I've explained how in the following video:
**Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC, used with permission*
Organizing Your Data for Progress Reports: Part 2 (Reporting Homework)
I've explained how in the following video:
{Looking Ahead} Let the Celebration Begin!
I'm not even worrying about 5 Minute Day or homework. The kids have more important things on their minds...like SANTA!!! 🎅
This is going to be a stress-free, holiday cheerful kind of week. We're going to start off the week playing a Team Game. The kids will work together to make sure the stockings are on the mantle before Santa is ready for his visit.
My preschoolers are going to use the Gingerbread Articulation Play Dough Mats from Small Talk SLP.
For the end of the week, my older kids get to play Christmas Bop to see who will score the most points.
My younger kids (Preschool, Kinder, and 1st Grades) are going to do a craftivity: Santa's Stuck! from All Students Can Shine. She doesn't have this in her TpT Store, or on her blog, which is really too bad, because it's super-cute!
The craftivity is something my SpEd students can do, too; it's great for following directions and basic concepts.
I'm attending 2 parties next week: 1 of my schools is holding their party off-campus, and the SLPs are getting together after school for our annual party in a local restaurant. We'll have an ornament exchange, food, and great conversation.
Do your schools have staff parties? If so, are they on or off campus?
What about the SLPs?
I hope you and yours have the Merriest Christmas possible.
Organizing Your Data for Progress Reports: Part 1
The dreaded progress reports. We all have to do them; I've never heard anyone admit to enjoying completing them. I found a way to complete my progress reports quickly, without having to shuffle papers. Using Google Forms to keep track of my data, it was a snap to finish progress reports last 9 weeks. Here's how I did it:
**Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC, used with permission*
{Looking Ahead} Bears & Christmas
Photo by Thomas Lefebvre
The countdown to Christmas is ON! I love the "Bear" books, and it's time for Bear Stays Up for Christmas (Karma Wilson) in the rotation.
5 Minute Day
I like to kill 2 birds with one stone, so using an activity that will get homework ready fits the bill. The students look through circulars, find pictures that contain their target sound, and glue them on their chosen picture. Don't need an independent activity? You can have your students do this to keep busy while they're waiting for their turn.
You can find the activity here.
Packet
Crazy Speech World's book companion has an open-ended game, as well as comprehension questions to work on 'wh' questions.
Follow Directions
I'm using Listening for Basic Concepts All Year 'Round (Brenda Brumbaugh) for my students working on following directions. This week's concepts are tough ones: behind and in front of.
Lower Language
Another interactive book by Chapel Hill Snippets:
These are great to use for basic concepts and making complete sentences, along with Speech Universe's Winter Interactive Books.
Things are crazy for the next 2 weeks as I try to make sure meetings for new placements are held before Christmas Break. With the break and then iffy weather in January, it's imperative to have those meetings as soon as I can so I don't run over my 60 days!
Are things as crazy for you, or are you on the "downslide"?
{Looking Ahead} Stinkin' It Up!
Thanksgiving is over; now the real craziness begins! This week, we'll be "stinkin' it up" with Merry Christmas, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt. If you don't know about Stinky Face, he's quite the character. He has so many questions about situations that may or may not happen, and his mom has an answer. She's a wise woman, for sure!
Sparklle SLP has a book companion with quite a bit of activities that I can use with my caseload. For 5 Minute Day, there's a homework sheet included. My plan is to have the students look through the vocabulary cards to find words that have their sound; they will write those words on the homework sheet. The vocabulary cards will also be used with my students who are working on describing objects.
Sequencing/story retell will be worked on using the sequencing cards.
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For Game Day, I made a sequencing activity for Cariboo. My students will produce their target, then choose the picture that depicts what happened next in the story. This is a freebie in my TpT Store; click on the picture below to be taken to it.
My students working on producing complete sentences and basic concepts will work on over and between using The Lonely Reindeer from Ruth Morgan at Chapel Hill Snippets.
Hopefully my mountain school will be back in session next week (after the fires on the mountain directly behind it) and things will get back to normal. As normal as things can be right before Christmas Break, anyway!
My SLP Story {The Frenzied SLPs}
I went into college 2 weeks after I graduated from high school as a music major. As soon as I found out I had to take sight-singing, I was out of there! (I'll play almost any instrument handed to me after some instruction, but don't ask me to sing in front of people!) Then, I switched to Spanish, because it was something I was good at. After realizing I couldn't really do anything with Spanish without spending some time immersed in the language, I changed to Business Administration, only because somehow I got a very small scholarship. So, there I was floundering, going from major to major, without really knowing what I wanted to do...who I wanted to be.
One of my sisters & I were looking through the school catalog, and we came across Special Ed. That was something I could do, but did I really think I could handle being in a class with the same kids day in and day out? (The answer there is "no"!) Then, right behind SpEd was Communicative Disorders. My sister had a high school classmate who was in the program at the same university, so I called her. She suggested that I make an appointment with the head of the department. The head of the dept. suggested that I take an intro class and see how I like it. I was pretty hooked after that class, but after my first client in the school clinic correctly produced /f/, that was IT. What validation I felt!
