Speech Room Staples {Linky}

Hi Everyone!

My buddy Shannon over at Speechy Musings is hosting a "Speech Room Staples" linky party!  One of my goals for this school year is to get back to blogging and I figured this is the perfect opportunity for me to start up again.  Check out her original post and some other link-ups HERE.



Here are a few of my go-to favorite TPT purchases:


1.  Language Progress Monitoring Tool - Lower Level by Natalie Snyders

I really can't say enough about this. I've been using the overall screening portion included to gather baseline data on my language students. I love that it includes pretty much all of my most common IEP objectives as well...perfect for gathering information at progress report time!



2.  Itty-Bitty Books for Articulation by Schoolhouse Talk

These are just great for a quick therapy activity when introducing a new sound or reviewing a mastered sound. If you're working in a group, you can focus on drill with one student at a time while the rest are coloring their pictures.  They are perfect for home practice as well!



3.  Language Dice by The Buckeye Speech Path

If you haven't noticed my theme here, most of my go-to activities are black and white.  I'm splitting my time between two schools this year and I need to be highly portable!  I love this language dice game for a few reasons, most notably that there are a ton of different targets.  Also, I can snap a picture of a page using my iPad (or screenshot from DropBox) and open in the Doodle Buddy app. The students can mark off their items right on the iPad and I never needed to make a trip to the copy machine!


4.  No Print Bundle Pack by Nicole Allison

No-print/No-prep activities are a must for traveling therapists! I love the variety of activities in this bundle and the kids love that they can "play" on the iPad!


I have a few go-to favorites from my own store as well.  Here they are:


1.  Seasonal & Thematic Dot Reinforcers

I like these because I have two options...I can grab dot markers or stickers and use the black and white version. Or I can print/laminate the full color sheets and use my bingo chips and magnetic wand. The kids love these activities and I can use them with any target!


2.  Feed the Penguin Activities:

I know this probably looks more seasonal than most of the others and you might be thinking, "How can a seasonal item be a speech room staple?"  Well, kids just love to feed things! You can print different animals for the kids to feed (like the shark I printed to go with a fish/shark book):

I actually have three different Feed the Penguin Activities in my TPT store. Here are the links:

1. Feed the Penguin: Bilabial CV, CVC, CVCV words (FREEBIE)
2. Feed the Penguin: Articulation Pack
3. Feed the Penguin: Language Pack  (I also have a money saving bundle of the language and articulation packs, which can be found HERE).


I hope you find this post helpful!  What are your speech room staples? I'd love to hear from you!

Book of the Week: Sneezy the Snowman

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com for your convenience.

It feels like FOREVER since I've actually had the chance to sit down and share with you what I've been doing in my speech room!  Before Christmas, my son came home telling me about a book that his preschool teacher read to him.  It sounded fun!  The next week, a co-worker had it out in her pile of snow themed books and I had to check it out.  Sneezy the Snowman is now one of my all-time favorite snowman books!

I encourage you to head over to Amazon and use the "look inside" feature. You won't be disappointed!  In the story, Sneezy keeps looking for things to make him less cold.  The first thing he does is drink hot cocoa. Many of my students can relate this...it is a fairly common activity post-snow play!  If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that we used Hot Cocoa Speech (a very fun freebie) by Lauren over at Busy Bee Speech:

I used cotton balls because we're not supposed to give food to students...well, technically there is a loophole. A permission slip must be signed by the parent of EVERY student in the group.  It just so happens that one of the teachers with whom I work had already sent home a permission slip for marshmallows!  So, after reading the story to that class, we discussed ways to warm up and what we like to eat with our hot cocoa.  The kids made this craft (the pattern is from Mailbox Magazine) to bring home:

Every January, I target /s/ blends with my articulation students.  Why January? Well, it's the perfect opportunity to target the sound in a naturalistic way!  There are just about 100 ready-to-go target words!  Here are just a few:  snow, snowman, snowball, skate, scarf, sled, slide, slip, slippery, skid...You get the idea!  So, with my articulation groups, we made this snowman craftivity:

For the snowman, I used a printable page from Tales of a First Grade Teacher.  I got the photos from Phonology Roundup by Super Duper (I got the book that comes with a CD ROM). I printed 2 pages per sheet of paper so the pictures would be smaller.  We glued the target words on and, in some cases, added some bonus words (sticks, snowflakes, scarf)!

