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!

Speachy Feedback Linky

It's that time again! Time for another Speachy Feedback Party!

I've joined up with Nicole over at Speech Peeps to reward one lucky TPT customer for giving helpful feedback!  This month's winner is TPT user stover87.  She left this feedback on my SLP Planner and Data Collection Binder:

Thanks for the feedback stover87! You have won a product of your choice from my TPT store (excluding bundles).  Please email me at cmanchester57@gmail.com to claim your prize!!

S...Peachy Feedback Linky (January)

Hey Everyone!!

I'm linking up with Nicole over at Speech Peeps for another round of "S...Peachy Feedback"!!!

This month's winner is TPT user LaurenDrinkard, who left this comment on my "Feed the Penguin" activity:

Exactly what I was looking for! I need this for a kindergartner with limited language skills. He can approximate initial consonants and I want to build on that. Thank you so much!

Thanks for the feedback Lauren! You just won a product of your choice from my TPT store (excluding bundles). Please email me at cmanchester57@gmail.com to claim your prize!

Did you know I have FOUR Feed the Penguin products in my store?  Here they are:

• Feed the Penguin: Bilabial CV, CVC, CVCV Words (a freebie)
• Feed the Penguin Language Pack
• Feed the Penguin Articulation Pack
• Feed the Penguin Language & Articulation Bundle (Money saving bundle of the Language and Articulation Packs)

Check out Nicole's linky for the other participating bloggers. If you didn't win this time around, keep leaving feedback. You never know, you may win the next time around! :)  

What's in Your Cart? Linky Party

I hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving break! I know I am! I haven't done anything work or blog related...Until now that is ;)  You probably already know that the big TPT site-wide sale is coming up Monday and Tuesday.  

Today I'm linking up with Jenna over at Speech Room News for her "What's in Your Cart?" Linky Party!

Here's what's in my cart for the big sale:

• Naughty or Nice List Social Skills for Speech Therapy by Whitney of  Let's Talk!
• L Listening Center Power Point by Kristin of Simply Speech
• Christmas Grammar Activities for PK/K by Expressly Speaking
• Winter Themed Speech and Language Packet by Speechy Musings

Now that I've shown you what's in my cart, I want to share some of my recent best sellers:

Seasonal & Thematic Dot Reinforcers: Print out the Christmas and Winter pages and use in conjunction with your trusty artic and language cards.  Here are a few sample pages:

20 Seasonal & Thematic Game Boards: Here's another packet designed to be used to spice up your drill work!

If you're torn between these two, I've placed them in a money-saving bundle...and YES! Bundles are included in this sale!  Check out the Seasonal Open Ended Bundle here.

Last, I wanted to share some of my all-time most popular. These are the items that are best selling and/or most wish-listed:

• Feed the Penguin Articulation Pack, Feed the Penguin Language Pack, and Feed the Penguin Bundle (containing both the Articulation and Language versions) have been consistently popular - even in the summer months!
• Mouse Gets the Cheese: A Following Directions Game is my #1 most downloaded item.
• Out of This World Vocabulary Fun is a companion for the first three beads on the EET strand.
• Receptive Language Bundle: This money-saving bundle contains Mouse Gets the Cheese and my #1 most wish-listed item, Snappy Snapshots (not to mention Greetings from Summer Camp and Receptive Detectives).
• Gingerbread Speech and Language Unit: My #2 most wish-listed item. 

What's on your wishlist???

S...Peachy Feedback Linky

I feel like I haven't written a blog post in a long time.  Here are my excuses reasons for that:  I'm in the middle of writing progress reports. You know how that is!  As if that isn't bad enough, I've also been sick with a cold that just won't go away (and my son and my husband both caught it too).  Also, I feel like this has been my busiest school year yet. I hope to write a post on that in the near future.  Anyway, you know how Nicole from Speech Peeps hosts a monthly S...Peachy Feedback Linky?

Well, I'm a little late to the party (the linky is closed), but I still wanted to participate.  The purpose of this linky is to reward TPT users for leaving feedback that is detailed and helpful to other buyers!  This feedback was left on my Out of This World Vocabulary (An EET companion):

TPT user jztjzt, you won a free product from my TPT store (bundles excluded)! Send me an email at cmanchester57@gmail.com to claim your prize!

