Winter Round-Up!

Mittens, packing peanuts, a children's game, and styrofoam balls. What do these things all have in common? Well, they are great therapy materials and games! Allow me to present to you my winter round-up!

Winter Round-Up Activity #1: Mittens in the Snow

This is one of my favorite activities to use with my students because it's so versatile! Start by getting a large container, then gather some packing peanuts, and find a few mittens. Put anything you'd like into the mittens (actual objects for younger students, artic/phonology pictures, note cards with words to define, etc) and bury them in the "snow" (aka, packing peanuts). Then, have students take turns searching for a mitten! This gets kids up and moving, plus it's just a fun winter activity! I purchased four different colors/patterns of mittens at the dollar store so that if I have a group of students that are all working on different goals, I can assign them a color/pattern of mitten to find in the snow. We did this activity last year and a few of my students actually requested it again this year, so I hope it will be a hit with your students as well!

Winter Round-Up Activity #2: Don't Break the Ice

This may seem like an obvious choice, but I've changed up the game, Don't Break the Ice, a bit to suit my needs as well as support students academically. This activity is geared more for artic sessions and/or language sessions with targets that can be rapidly reviewed. As students knock down the ice cubes, they not only score as many points as are on the cubes, but they also must say that many artic words and/or go through that many language targets. We used this game in the majority of my artic sessions last week and it allowed for tons of repetitions without the students even really noticing how much work they were doing! My 2nd - 6th graders also had to add up and/or multiply their points (think addition as well as multiplication, here!) and had to decide who had the most/least points and who was in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and/or 4th place.

Winter Round-Up Activity #3: Snowball Fight Match-Up

You'll never look at a styrofoam ball the same again when you realize that they are the makings of a great language snowball fight! Last week, I used these for a synonym and antonym match-up game in an inclusive activity that I did with a classroom teacher. Although we had a synonym and antonym snowball fight, you could have any type of snowball fight you'd like with pair-ups: associations, an item and its function, present tense verbs with past tense verbs, singular nouns with plural nouns, etc. First, pass out all of the target cards to the students, have them spread the cards out on their desk/in their area, and pick one student to begin. That student is given a "snowball" and then reads the word on his/her card. Next, the person who has the antonym match, synonym match, associated word, etc. stands up and reads their word. If the match is correct, the "snowball" is thrown to the person with the match and he/she reads another one of their cards. If you're really adventurous, you could get more than one snowball going to make it a real "fight". This activity was really engaging for our students, so I hope your students will like it just as much!

With the thought of this last activity in mind, I created a Winter Match-Ups FREEBIE for you! This activity includes: 24 antonym cards, 24 synonym cards, and 24 irregular plural noun cards. Take a look!

Antonym pairs

Synonym pairs

Irregular plural noun and singular noun pairs

You can access this activity at my TpT store here!! You can also follow my blog or "like" my Facebook page in order to stay up-to-date with new products and freebies!

I hope that you find these activities useful and that they save you a little bit of time as far as planning and preparing are concerned! Thanks for reading!

Valentine's Day Round-Up

This Valentine's Day post is inspired by Pinterest and altered for speech and language goals and therapy!! These are some of the activities that my students will be doing to celebrate Valentine's Day!!

Valentine's Day Round-Up Activity #1: Articulation Heart Caterpillars

This activity is super easy and so much fun! Start by cutting out paper pink, red, and purple hearts. Next, print and cut out pictures of each student's target sounds and glue the pictures to the hearts. Add a head, antennae, legs, and googly eyes and you've got yourself one awesome Valentine's Day bug! (Challenge your students to make their bug really long for lots of practice!)

Valentine's Day Round-Up Activity #2: A Reinforcer Sealed with a Kiss (or a Hug)

I love any excuse to incorporate candy into my sessions and this is such an easy activity to prepare! First, start by writing numbers (I'd suggest 2-6) onto the bottom of chocolate kisses and/or hugs. (This indicates how many words a student working on articulation or phonology sounds must say, or the amount of language questions a student must answer.)

Next, put the candies upright and allow students to take turns drawing a hug or a kiss. If the student tries his/her best at their turn, they get to keep the chocolate treat!

