Mini Bowling in the Speech Room!

I found an cute little finger bowling kit at the checkout at Old Navy. I knew that my students would like it, so I bought it and made a little speechie activity to accompany it. You can find the mini bowling sets a few places - Party City, is another place that carries them.

Mine looks like this:

The activity I came up with is pretty simple. The student's take turns rolling the ball and knocking over the pins. The number of pins they knock over is the number of points they get, and also the number of speech cards they have to do. I just set a pile of flashcards on the table and they drew however many they needed. 

The directions page and the mini scoreboard I designed are free in my TPT store for anyone interested in using them in their classroom. 

I'd love to hear any other ideas you may have for using this mini bowling set in the speech room! My students really like it, so I am planning on picking up another one next time I am out shopping. 

Feed the Bunny

I linked up for Friday FreeBEES to share this springtime freebie with you!

I use basic reinforcement activities in the speech room all the time. I love them because I can use them with all of my groups - they are easy to use with any learning target! My current springtime favorite is my Feed the Bunny freebie!

My students feed the bunny carrots after completing assigned tasks (saying a speech sound, using a verb in a sentence, completing 3 questions on a worksheet, whatever.)  I can keep this bunny on my table all day and just switch out the specific worksheet/card decks as different groups come in.

To make your own Feed the Bunny game, you'll need a container (I used an oatmeal container, but a tissue box or cereal box would work well also) and some hot glue in addition to the free download.


"Hoppy" Easter!!! :)

EGGspected and unEGGspected Behaviors Activity

We have been talking a lot about expected and unexpected behaviors in my speech room lately. With Easter coming up, I have been using plastic eggs a bunch - putting artic words in eggs, putting verb cards in eggs, having students describe eggs.... I knew I wanted to make something especially for my pragmatic language groups as well. This is what I came up with:

The game I created is called How Do You EGGspect me to feel? It includes 12 little scenarios that students have to read. After they read the scenario, they have to state (1) how the characters feel and (2) whether the character's behaviors were expected or unexpected.

To make the same thing in your classroom, you will need a dozen plastic eggs (I got these silly faces eggs at Michael's), an empty egg carton, and the free download from my TPT store.

I like the clear egg cartons, but the regular cardboard cartons can be cute too - especially with a little paint:

 

Since I am always looking for ways to tie articulation practice into my language activities, I made sure that this one could easily target the /r/ sound. All of the characters in the scenario cards have names that begin with /r/. Perfect for mixed groups of artic and langauge kiddos.

 

 

The download also includes a sorting activity. Students sort egg cards into piles of EGGspected and unEGGspected behaviors. I didn't have time to get a picture of it in action today, but it is pretty cute too.

I hope your Easter season is EGGcellent!

Easter Egg EET

I know a lot of SLPs use the Expanding Expression Tool (EET) in their therapy rooms. It is such a great kit!  I've also seen a lot of SLPs make their own mini-versions of the EET strand for their students to use. Consonantly Speaking has a blog post about this you might want to check out.

Since Easter is just around the corner, I have been trying to incorporate all things springy and Eastery into my therapy sessions. I decided to create an Easter version of the EET strand! It turned out adorable if I do say so myself:

Please excuse the blurriness of this picture - my 6 year old is my photographer!

Anyway, in order to create your own Easter EET, you'll need to pick up a few kinds of eggs. The traditional colored plastic eggs can be found anywhere. I got the white eggs at Walmart, and the wooden one at JoAnn Fabric. You'll also need a sharpie and an old egg carton. 

Since there are 7 EET balls/eggs, you'll need to modify your egg carton a bit. First, cut the carton in half so you have one row of six egg-holders. Then, cut apart one little section and hot glue it to the set of six so that you end up with a row of seven. Like this: 

Then, you'll need to use your sharpie to add an eye to one of the white eggs, a question mark to the orange egg, and a smiley face to the green egg. 

Then, just arrange them in the egg carton! That's it! A super cute, festive, Eastery EET!

St. Patrick's Day in the Speech Room

March is here and we are all about shamrocks, rainbows, gold, and leprechauns in the speech room!

There are so many cute St. Patrick's day ideas popping up on blogs and on Instagram this month.  My list of March activities to try just keeps getting longer and longer.

Here are a few of the things I have planned/created for my students.

1. BOOKS! My favorite St. Patrick's Day books include Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato, Ten Lucky Leprechauns, and That's What Leprechauns Do.

2. Shamrock Challenge! It just isn't a holiday in my classroom without a Peachie Speechie Articulation Challenge! This one requires no candy or color ink. Just print, grab a green marker, and go! Color a shamrock each time your say your target sound. Will you be lucky enough to get to 100?

3. St. Patrick's Day Reinforcer Game! I happened to find some adorable shamrock gold coins at Michael's for 40% off. It is impossible for an SLP to pass up a sale like that so I stocked up. Then, I made a little reinforcer game to go with them. It can be used with any learning target and the kids love collecting coins.

4. COFFEE FILTER SHAMROCK CRAFT! I remember making these as a child! Apparently coffee filter crafts were popular in the 90's because I also remember making coffee filter flowers, hearts, and snowflakes! Simply fold a coffee filter in half, cut into a shamrock shape (see step by step picture below) and then paint with watercolors! Great for targeting sequencing events, following directions, and describing! 

What St. Patrick's Day activities are you doing in your speech room?!

Using Tattoos in Speech Therapy

It is always a great feeling to see my students move past sound drills and flashcards and start focusing on speech sounds in conversation. I am always looking for ways to make conversation activities fun and engaging. When I saw these Monster Hands: Temporary Tattoos for Talking Hands, I knew I had to bring them into the speech room!

So, what can you do with these little guys? Here are a few ideas I came up with:  

- Ask a student's monster to tell a story or tell about a person. ("Hey Monster! Tell me about your best friend!") As the student makes their monster talk, work on self monitoring by having them correct any articulation errors the monster makes. 

- Have the student's monster read a passage out loud. Silly monster voices are allowed, of course. 

- Target social skills by having the monsters act out difficult situations (they can draw cards from the Difficult Situations Fun Deck, for example)

I tested them out on my own hand today. They are a little small for an adult hand but still work OK. They are super easy to apply (all you need is a damp paper towel) and they come off with soap, warm water and a little scrubbing. 

I bought my box of Monster Hands tattoos at Pottery Barn Kids. You can also buy them on Amazon. 

I would love to hear any other suggestions you have for using these tattoos in speech! 

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