If you didn't win my prize this month, head over to Speech Peeps to see if you were the winner for another blog/store!

Love it & List It Linky: Language Apps

I'm linking up for another fun "Love it and List it! Linky" hosted by Jenna at Speech Room News!  (See Jenna's original post HERE.)

This month's topic is Language Apps!  Here are my favorites (in no particular order):

1. Speech With Milo Interactive Storybook (Doonan Speech Therapy):  I love this app for many reasons.  Basically, it's great for my preschool kiddos.  They can listen to the story, interact with the pages, and record themselves retelling the events on the page.  Plus, it's a bargain at only $1.99!
2. Language Adventures (Smarty Ears, $14.99):  This app/board game can be used to target a variety of objectives and is a ton of fun for the kids!
3. Rainbow Sentences (Mobile Education Store, $7.99):  This is a great app for working on syntax, expanding utterances, and so much more! I wrote a full review on this app that you can read HERE.
4. Syntax Workout (Virtual Speech Center, $16.99):  I have a group of students who will do just about anything for a few minutes of "reward" with this app!  They don't mind "working" so that they can work some more with the app!  What's not to love about that?  This is another app I've reviewed in the past, check it out HERE.
5. Cookie Doodle (Shoe the Goose, $0.99):  OK, this is technically NOT a language app...but the language potential is endless! Follow the directions of the recipe, sequence the steps, decorate and describe a cookie.  There are so many things you can do with this app and the kids just love it!

And there you have my top 5 language apps!  What are yours?

S...Peachy Feedback Linky

Hello!

Today I'm joining up with Nicole of Speech Peeps for a super fun Feedback linky!  If you haven't heard of it yet, this is the linky where you get rewarded for leaving feedback on Teachers Pay Teachers.  I wasn't able to link up last month because I had too much going on in my life to write a post, so I wanted to make sure I took the time to link up this month!

The winner of the "S...Peachy Feedback" this month is (fittingly) SLPeachy who left this comment on my Apple Trouble Book Companion:

We just finished up with our Apple Trouble unit. I ended up using the activities for several sessions and the students really enjoyed it. This has become one of my favorite books and seems to have it all - sequencing, vocabulary, context for describing and more. Thank you for taking the time to put this together!

SLPeachy, you won a free product from my TPT store (bundles excluded)! Send me an email at cmanchester57@gmail.com to claim your prize!

If you didn't win my prize this month, head over to Speech Peeps to see if you were the winner for another blog/store!

September SLP Link Up!

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

It's that time again!  All Y'all Need is hosting another of their awesome monthly SLP link ups!  (You can see the original post HERE).

Here goes...

School-ing:  In my town, students don't start school until after Labor Day.  That mean's that today is just the third day of school!  If you follow me on Facebook, you might have noticed that I already had to take a personal day today to bring my son to his preschool orientation!  Any-whoo...we just got our speech lists yesterday and now we're dividing up the kiddos and checking out IEPs.  So I will pretty much be working on scheduling and completing hearing screenings of all of the kindergarten students tomorrow and next week.  (Anyone else have to complete hearing screenings?)

Excited:  I just ordered an EET (that's Expanding Expression Tool if you haven't heard of it yet) and am SOOOO excited to use it!  I'm really hoping that it will make a difference for the students I service and help them to be more successful!

Prepping:  I'm doing so much prep right now it's crazy! I just had to order more lamination because I went through THREE 50-packs!  Now I'm ordering the 100 packs from Amazon (see below).  I've been putting together my SLP Planner and Data Collection binders. I also just finished laminating "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of Anything" Companion by Denise of  Speech Language Pirates, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books Companion by Jenn of Crazy Speech World, a couple of Mia's (Putting Words in Your Mouth) Quick Artic activities (here's the superhero one), and my Apple Trouble Book Companion.  I did buy a few other items during the TPT Back to School Sale that I will be printing and copying soon, including:  Itty Bitty Books for Articulation Practice (Here's a link to the SH, CH, J edition) by School House Talk, EET Companion Pack Bundle by Speech Time Fun, The Voice Monsters by Queen's Speech, and Language Dice by the Buckeye Speech Path.