Valentine's Day Round-Up Activity #3: Valentine's Day Grammar

This next activity can be used to target pronouns, "is" vs. "are", the "ing" ending, and syntax (to name just a few), but I'm sure you can come up with even more variations for your students' needs. Start with large paper hearts that have a large hole in the center so that students can put the heart around the item/answer they choose. If you are working on any of the goal areas that I mentioned above, this is how I would suggest targeting these areas. First, I grabbed boy and girl dolls so that my students can work on "she", "he", and "they". Students put the heart around the boy and use the word "he", the girl and use the word "she", or both dolls to target "they".

Two note cards with "is" or "are" encourage a student to choose an auxiliary verb to correctly match with the subject of their sentence.

Next, set out a few different action word cards to choose from. I love these Preschool Vocabulary Action Cards by Linguisystems, because in my opinion, the product is very versatile. Once the student selects the action that they would like, they put a post-it with "ing" at the end of the card and put another heart around that card.

To target basic syntax, have the student "read" the sentence to practice correct structure.

Valentine's Day Round-Up Activity #4: FREEBIE - Conversation Heart Reinforcer

Here is a FREEBIE that can be used for any age group and any targeted goal! This activity was inspired by Busy Bee Speech's marshmallow freebie, which you can find here. First, print and laminate a conversation heart mat for each student in your group. Students can keep any conversation heart candies that they earn throughout the session on this mat.

Next, make a few copies of the conversation heart page.

Finally, go to town targeting speech and language goals and allowing students to pick cards and enjoy their Valentine's Day treats!

You can access this activity at my TpT store here!!!! You can also follow my blog for even more ideas and tips. If you download this activity, please consider "liking" my Facebook page in order to stay up-to-date with new products and freebies!

I hope that you find these activities useful and that they save you a little bit of time as far as planning and preparing are concerned! Thanks for reading!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

In the majority of classrooms that I walked into today, teachers were discussing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with their students. I loved hearing all of their ideas of what we can do to honor Dr. King's memory. If you are spending your week working on MLK activities, here are a few ideas.

First up, a companion pack to accompany the book "Martin Luther King Jr." by Marion Dane Bauer. This packet includes:

12 listening comprehension questions related to the story,

20 association and/or compare/contrast cards,

8 past tense verb pairs,

11 past tense verb pairs,

1 character description sheet,

9 vocabulary and definition match cards,

and 18 fact vs. opinion cards!

If you'd like to pick up this activity, you can do so here!

If you're looking for an MLK activity to target similes, look no further! First, take a large piece of constriction paper and fold both sides of it into the center. Then, trace two hands and glue them on the front.

Next, make a list of all of the characteristics that MLK possessed and make a simile list! Here's ours, but I'm sure you can think of many more qualities.

Finally, go to town filling in the blanks to compare MLK to other people and things using similes!

I hope that you find this activity useful! To keep up with all of my new products and FREEBIES, please like my facebook page here! You can also access even more activities and freebies at my TpT store here!

I'll be doing a giveaway of this activity, so please comment below to enter!

Snowmen, Snowmen, Everywhere!!

Hello again! The following is a guest post that I did over at Carrie's Speech Corner today! It includes an free and easy therapy activity as well as a freebie! Read on to find out more!!

I LOVE "snow" activities. Honestly, I could spend the whole month of January relishing the wonderfulness of snow, so I've decided to share an activity that can be used for a whole bunch of language goals and/or as a reinforcer for articulation. I started to make my own snowman for this activity, but then realized that a fabulous SLP in my district had made and distributed snowmen to all of the SLPs in our district last year, so I used hers (since she has way more artistic talent than I would ever have)! First, start by making a few snowmen of different sizes.

Next, create the "accessories" in different sizes, shapes, and colors. These accessories are made out of milk filter paper, but you can always make them on regular paper and laminate them for durability. You can also use items you already have in your room - random buttons, extra scraps of fabric or felt, ribbons, cotton balls, etc.

I picked up a few baking sheets from my local dollar store and attached one snowman to each. Then, I put tape in the corners of the pan and attached contact paper UPSIDE DOWN (so that the sticky side is facing up). This increases the "magic" of the activity. You can do anything you want to the pan and the parts never fall off because they stick to the contact paper!

Ta-da! Instant snowman work surface!

Here are three different size snowmen, ready to be put to work.