And that pretty much sums up my week last week!  I'd love to hear from you.  Have you read "Sneezy the Snowman"? If so, what do you think of it?

A Little Final Consonant Deletion Karma

This year the majority of my 3-year old articulation students have a little final consonant deletion going on.  Not surprising, I know.  Well, I've been plugging away at getting them to mark those final consonants and they're doing great!  Next step?  I pulled out the FCD story from Read Aloud Minimal Contrast Stories With Activities from Super Duper.  This one is about a monkey who finds all sorts of strange things in her mailbox.  I got the story printed for my group and grabbed some markers.  And then it occurred to me...Hey! I have a monkey!  I got him with my Talk it, Rock it (formerly Kids Express Train) CDs.  Wait a minute! I also have a mailbox!  (Thanks Target Dollar Spot!)  My kids had a blast making the monkey look in the mailbox for their target words!  

Don't you love it when your therapy plan ends up being even better than you had planned??  Have you ever planned something and had it transform into something even better?

Product Review: Pirate Talk by Super Duper

Oh that red box! Who doesn't love coming home to find one of these at their door?

When the nice folks at Super Duper contacted me about reviewing one of their products, I was happy to do so!  First, I'd be foolish to say no to an awesome product from Super Duper (yes I knew it would be awesome before even opening the box!). Second, I love getting new materials for my kids.  Third, I know many of you look to bloggers like me to find how what we really think of products and apps!  Here's what was in the box:

The Details:

Pirate Talk: Receptive & Expressive Language Game.
Created by: Sarah Michaels and the Super Duper Staff.
Grade Level: K-5
Description (from Super Duper's website):  Your students are about to embark on a swashbuckling adventure as they sail the high seas with Pirate Talk, the receptive and expressive language skills game! As students respond to each prompt, they move from island to island on the colorful game board and collect gold coins. The prompts reinforce seven essential communication skills:  Sentence Repetition, Answering Questions, Following Directions, Categorizing, Inferencing, Describing, and Social Skills.
Includes:  Game Board, 150 Color-Coded Receptive and Expressive Language Cards(5 subject areas, 30 cards each), Instruction Sheet, 6 Pirate Player Pieces, 100 Gold Coins, and Electronic Spinner (1–3)


A Closer Look:

My son has learned that a box at the door equals something fun.  So when we came home, he begged me to open this one right away!  We opened the box, took out the game board, and checked out the other items:

Notice M's foot anxiously waiting to play!

I skimmed the directions because I prefer games that allow you to fly by the seat of your pants.  I believe that if the directions are too long and complicated, the kids won't want to play the game.  Am I right?  Anywhoo...you can see that the game comes with basic directions and game variations!  This is great for changing things up and using the same materials for multiple sessions, but in new and exciting ways!

After that, I organized the cards.  I think it's a personality requirement for SLPs to love organization and clearly Super Duper is a company of SLPs! The box has a tray that holds your cards and the cards come color coded and with dividers:

The cards have different scenes on the front.  The scenes depict scenarios from 5 different categories:  activities, community, home, school, and people.  Here's a sample card from the "activities" section:

Super Duper really does have great illustrations, don't they?  On the back of each card are the prompts for each target area: Sentence Repetition, Answering Questions, Following Directions, Categorizing, Inferencing, Describing, and Social Skills. I found that we could use the pictures as conversation starters as well.

Notice that some cards allow children to earn "bonus" coins!