I went on to graduate with my B.S., and had a job in a school system in Ga. waiting for me. (That was way back in the days when you could work in a school with just your Bachelor's.) I had 5 years to attain my Master's. I've had the very good fortune to have some wonderful professors/instructors (in both my undergrad & graduate programs) who didn't stress you out...they wanted you to learn and to be the best therapist you could be.
My story isn't the most dramatic, but it's mine. Looking back through my life, when I was little (before elementary school), the only person who could understand me was my mom. She said my dad used to get so frustrated because he couldn't understand me. Remember, that was before the days when SLPs were common. My errors must have been developmental; I don't think I had any residual errors by the time I got to first grade.
Then, when I was in 5th or 7th grade, we had to write down what we wanted to do when we grew up. I had written down that I wanted to be a teacher of the Hearing Impaired. I ran across that form a couple of years ago...I had completely forgotten that I had written that down so many years ago. I guess it was destiny!
We'd love to hear your story! If you blog, link up below. You don't have to be a blogger to share your story; go to The Frenzied SLPs Facebook Page and share it there.
{Looking Ahead} It's a Short One!
Since it's a short week, there will be no 5 minute day, and no homework. Game days for everybody!
I have a game that gets my kids up out of their seats and moving around. This is an old game that I got from Linguisystem's Listening for Articulation All Year 'Round. I checked, but it appears that it's no longer in print. It's too bad, because there were some good activities in that book!
This is the "pie game": the first one to get all 4 pieces of their pie is the winner. I put 1 piece of pie at each "station". The students pick what kind of pie they want; they choose from lemon, apple, cherry, blueberry, peach, or pumpkin. Following production of their target, they are allowed to go to a station and choose 1 slice of pie. They turn it over to reveal what kind of pie it is. If it's their slice, they take it and sit down. If it's not their slice, they turn it over & return to their chairs. The key is to get them to understand that they don't want anyone else in the group to know what they turned over.
My school system gives us Wed. off, which I really like so I don't have to stay up late Wed. night getting everything ready for the big day. In fact, I have a haircut & a pedi scheduled for that day, so I'll be taking it easy.
Do you have Wednesday off? How do you spend your Thanksgiving?
P.S. Last week, I mentioned that I didn't know what I was going to do for homework. I made a freebie: the students color the pictures that contain their sounds and take it home. You can find it here.
Looking Ahead: A Full Week of Therapy
I'm focusing therapy on Alison Jackson's I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie. Since a lot of kids don't get the parade reference at the end of the book, I'm planning on taking in my pictures from when I had the good fortune to participate in the Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC many moons ago. Well, I kind of did...I was a guard instructor for a band that was in it. Very cool, by the way.
Back to speech stuff. Here's what I have planned:
5 minute day:
Graph a Granny from Crazy Speech World. The students will say their target 5 times, roll the dice, then place a chip on the graph. We'll see which one (if any) gets to the top first, just to make it a little more interesting.
Lower Language:
I'm going to continue my interactive book from the Thanksgiving Speech/Language Packet, but with a twist. I made a template for a GoTalk that uses "He/She eats (Thanksgiving Food)" from LessonPix.
The book attachment from Speechy Musings will be great for eliciting sentences, and it already has visual cues for my little ones since they aren't readers yet.
The comprehension questions from Mindy Stenger (The Speech Bucket) come with visual choices, so they're perfect.
All of my kids (even the older ones) love to feed the items to the old lady, which is great for sequencing. My readers will put the strips (also from Mindy Stenger) in order for more sequencing work.
GAME DAY:
Mindy included a Bingo game in her packet, and, since we haven't played Bingo in a long time, I suspect it will be a hit!
Bingo might be a bit too much for my smaller ones, so they'll either play the open-ended game that Mindy also included, or they'll play Old Lady Roll and Cover from Mary Lirette (Psssstttt....it's a FREEBIE!).
The only thing I haven't figured out yet is homework. Check back next week, because I may have another freebie for you!
Looking Ahead: It's Going to Be Busy!
Just in case I haven't said it lately: I love to center my therapy activities around seasonal themes! Some of my students were surprised this week when we started Thanksgiving Activities; I don't think they realized that it's already November...the weather sure doesn't feel like it.
Before I get into my plans for next week, I want to share the homework my students working on /k,g/ and /f/ took home this week.
Last week, I mentioned that I was going to use pages from Seasonal Artic Worksheets from Super Duper. The only problem is that I have the later sounds so I had to make something for my /k,g/ and /f/ students. If you would like a copy, click here.
Now for next week! When I looked through my materials for Thanksgiving, I realized I have very few (as in 2) book companion packets for November. I wanted something tailored to my caseload, so I spent last Saturday coming up with a packet that isn't just for a certain book. It can be used with any book, or no book at all.
Click on the picture above to be taken directly to the product in my TpT Store.
Since Tuesday is Election Day, there's no school. For 5 minute day, I'm going to use a Chipper Chat Board since I didn't use it this week. (I decided to use a gameboard instead of the pompoms on the apples.)