As I mentioned before, this activity can be used for a multitude of goal areas. I thought of nine different ways to use this activity, but I'm sure you can even come up with more!
- attributes/modifiers (e.g. "one, round, green button")
- same/different (e.g. "The snowmen are the same because they both have red buttons but they are different because mine has black arms and hers has brown arms.")
- 1, 2, 3-step directions as well as conditional directions (**This would be a great activity to target "before" and "after" directions.)
- giving directions (**Have the students practice giving directions to each other.)
- prepositions (e.g. "on top", "on the side", "above", "below", etc.)
- pronouns (**Give each snowman a name and have the student talk about what "she" has or what items of clothing belong to "him".)
- possessives (**Give each snowman a name and have the student talk about "Jane's hat" and "Bob's button".)
- story retell (**Talk about what happened "first", "next", "then", and "last" while making the snowman.)
- reinforcer for artic

Here is a look at the final product after it's all "dolled" up!

I've also created a FREEBIE that you can access at my TpT store. Introducing: Snowman Language Round-Up! This activity includes: 16 same and different pairs

12 describe with attributes cards,

and 18 multiple meaning word cards.

You can access this activity at my TpT store here. You can also follow my blog or "like" my Facebook page in order to stay up-to-date with new products and freebies!

I hope that you find these activities useful and that they save you a little bit of time as far as planning and preparing are concerned! Thanks for reading!

New Year's Fireworks!

Happy New Year! Today's post includes a free therapy activity and a review of a few products that I've recently added to my TpT store!

First up is a FREE therapy idea!! This week in speech, we made "New Year Speech Sound Fireworks". This activity is so easy and fun! I bought metallic markers at the store and printed off speech sound pictures for each of my artic students. We went to work cutting out our pictures and glued them to black paper. (Of course, we had to say our speech sound pictures at least 10 times per picture!) Repetition, repetition, repetition! Then, we got to decorating! We made crazy designs around each picture, just like fireworks that we saw (or might see) on New Year's Eve! Of course, we had to practice our words again as we decorated! I made a sample for my students to give them an idea of what to do, but they got even more creative than I was!

My example of the activity.

Even more awesome fireworks by my students! If this is an activity that you could use in your "arsenal", please consider "liking" my facebook page to stay updated on all of the activities that I post!

I've also posted a bunch of new activities at my TpT store over break. Again, you can check them out here!

Here's a closer look at some of the items I've recently added...

Build-A-Snowman: Artic (/th/, /ch/, /sh/) and Listening Comprehension
This activity includes: 36 /th/ short stories, 36 /ch/ short stories, and 36 /sh/ short stories. Students can repeat the sentence stated by the therapist, read the card on their own, or repeat the individual target words. This activity also includes 216 listening comprehension questions (two to go along with each card). In this activity, students collect cards to “build a snowman” by filling up their snowman mat, so this material is a language activity, an artic activity, and a game all in one!!!!

Every student gets a mat in order to collect their snowman parts!

/th/ sentences packed with /th/ words and two listening comprehension cards to go along with the short story.

/ch/ sentences packed with /ch/ words and two listening comprehension cards to go along with the short story.

/sh/ sentences packed with /sh/ words and two listening comprehension cards to go along with the short story.

You can pick up the /th/, /ch/, and /sh/ version of this packet here and the /s/-blends version here!

Groundhog Synonyms, Antonyms, Multiple Meaning Words, and Homophones
I have been absolutely addicted to groundhog clip art lately. It's just so cute! In honor of my new "addiction", I present Groundhog Synonyms, Antonyms, Multiple Meaning Words, and Homophones!! This activity includes 32 synonym pair cards (64 cards total), 32 antonym pair cards (64 cards total), 32 multiple meaning word cards, and 32 homophone pair cards (64 cards total)!! Take a look at some of the pages...

Synonym pairs! Match a winter groundhog with a spring groundhog!

Antonym pairs! Match a groundhog on the hill with a groundhog in the forest!

Multiple Meaning Words!

Use this extra sheet to draw pictures of both meanings of the multiple meaning words!

Homophone pairs! Students find the homophone matches and use each word in a sentence to demonstrate understanding of he correct meaning of the word!

I hope you have found some of these activities useful! Thanks for reading!

TpT Sale!!

If you haven't already heard, many speech and language pathologists are participating in a 20% off sale on their TpT products January 2nd and 3rd. You can check out my store here!!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! I'll be back tomorrow with a fun New Year's activity that you can use all year round!