Four Fun Free Valentine Activities!

Love is in the air! I am going to start Valentine activities with my students on January 27th and I can hardly wait! I wanted to share some of the activities I have planned.

First off - CHALLENGES! You all know how much I love my Peachie Speechie Articulation Challenges. They are so motivating to the students. I love hearing them talk about how they want to practice more so they can get to 100 productions. I have created two Valentine challenges:

1. Valentine M&M Challenge - Have students fill up their challenge mats with pink, red, and white Valentine M&Ms! They can earn one M&M for each production.

2. Valentine Heart Challenge - You can use the conversation heart candies for this one OR mini conversation heart erasers from the Target Dollar Spot! (less sugar, still motivating!) Of course you can use the black and white pages with markers and have them color the hearts as they go as well.

I am also reading quite a few Valentine books to my students this year. Kristin over at Simply Speech recently posted a great list of Valentine books as well. I have created activities to go with my two favorite Valentine books - The Day it Rained Hearts and Love Monster.

3. The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond is a simple, sweet, story. I created a couple of simple activity pages to go along with it. These activity pages can be used for pretty much any learning target. I have updated this activity in my TPT store so if you downloaded it last year I suggest re-downloading it. Activities to accompany this story include a Valentine Tree craft, a creative writing page, and a page for making it rain hearts (stamp a heart/stick a heart sticker every time you say your sound!)

4. Love Monster. Oh, how I love this Love Monster Book. I actually wrote a whole post about it already so I will just say this book is great and you should totally read it to your students and download my free activities to accompany it. You will be glad you did. <3

Love Monster

The book Love Monster by Rachel Bright is just wonderful. The story follows a lonely monster throughout his search for a companion. He searches high and low and almost gives up. But when he least expects it, love finds him. The moment I saw this book at Barnes and Noble I knew I had to have it. Just look at that little monster face on the cover!

Naturally, I wanted to share this book with all of my students so I created a few activities to go along with the story. You can download them for free in my TPT store. The download includes:

1. Graphic Organizer (Beginning-Middle-End)
2. Articulation Practice Sheet
3. Create a Love Monster Craftivity Template
4. Love Monster Creative Writing Page

I think the craftivity is my favorite. I made a template/outline of a monster and the students can use paint, markers, glitter, sequins, paper, stickers- anything! - to create a Love Monster of their own! 

After I used a picture collage app to show the sequence of events (and range of emotions) in the book Winter is for Snow, my students have been begging to do that again. So, we took pictures of the Love Monster book and discussed how the little monster's feelings changed throughout the story. The pic collage app is a quick, easy, and motivating way to do this. 

So, get your hands on a copy of this super loveable book and read it this Valentine's Day! <3 

Winter is for Snow

Even though the temperature s in the 50's here in Georgia, I am going with a winter/snow theme in my speech room this month. We have been reading books about winter weather and decorating the speech room with snowflakes.

One of my favorite books we have read is Winter is for Snow by Robert Neubecker. It is a great book for discussing feelings and perspective taking. In the story, a little boy is delighted to see that it is snowing outside. His little sister is not as enthusiastic and states that she would rather stay inside and watch television. However, by the end of the story, she is having a blast in the winter weather.

After reading this book to my students, I had them complete a graphic organizer to illustrate how the little girl feels at the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

(The student's paper here says "She was grouchy. She was curious. She was happy. She loves snow")

We also took pictures of the illustrations in the book that show how the little girl is feeling. We used a picture collage app to show how her feelings change throughout the story:

I planned to make paper snowflakes today as well, but ran out of time. We will just have to do that later in the week! 

If we can't have snow outside, at least we can enjoy winter-themed books and paper snowflakes in the speech room.

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!!!