Instead of dice, Pirate Talk comes with an electronic game spinner! How cool is this?!? I love that you only have the option of spinning a 1, 2, or 3 and I may just have to use this with other games as well!  The kids loved pushing a button instead of rolling a game die and NOTHING fell on the floor!! :)

What may just be the best part of this game is that it comes with 100 gold coins! I didn't count them, I'm going to take Super Duper's word for it!  Boys and girls were thrilled to play this game and to earn these shiny coins!

Trying it Out:

My son was in love with the game and didn't really want me to bring it to work.  Once he got over that, I brought it to school and tried it out with my kids.  I used it with kids in Preschool and in Second Grade.  We played the traditional version, nothing fancy.  The kids LOVED it! I loved that I could use it in a mixed group and target different objectives with the same cards!  I did find that with larger groups of kids, we weren't able to "finish" the game by returning our pirates back to their home bases, but none of the kids minded. They were happy to count their coins to find the winner.  If you're wondering, 2nd grade loved it as much as the preschoolers.

Bonus Activity:

My super-observant friend Stephanie was quick to make this observation...There are 100 gold coins. New information suggests aiming for 100 articulation trials/session.  See where I'm going with this?  You can use the coins for motivation in an Articulation Challenge!

I made a quick "bank" out of a butter tub, but how much fun would it be to use a treasure chest piggy bank!?!?

The Take-Away:

Pros:

• As a receptive/expressive language game, Pirate Talk has it all.  You can look at a picture scene and ask each type of question, in addition to targeting inferencing and pragmatics.
• Versatility!  The game cards themselves make Pirate Talk versatile, but the adaptability of the game goes beyond that. (See description below)
• Fun! Who doesn't love a pirate theme?!?
• The description on the box says that this game is for Grades K-5, but the box itself says that you can use it with Grades K and up or Ages 4-10.  

Cons:

• I can't think of a single one!

The Bottom Line:
Pirate talk is a fun, engaging addition to your therapy supply closet.  According to the game's description, you can use it to target 7 areas of communication. However, I have found that you can use it for so much more than that!  The game board can be used for an open-ended activity, the spinner can be used to make your game boards (like those from TPT) more fun, and the gold coins can be used to get 100 trials during Articulation Burst therapy!

If you have Pirate Talk, what's your favorite game variation?  If not, what's your favorite product from Super Duper?

Skeleton S-Blends {Freebie included}

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com for your convenience.

I've been working on a skeleton-themed activity to accompany the book Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler.  

Do you remember me mentioning that I'm running an OT/Speech group this year with our wonderful OT?  Well, we chose this book because she has an awesome skeleton craft (similar to this one on Pinterest) and I came up with this activity since many of my kids are working on /s/ blends:

The design has a fun skeleton/chalkboard theme. Graphics are by Scrappin Doodles.  There are 12 target words for each of the following blends: /sk/, /sl/, /sm/, /sn/, /sp/, /st/, and /sw/ for a total of 84 target words.

Here are some of the /sk/ words:

You can use the words for articulation or for sentence formulation.  I tried to include as many Halloween themed words as I could (scare, slimy, skeleton, etc.).  I also added two dot-reinforcer pages (one girl, one boy) :

and a writing page:

You can find this item in my TPT store.  Download the Preview file and get the /sk/ words for free!

Tell us...If you don't use these for articulation, what would you target?

App Review: Fun with R {GIVEAWAY and a FREEBIE}

Today I'm going to be sharing Fun with "R" by the Virtual Speech Center.  Oh that dreaded /r/!  We've all had kids who struggle with that sound, right?  I'm guessing this app will make them a little more motivated in their sessions!

