By the end of the month my kids are great at retelling this story. 

September Sensory Bin:  Fall colored rice

 I also love using fall colored rice. If you haven’t dyed rice before it is very easy. 

How to dye rice: In a zip lock bag add 3 cups of rice, 2 teaspoons of vinegar and food coloring.  Close the bag and mix the rice.  Place a paper towel on a cookie sheet.  Spread the rice on the paper towel.  Allow to dry.  That’s it.  Very easy and fun!

I made my rice yellow, orange and red for fall. We added small toys and articulation cards.  I created a set of squirrels with articulation and language targets on them.  We buried them in the rice. As we found the toys and pictures we practiced words and made sentences.  I also like to play find the acorn.  I bury the bottom part of the squirrel in the rice.  My students take turns selecting a squirrel.  If they find the acorn they win. It is quick and easy allowing time for everyone to win a game. 

Squirrel Sensory Bin

September Game:  Sneaky Snacky Squirrel

This month we are playing a squirrel game that my kids love.  Sneaky Snacky Squirrel. They love collecting all the acorns for the squirrel. 

There are two ways we play this game in therapy:

1.)    I use articulation and language decks. I like to spread cards around the table.  Instead of using the log that comes with the game we place the acorns on the cards. It is a fun and interactive way to engage my students. 

2.)    I also use my store’s articulation and game spinners. I have attached a game spinner for the /s/ sound.  We use this spinner in place of the game die.  The students use a paper clip and pencil as the spinner. (Amazon also sells spinners that can be attached.) They practice their sound or language target before they select their acorn.

Squirrel Game Companion

September Arts and Crafts:

Leaf Rubbings

• This month we are going to make leaf rubbings. I start with different sizes and types of leaves. We decide what color leaves we see in the fall. We peel the crayons and are ready to start. We start by making simple leaves and then brainstorm what things we see in the fall that we could make using the shapes we have. I model for my groups that struggle with this. We make squirrels, cows, goats, frogs, chickens, barns, pumpkin patches and apple trees. It is a fun and easy.

Apple Painting

• I also love to do apple paintings. We cut apples in half and use them as stamps. It is fun and encourages so much language. We talk about half, whole, together and separated while we stamp them. My articulation groups have used the apples to stamp articulation pictures rather than coloring. My students love when we use paints instead of crayons.

Fall Tree

• Another fall craft I have been using this month is making a tree with construction paper. We draw a trunk on a piece of paper and then cut out construction paper leaves. As we drill our articulation and language targets we glue a leaf onto the tree. At the end they have a cute craft to take home.

TpT Products

• Finally TpT is full of articulation and language crafts that are easy to use. I am using my scarecrow craft this week. Print it out and let you students do the rest. I like to print it on card stock so it is sturdier. At the end they have a project to take home.

Scarecrow Craft

These are some of my favorite fall therapy ideas.  I hope everyone is off to a great start this year.