This is part of a packet by Taylor Rodgers
My students working on saying complete sentences, vocabulary, and using he/she appropriately will work with an Interactive Booklet:
At the end of the week, they'll complete the take-home version so they can practice at home:
They'll also work on following directions. Some simple directions using basic concepts for the littlest ones:
And some more complex directions that involve crayons/markers for the slightly older ones:
Some will be sequencing "how to cook a turkey":
There is a sheet to choose a favorite Thanksgiving food to describe. I usually have my students color the circle according to the EET beads; this helps them associate the color with the descriptor. I have these students take the sheet home and go over it with their parents.
I have students working on idioms that go perfectly with the Thanksgiving Theme:
My artic students will play a game at the end of the week; whoever gets all of their food items first is the winner.
Of course my artic kids will have homework!
I have some /r/ students who are ready for a challenge, and I have just the thing for them:
I can't wait to see how they do with the Great R Challenge from Small Talk SLP! They have the most trouble with the medial position, so I'm going to challenge them next week and see how they do!
I have a lot going on in my speech room next week. Come back at the end of next week to see how much we got done!
Looking Ahead: Where Did October Go?
Is anyone else baffled by the fact that October is gone? Especially after it seemed like August would never end! It'll be Christmas before you know it!
When I'm not at school on a Friday (which is my day to see students 1:1 as well as to get materials ready for the following week), I feel a bit discombobulated. It takes me a while to get back on track. That's exactly how I'm feeling right now. I looked through my November materials to get a grip on what I'm going to do next week. I realized I only have a couple of book companions for November, and I don't have time to get one together for next week, so here's what I have planned:
5 Minute Day:
For the independent center, students will produce their target x number of times, then put a pom-pom on a magnet on the apple. Just to make it interesting, we'll see who gets the most put on.
If the older kids want to do Chipper Chat instead, I'll pull out a set of the cards and they can "play" against each other to see who can get the most chips on the card.
Following Directions:
I have this worksheet by Sounds Like Fun that should challenge my students with this target. (I couldn't find exactly where I got this from; I don't know if it was on her blog or TpT store.)
Idioms/Inferencing:
These came in my Crazy Charizma email. They are from Games for Gains & were free!
Describing:
Of course I'm going to use "Desi the Describing Worm" (as I call my EET beads) to help students describe food from Queen's Speech's What Am I? Thanksgiving Edition .
Basic Concepts:
I have no idea who this came from; sadly, the author didn't include her name on the product.
More inferencing from SLP For ME:
Game Day:
I can stretch out Mia McDaniel's Thanksgiving Quick Drill to last a whole session! My kids love playing these open-ended games; they're perfect when you have a mixed group, or a group with students working on different sounds.
Homework:
Can I be totally honest? I'm not sure what I'm going to do for homework! I'll probably pull out my Seasonal Artic Worksheets from Super Duper and use those. I haven't used them in a couple of years, so it might be a nice change.
Hopefully next week I can get back on track with being a bit more organized. How do you handle preparing for therapy when you don't have your day to prepare?
Looking Ahead: Well, Kind of!
From left to right: (me), The Speech Attic, The Speech Owl, and Short and Sweet Speech. They are a wealth of knowledge! After just a few short minutes, it was like we had known each other for a long time. We shared so many laughs & stories! Now that the convention is over, it's time to get down to real business.
Here I am in the middle of Week 10 for therapy, and it's almost time to look ahead to Week 11! Here's what's going on this week in my therapy room:
Luckily, Ashley Rossi had her Halloween Dice & Dots on sale yesterday through the SLP Materials Club. There are sheets for almost every sound I needed. I just had to write words in for /k,g/.
Some of my kids had a 5-Minute Day. They used a sheet for their independent station. I have some groups who are just getting started, so I didn't want to jump in with 5 minute day just yet. With those groups, they took turns dropping the dice into a jack-o-lantern box and saying a word that corresponded with the number they rolled.
They didn't complete the whole page, so they'll take their pages home and work on the words that aren't "daubed" for homework.
1 of my students is working on on/off topic. He worked very hard today to explain why the 1 sentence was off topic. He told me what the topic of each sentence is, and I wrote that down, then we compared the 3 topics of each sentence to come up with why 1 was off topic.
With next week being Halloween, I've got to let my students have some fun! I was so excited to see these bags that The Speech Attic brought with her to go along with her Hungry Monsters Interactive Articulation Activity.
I don't know if the Targets around me sold out or didn't carry them, but I was really disappointed that they didn't have them. I'm going with something a little different for "game day":
My students will take turns trying to throw the bats into the monster's mouth (after saying their target a few times). Shortly after I took this picture, the left eye tore, so I actually have a 1-eyed monster! This is an activity that all of my students are going to enjoy!
One of my students will be continuing to work on an idioms activity.
While I was looking for the monster bags, I ran across some witch fingers and glow in the dark fangs for an excellent price. My kids will get an extra treat when they come to speech at the end of the week!
I know Halloween isn't until Monday, but, since I'm at 2 schools (one is Mon/Wed and the other is Tues/Thurs), I like to do the same activity on Monday and Tuesday, and then again on Wednesday and Thursday It definitely makes planning much easier.
Are you allowed to do Halloween activities in your school?
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