Under the Info tab, there is a video tutorial that you can view to learn how to use the app. You can also watch the tutorial here:

Many times I skip over telling you about the settings of an app because they are generally self-explanatory.  There is one really cool setting in Fun with R that I want to tell you about....Custom Words!  My absolute favorite feature of this app is that you can add your own words!  This is especially cool if there is an /r/ word that is particularly meaningful to a child (sibling name, teacher's name, etc.).  You can add a photo from your  camera roll and record models for word, phrase, and sentence levels:

There are three different activities from which to choose (more on those in a minute).  You can select your students and then their target(s).  As you can see, there are 15 different /r/ contexts:

Under the boxes, you can Edit Words (another great feature!).  From here you can deselect words:

Here's a quick explanation of why I love this feature:  I live in Massachusetts.  I "pahk the cah in Hahvid yahd."  I kid you not, I've gotten emails from people who wonder whether or not SLPs in Massachusetts actually work on /r/.  My answer:  yes, but not all /r/'s.  You can tell the difference between a dialectical difference and a true /r/ distortion.  We work on the distortions (typically "aw"), but not the dialectical differences (typically "eh" or "ah").  Does that make sense?  On to the dialectical differences...If you look at the "air" word list on this app, there are many words included that people in Massachusetts would pronounce differently (e.g., cherries would be "Ch-EH-Reez" not "Chair-eez").  Modifying the word lists can allow for correction of these differences!

Flashcards:
The first activity listed in Fun with R is "Flashcards."  As you might expect, you can scroll through images of words in this activity.  You can also hear the prerecorded model, record a child's response, and score responses as correct, incorrect, or approximate/assisted.  In this mode, you can easily switch between word positions and complexity level (word, phrase, sentence).  This mode is great for initial teaching of a sound.  You can get a lot of trials in and have students judge their own productions.

Here's "run" at the word level...

...at the phrase level...

...and at the sentence level:

Memory Game:
Most articulation apps have this game included.  It really is the perfect game for articulation because students practice 2 words per turn whether they get a match or not!  The app chooses six words from the list, for a total of 12 cards.

When a card is selected, the image pops up large for you to record the child's response:

When a student makes a match, the cards stay turned over on the screen rather than disappear (see below).  This allows you to continue to practice words even after they have been matched.  You can continue to record and play back responses in this game and toggle between word positions and complexity levels.  Note:  If you do change word positions, the pictures will change.

Bingo:
When you start a Bingo game, you are given a card with all the pictures showing.  This is great for practicing all of the words before you even begin the game.  A "call" word is shown on the right of the screen and the student needs to tap the corresponding image on their "card" if they have one.

When you "cover" an image, the image pops up larger so that you can collect data on the student's productions:

In addition, as you make matches, your pictures are covered like so:

I think the best thing about using articulation apps in therapy is that you always get a report at the end of your sessions.  We all need to collect data and apps are great for doing that on the spot with little effort on your part!  Fun with R will store your reports and you can view by data or by goal target.  I can't think of an easier way to document progress!

And there you have Fun with R!  Here are my thoughts...

Pros:

• Ability to add custom words! Great for making an app more meaningful and motivating for students!
• Ability to change/modify word lists (great when working in specific regions of the country).
• Built in data collection.
• Use of real photos

Changes I would make in an update:

• I always try to think of what changes I would make to any app I review.  My initial thought with this one is that I would make the images disappear when a student makes a match in Memory.  Then I decided that VSC got it right by keeping them there....more practice!!!  I guess I would like to see an option of keeping them or removing them as some of our kids can get visually overstimulated

Bottom Line:

Fun with R is a great app for targeting that stubborn /r/ sound!  I love the customization that is available - being able to add your own words and to modify word lists.  If you find yourself frequently working on /r/, this is a must have app!  Fun with R currently sells for $19.99 in the App Store.

BONUS:

I created this quick screen to determine which contexts a child needs to focus on.  Simply have the students repeat the words and target those that they are having difficulty producing accurately.  You can download this freebie HERE.  

Enter to win a copy of Fun with R using the Rafflecopter below!

Disclaimer:  Virtual Speech Center provided a copy of this app for me to review, plus one to give away.  However, the opinions expressed are mine alone.

a Rafflecopter giveaway