Home Decorating Peachie Speechie Style

My love for all things speechie is obvious at work. I have larynx shaped sticky notes. I pass out "speech sniffy" stickers to the students. I get really excited about Better Speech and Hearing Month. My enthusiasm for the profession spills over into my home as well. Check out my bathroom wall during the holiday season: 

In case you don't recognize those pictures, they are from the 1986 version of the Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation (GFTA)!

Yes, I decorate my house in outdated speech-language test pictures.

I transformed the guest bedroom into a playroom for my boys a couple of years ago and didn't have any decorations for the walls. Around the same time, I was cleaning out my classroom at work and came across some old tests. I fell in love with the GFTA pictures. So, I framed them and hung them in the playroom:

While the GFTA-2 has many similar pictures (a rabbit, pencils...), there is something so appealing about the 1986 illustrations. 

The pictures can easily be swapped out for different occasions. Most of the time, these are the pictures in the bathroom:

 Stay tuned for more speechie decorating pictures!

Ugly Sweater Craft

It is ugly sweater season! We are planning a faculty Ugly Sweater Contest next week and I am looking forward to participating. I am also having a little ugly sweater contest in my speech room next week! We will be making sweaters out of felt and stickers and hanging them in the speech room.

I was walking around Michael's over the weekend and noticed that these fantastic Creatology holiday foam stickers were 50% off! So, I bought 2 giant tubs of them for $4/tub and started planning this activity! 

I cut red and green felt (free-hand!) into sweater shapes. It doesn't matter if they look perfect. They are supposed to be ugly anyway! Add foam stickers to the felt and you have yourself an adorable mini ugly sweater! For additional glitz, add sequins, puff balls, glitter, or any other craft item you have sitting around the classroom. 

I also typed up a little "Mad Lib" for the kids to fill out after they finish making their sweater. It is totally goofy and I think it will be a nice activity to do next week when the kids are feeling goofy and ready for the break anyway! The Mad Lib is a freebie in my TPT store if you would like to download it. 

I  was originally planning on waiting to post about this craft until after I had had a chance to do it with all of my students...but I love it so much I wanted to post it right away. A few of my students are doing it this week, but most of them will do it next week. I will post more pics then!

Holiday Freebie Linky Party

After I wrote yesterday's post about holiday crafts, I noticed that Busy Bee Speech is having a Holiday Linky party! 

I have never "linked up" before to any of these linky party things. There is a first time for everything, right?

I have 3 holiday freebies in my TPT store. In fact, I have nothing but freebies in my TPT store! These are the holiday activities I currently have posted:

HOLIDAY M&M CHALLENGE - an articulation activity designed to be used with red and green M&Ms! Challenge your students to say their sound 100 times and earn an M&M for every production!

HOLIDAY SPEECH WREATH - Cute little wreath template. Color it and add berries while working on any learning target!

HOLIDAY LIGHT CHALLENGE - Another 100-productions challenge! No candy (or color ink!) required for this one. Just print and pass out markers and you are good to go!

Happy Holidays!

Getting Crafty for Christmas

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the speech room! I am feeling festive and crafty and have been incorporating as many art projects into my lesson plans as possible.

Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Pipe Cleaner Candy Canes

I bought Katie the Candy Cane Fairy at the Scholastic Book Fair last month because I loved the illustrations. I have been reading this book to my students and having them make these simple candy cane ornaments to take home.

All you need is a package of pipe cleaners and red & white beads. That's it! My artic students practiced their sound every time they put a bead on the pipe cleaner. My language students answered comprehension questions in an "around the table" style while they worked on their candy canes.

A few of my observant male students pointed out that there are NO BOYS in this book at all. Not one. Even the dog is wearing a pink flower bow. Interesting.

2. Holiday Speech Wreaths 

This super easy activity is one of my favorites because I hang the wreaths on my door after students have completed them. They make for adorable decorations!

I just have my kids color their wreath and then add a berry (red puff ball, red bead, red circle cut from construction paper, wadded up red tissue paper -- anything!) for each time they say their sound or practice whatever it is they are practicing.

3. Holiday Light Challenge 

My students are loving the articulation challenges I have been creating! Unlike some of my others (the Holiday M&M Challenge for example), this one doesn't require candy. Or color ink. Just print and go! I love how easy it is! And the kids love coloring while they practice their sounds. 

We are enjoying all of these holiday crafts but it still doesn't really feel like Christmas yet because it is so HOT out here in GA! Last Friday I wore a T-shirt to school! I wish it would snow!!! 

Gobbling up this activity!

It is my favorite time of year again! We have been doing Thanksgiving themed activities in the speech room and I am loving it! There are so many cute things on TPT and so many adorable books to read...I don't think I am going to have time to do all of the fall activities I have on my list before it is time to jump to winter/Christmas themed activities!!

Everyone knows I love to snack and today I am snacking on Froot Loops while we decorate our Turkey Talk worksheets and practice our speech sounds.

I actually found a ridiculously huge bag of "Tootie Fruities" at Walmart, so these aren't name brand Froot Loops and the bag is so gigantic that there is no way we will use them all. So, this weekend I plan to add to my Peachie Speechie Articulation Challenge collection with the Froot Loop Challenge! 