Trying:
Meal planning!  Over the summer, I trade in my SLP hat for a short-order cook's hat.  Not really, but it feels that way!  I always end up cooking a different lunch and dinner food for each person in my house (thank goodness there are only three of us!).  To avoid that, I'm trying to plan my meals a week in advance so I have a better idea of what I need to get at the supermarket.  Without the planning, I just buy what I think we might want/need and there ends up being a lot of waste...Not a good thing!  Hopefully this will help!


That's it! If you're a blogger, head over to All Y'all Need and link up!  If you're not a blogger, leave me a comment about what you're School-ing, what's got you Excited, and what you're Prepping and Trying. 

Happy September!

These are the lamination pouches I just ordered.  I'll let you know how I like them!

 

SLP August Link-up

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

It's that time again!  I really look forward to these SLP Link-Ups that were started by Laura of All Y'all Need.  Laura always comes up with cute acronyms (acrostics?) each month!  This month is B.T.S.  Back to School.  I'm SOOOO not ready!! Oh well...Here we go!

Buying: I'm a sucker for a "good" informercial (if there is such a thing?).  I've been wanting to buy a juicer ever since I saw Fat Sick & Nearly Dead, but they are so darn expensive!  So, when I saw the infomercial for the Nutri Bullet (from the makers of the Magic Bullet), I was sold!  In addition, I've gotten a ton of great Back to School items from Target's Dollar Spot and Dollar Tree!  (I'll share some of them in an upcoming post!).

Trying:  I've been trying to eat more fruits and vegetables (hence the Nutri Bullet)...and now I'm trying out the Nutri Bullet with new combinations of fruits and veggies!  I have to say, the first time I tried it, the concoction looked disgusting, but tasted great!

Speeching:  I go back for professional development August 26th and 27th, but the kids don't start until after Labor Day.  I'm trying to enjoy the last few weeks of my summer vacation and not doing much speeching if I can help it (with the exception of blog posts, of course)!

If you're a blogger and want to link up, head over to All Y'all Need. If you're not a blogger, you should still head over and read some of the responses and get to know your favorite SLP bloggers a little better!

Happy August!

Show Me the Data! Linky

Summer seems to be the time for linkies!  I think our creative juices flow a little more (when we can get the motivation).  I'm loving all the different fun and creative ideas, all in one place!  Today I'm joining up with Jenn from Crazy Speech World for her "Show Me the Data!" Linky.  

Data collection...a necessary evil in our jobs.  I try new methods each year and still haven't found that perfect one.  I started working on some forms the other day and came up with one for student goal information and data collection.  Here's what it looks like:

There are spaces to add the student's name, DOB, teacher, frequency of service, IEP due date, LTG, objectives, and data.  There's another page you can print on the back with more boxes for data collection.  There's a space to keep notes or write anecdotal information on the top.  I think I might print page 2 back to back and continue my data collection on these, then add a new page 1 when IEPs are reviewed.

How do I plan on using them?  Check out this example:

In an ideal world, you'd get data for each objective during each session, but in the school's that's rarely going to happen!  I haven't decided if I want to keep a column for each session or just fill in the blank boxes as I go.  I may end up filling in the blank boxes so I can easily see which objectives need data.

So that's what I'm going to try this year for data collection.  What do you think?  If you'd like to download a copy of these sheets, you can do so HERE.

Thank you Jenn for hosting this linky!  Don't forget to head over to Crazy Speech World to find out more data collection tips and tricks!

Love it and List it! Linky

Disclaimer:  Amazon affiliate links are included in this post for your convenience.

Hey everyone!  I'm going to be linking up with Jenna's Love it & List it over at Speech Room News.

This is going to be a regular monthly feature.  This month, Jenna is asking us to share our favorite games with you.  Here are some of my favorites that I haven't already blogged about:


Pesky Pirates:

We used "Pesky Pirates" as an open ended game in my therapy room.  Basically, you try to collect coins as you play and the player with the most coins at the end is the winner!  This game is a fun addition to your pirate theme!

Hullabaloo:

 

We all love Cranium's Cariboo, right?  Well Hullabaloo is pretty fun too!  You do need to have some space to play this game.  It comes with mats that go on the floor.  The mats all have specific attributes (color, shape, picture).  Each player starts on a purple mat (with a Cranium character) and once you press the button, they need to follow directions to move to another mat (e.g., "Spin to something you can eat," "Hop to a circle").  This game is great for following directions, learning attributes/categories, and listening comprehension.  The only downside to this game is that the speaker goes too fast.  I wish there was an option to slow it down or pause it.  Sometimes I just skip the speaker and give my own directions!

