Therapy Room Challenge: Making it Functional

The Frenzied SLPs have challenged each other to a room makeover. I have the same rooms I've had for the last 3 years at 1 school, so I just mixed some things up a bit this year. I challenged myself to only have things on my wall that are functional...things I use in therapy.

The alcove in the entrance to my room

Right as you come into my room, I have sort of an alcove. Pretty much wasted space, to be perfectly honest. On the left side of the picture (on the wall), I put this up:

This is part of the Wall Decor in my store. The picture didn't pick up the letters very well.

The first day of Speech, we took a tour of the Speech Room. We looked at each word and talked about them. This is on the wall on the other side:

This is also part of my Wall Decor product.

We went through each area of Speech/Language and the students identified what they are working on.

This is what the front boards looked like.

The front board in my room now.

I have almost a whole classroom. I say "almost" because I partitioned part of the room off with cabinets; the PTO and other people store things behind them.  It was a bit challenging to make sure everything on the wall has some functional use.

The left part of the board

For the past couple of years, I had the calendar on the white part of the board and had washi tape sectioning off each part. I had a heck of a time getting that tape off the board! I moved the calendar over to the bulletin board, and made the squares. To hold each of the days of the week and the numbers, I used Stikki Clips so I can slide them right in the clip. (I got the idea from one of the Kindergarten teachers.) This is the space where I had my reinforcement  board for the past few years. You should have seen the students' faces when I told them the board (and the prize box) is gone. They don't seem to miss it, though, now that we're into therapy.

A space for a writing

Right next to the calendar, I have a white board that can be used for writing. That is, after I get the rest of the nastiness off the board. Next to that, I have my chevron "Speech & Language Chevron Banner" (It's FREE, and there are different styles!) This was the 1 thing that doesn't have a purpose, other than filling up some space with some color.

Artic Ladder

Again, poor picture, but this is an artic ladder that I made with the phases of artic the students move through, from isolation (at the bottom) to Carry-Over at the top. I have clothespins with their initials on them so they (and I) will remember which one is theirs.

You can see the cabinets I used as a partition. Many of the students comment on the PTO's Christmas Tree that you can see in the back corner.

The other wall with boards

The picture above has my desk to the right of the orange cabinet and a window.

A flag is a must!

I have "3 Things for a Good /r/" to remind the students who are working on production of /r/ using /i/ as a starter to "Move your tongue slowly and smoothly", "Don't let your mouth move", and "Hold on to your E". I also have the simplified steps to retelling a story for my younger students.

On this whiteboard, I have a smaller version of the retell visuals 

and a small version of the Story Mapping for older students. I also have my EET beads hanging up. 

I wanted to keep things simple and not have my room too cluttered. I've seen rooms that are over-done with all of the cutesy things you could ever imagine, but they were so distracting. I wanted "inviting" but not "distracting".  And, for my older students, I didn't want the room to look too "babified". Now if I could just keep my tables cleared off!