We may also have to make cereal necklaces with yarn, practice sorting colors with cereal, and maybe use these Tootie Fruities to make bird/squirrel feeders (would birds even eat this stuff??). I bought way too much cereal. I welcome any other suggestions for what to do with this stuff! 

Candy Corn Challenge!

My students are taking the Candy Corn Challenge this week! I created this activity to use with my articulation groups and it is pretty sweet. 

We have been enjoying a lot of Halloween and fall themed books in speech lately. But sometimes I want to skip the books and games and just do practice drills with my artic groups. In a fun way, of course. So, I am challenging my students to say their target sound 100 times. For each good production, they earn a candy corn to place on their Candy Corn Challenge mat: 

At the end of the session, we see who can eat all 100 of their candy corns the fastest. Just kidding!! I actually pass out ziplock bags and they take the candy home with them. I don't need anyone getting sick from excessive candy corn consumption in the speech room! 

Don't want to load your students up on sugar? No problem! They can still take on the challenge. I made a black and white version so instead of using real candy, you can just have them color a candy corn for each production. 

Fun fact: I actually made the little candy clip art myself this time! Ok, my husband helped a little. I figured candy corn would be a super easy first clip art project for me - how could I possibly mess up a little triangle with a smile, right?!

Download it FREE in my TPT store!

Welcome to the speech room, Spookley!

Spookley is visiting the speech room this week! I ordered a plush Spookley from "Books Are Fun" along with a copy of the book and my package arrived today!

The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano is a great story. The round pumpkins tease Spookley because of his odd shape until a terrible storm comes (and tosses the round pumpkins through a broken fence!) and teaches them that being different can be a good thing! I love the illustrations and the overall message of the story.

I have been reading this story to all of my K-3 groups. For the students with language goals, we do a book walk and make predictions about what the story will be about. Then, we read the story and I ask them comprehension questions. With a couple groups we made a story map on the white board. Then, I have them either draw or write what happens at the beginning, middle, and end of the story on a little worksheet. (I am required to keep work samples, so these were great to stick in their folders!). We did re-telling and discussed how Spookley felt at the beginning of the story vs. the end.

For my artic groups, I didn't do a book walk or anything. In fact, I didn't even read the book myself - I have the Spookley book app ($1.99 for iPad!) and I just let the iPad read it to them. After they heard the story I gave them a Speech with Spookley worksheet and had them practice their target sound 5 times before coloring a pumpkin.

After the first group, I made the Speech with Spookley worksheet a little smaller because the kids were taking a little longer than I'd like to color the pumpkins.

Download my Speech with Spookley and Spookley Beginning-Middle-End graphic organizer FREE in my TPT store! 

What books are you reading in your speech room this month?

Multiple Choice Articulation: App Review!

If you want to spice up your articulation therapy session with an activity that will make your students giggle and snort and practice their target sounds all at the same time - this is the app for you! I recently downloaded Multiple Choice Articulation by Erik X. Raj on my iPad. After using it in the speech room, I decided to write a review with the help of my students. 

The app was $4.99 and targets /s, z, r, l, sh, ch, th/ in all word positions, so SLPs will love it. It is full of hilarious questions, so kids will love it too. 

 Once you select the sound and word position to target, you are presented with a series of "would you rather" questions. The student can read the question out loud, or press a button to hear it read to them. 

I found that sometimes these questions make the student laugh so hard that it takes them a minute to regain composure and give their answer. This question in particular caused a couple of six year old boys to almost fall out of their chair laughing: 

As the student answers the questions, they can target their sounds while working on reasoning skills and conversational turn taking at the same time. The can also press the "hear an answer" button to hear an example answer to the question. 

This app is motivating and engaging and absolutely hilarious! It sparked conversation and debates in the speech room while also sneaking in many productions of target sounds. 

Just take a look at what some of my students are saying about Multiple Choice Articulation: 

"Rats don't take baths in root beer! They take baths in puddles!" -1st Grade Student

"I had a raisin in my nose once." -2nd Grade Student 

"Can we play this again tomorrow?" -2nd Grade Student 

"These questions are silly!" -3rd Grade Student (said with a perfect /s/ sound!) 

Clearly, this app is a winner!

Flashcard Eating Monsters!

I have a couple of monsters in the speech room today! I found these precious snack cups over the weekend and bought them for my 16 month old to eat his snacks out of. Unfortunately, the silicone teeth are pretty tough and once my son stuck his hand in, he was not able to pull it back out! But of course I see opportunities for speech games in everything so instead of returning these monster cups, I brought them to live in the speech room where they can feast on Webber cards instead of my son's hand.

Here is how we played this game:

1. Stuff each monster cup with flashcards
2. Tell the students "Oh no! Monsters moved into the speech room and are eating your practice cards! Carefully pull one card out at a time and say your words as you go. If you do it very carefully, the monsters won't notice and they won't bite your hand".

My students loved the monsters! It was a quick and easy way to make regular old flashcard drills fun.