 

Zingo:

Zingo is a great game for preschool. As you may have guessed from the name, it's a twist on a bingo game.  There are two sides to each card.  The green has less complex vocabulary and the red, slightly more complex.  All of the cards consist of basic nouns (from what I remember, my game is at school!). The game is sturdy with plastic tiles that get placed in the red machine to start.  To "draw" tiles, kids must swipe the handle of the red machine back and forth (like an old fashioned credit card swiper).  They love it!

Snail's Pace Race:

Snail's Pace Race by Ravensburger has been one of my favorite therapy games since undergrad!  This game is probably a staple in many therapy rooms, but I figured I'd share if you're not familiar with it.  The coolest thing about this game is that the kids don't win/lose, the snails do!  We all have those groups that are competitive and want to win above all else, right?  Well this game eliminates the "sore loser syndrome"!

That's about all I can think of without actually being in my therapy room!  What are your favorite games to use in therapy?

PS, Thank you Jenna for hosting this linky!  

Speachy Feedback Linky Party

This is such a fun idea, I just had to participate!  Nicole from Speech Peeps started this fun way to reward TPT customers just for leaving feedback!  She will be hosting these linky parties once per month (every third Monday), so you still have a chance to get in on the fun!  

Your part is easy...download something from my store and leave feedback.  Yup, that's it!  I will choose one "winner" from the feedback I receive and announce it here.  That winner will be able to pick one item from my store as a prize!  How fun is that?!?

Here goes...  The winner for this month is TPT user SusieSLP who left this comment on "Constructing Preschool Fun":

"Love this activity it is perfect for my private practice speech therapy program. I enlarged the game board, putting it on a manila folder, and we play with small trucks. Great fun! Now I am going to get the book to complete the set."

SusieSLP, email me at cmanchester57@gmail.com and let me know which item you'd like from my store!

Thanks to Nicole for starting this linky party! Head on over to her page by clicking the button below and see who else is participating!

July 2013 SLP Link-Up

I don't know about you, but I love these link-ups that Laura from All Y'all Need (formerly Oh How Pintearesting) started up!  They're a great way to get to know all of your favorite bloggers a little better!  You can find the original graphic and link to the other blogs that are participating HERE.  Here's the latest:

Just:  Relaxing!  My last day of school was last Wednesday and last week was my bloggy b-day celebration! The b-day celebration was SOOO much fun, but I was CRAZY busy trying to keep on top of things! So this week, my first full week of summer vacation, I'm just sitting back and relaxing!  I promise more posts for you next week!

Using:  My backyard.  My in-laws bought my son a new gym set.  My brother-in-law has been here trying to put it together.  So, we've been spending a lot of time in the yard watching it go up (hopefully it will be done soon).

It's not quite done, but "Uncle" assures us it's sturdy and safe!

Last week was rainy and overcast, and rainy and overcast, and rainy some more!  Now the sun is finally out so we've been practicing soccer and playing in the pool (little kid pool, unfortunately not a "real" pool).  My son decided to drag his little slide over and make his own water slide...his FAVORITE thing to do in the water.  Fishing (with a $2.00 magnetic fishing set I found at a local pharmacy) is a close second!

Loving:  Being a SAHM (stay at home mom), even if it's only for 2 months!  I'm really loving being home with my little guy and I can't wait to do more and more fun things over the summer!

Yummy:  Kool Moose Cafe.  I was at a retirement party recently and this place was recommended to me.  It's a local self-serve frozen yogurt establishment.  Basically, you grab a bowl, choose your yogurt flavor(s), add toppings of your choice and pay by the ounce.  So yummy and so fun!  This store is themed like a mountain cabin.  There are wood carvings everywhere!  The biggest draw:  a train that moves along a track by the ceiling!  I have only been once, but definitely plan on going back and next time I'll be sure to take pictures. :)

Thanks so much Laura for continuing these fun link-ups every month!  If you're a blogger, head over to Laura's page for the graphic and to link up your post!

Happy Summer!!!