5W's Nonfiction Story Cards: Product Review

I am always looking for good listening comprehension activities for my students. Of course, I love reading books with them and asking comprehension questions but sometimes I don't want a whole book. Sometimes I just want a little passage with a few questions. Short passages mean I can get through several mini stories in one session or use them in RtI groups. At the beginning of the year I ordered 5W's Nonfiction Story Cards and so far I absolutely love them! 

The package comes with 20 different nonfiction stories with 3 copies of each story inside so you can pass them out and students can follow along as you read. Each story also has 5 WH questions to check for comprehension and 5 additional questions on the back targeting main idea, vocabulary, and identifying facts vs. opinions. 

One of my favorite things about these cards are the "find out more" questions. Each story has a question that requires the students to do some research of their own. For example, one of the stories is about a hippo and the "find out more" question is "How do hippos keep from getting sunburned?". This is a great opportunity to target predicting and reasoning skills. My students use the iPad to look up answers to these questions after everyone has shared their predictions. 

I have had such a great experience with these cards that I am ordering the fiction version too!

If anyone else has a listening comprehension activity that they are loving this year, tell me about it in the comments! 

When SLPs lose their voice...

What do you do if you are an SLP but you can't talk?! 

Working with kids in a public school, I knew it would only be a matter of time before I caught something. This year, it took five weeks. I got a little cold on Wednesday and by Thursday morning my voice was GONE. I put myself on vocal rest. I didn't feel bad enough to take a sick day. I had lots to do at work. I just couldn't talk!

But what about therapy? What about meetings? How does a school based SLP go about her day and do her job when she can't talk?

It caught me by surprise. I hadn't been talking too much. I wasn't that sick. I don't usually get so hoarse with a cold. So I had to scrap the lesson plans for the day and come up with something I could do with the kids that didn't involve much talking but still targeted their objectives.

While I was thinking of what to do, I wrote this message on my white board:

"Oh No! Mrs. Avren lost her  voice! We will be doing a quiet craft today"

I pulled out my stack of magazines, some scissors, glue, and construction paper. I decided I would have students cut out pictures of things that had their speech sound and take their projects home for weekend speech sound practice with their parents. 

I modified the activity slightly for the students with language goals. Some of them wrote down adjectives to describe their pictures. Some of them said a sentence about each picture using past tense verbs. My fluency students made sentences about each picture using easy onset. 

(note: The students that just couldn't do this activity were penciled in for make-up sessions next week)

I quickly typed up a little cover sheet and made an example for the kids to look at: 

Fortunately, I had just purchased a bunch of little dry erase boards at the Target dollar spot! I carried one of these around all day to communicate. (I was going to download an AAC device to my iPad and use it just for fun but I didn't have time!) 

However, many of my students cannot read. So, I used a lot of nonverbal communication as well. :) 

Overall, things went pretty smoothly! The kids loved the craft. 

I did have two IEP meetings, but I typed up a bunch of information before hand for the general education teacher to say for me as we discussed speech present levels and goals. 

I drank tea with honey throughout the day and plan on getting a lot of rest this weekend! 

#InstaSLP (and another freebie!)

I just joined the world of instagram and am having fun linking up with other SLPs and seeing their pictures! Speech Room News and Crazy Speech World created the #InstaSLP event this week and it has been great to see other speech rooms, activities, and crafts. Here are a few of my pics from this week:

This week I have been reading The Gruffalo with my students and matching up the rhyming words. I made some activities to accompany the book including a writing activity, a coloring activity, a following directions activity, and a rhyming match-up! These activities are FREE in my TPT store. 

Magazines in therapy! The "Highlight" of my day!

I really enjoy using newspapers and magazines to target inferencing, main idea, vocabulary, and listening comprehension goals for my older students. I know that you can download newspaper and magazine apps these days, but I really love actual magazines and newspapers.  I prefer to read the "old fashioned way". My lovely Aunt Nancy ordered my 5 year old son a subscription to Highlights magazine for Children. He receives the "High Five" version, geared toward 3-6 year olds. I love sitting down with him and reading the magazine together. We enjoy doing every puzzle, finding every hidden picture, and reading all of the cute stories. After my son has read it cover to cover, I save it to use in the speech room! This magazine really is a fantastic therapy tool!

Here are just a few of the ways I use Highlights in my sessions:

- Read the short stories and ask comprehension questions
- Select pictures for students to describe
- Using the Hidden Pictures section to work on vocabulary. I provide a starter sentence "I see a _________" and the student has to say the sentence as they find the picture. We can then discuss what the item is used for, etc.
- Comparing and contrasting - there is usually a section that has two pictures side by side and the students have to pick out what is different
- Find pictures in the magazine that contain a certain sound
- The "That's Silly" section of the magazine is great for reasoning skills. It gives the students an opportunity to explain why something is silly or why it does/doesn't belong in the scene.

Here are a couple more pictures of my son enjoying Highlights:

Another great subscription my son has is Ranger Rick Jr. The pictures are just fantastic and it is filled with fun animal facts. I have already swiped my son's September issue since I plan on doing a lot of squirrel-themed activities this fall! I love squirrels. And fall. And magazines.

I am thinking about using some of my school money to buy a subscription to another children's magazine. Any suggestions?