Associations and more with figurines

Finding good deals has always been a passion of mine. I blame my thrifty habits on my mother who took me on Goodwill trips from infancy. I grew up thinking that thrift stores are magical places. So there's little doubt in my mind that I would find excuses to go there even if I weren't an SLP.

Dollar stores? Well, those are a pretty recent addiction due to work. I started out by wanting cheap craft supplies and have ended up finding some pretty good therapy "keepers." This post is about some recent "keepers" I found at local a dollar shop.

WOW Best Buddies- May I just say that these could possibly be the best thing I have ever run across for associations? The people and corresponding animals have an obvious match. They are far sturdier than many of my phonics toys. (However, Scholastic has these really cool game controller erasers and I couldn't resist buying one for the phonics box.) The possibilities are pretty much endless with these little guys. I know we will be describing each one and working on utterance lengths.

-Looking forward to their new home-

The set includes the wizard/dragon, Eskimo/polar bear, farmer/pg, fireman/cat, policeman/dog, rider/horse, and caveman/dinosaur.  

Ready for a close-up!

It's a challenge to find something that can withstand several of my kindergarten and first grade boys. I'm pretty sure that no one has ever taught them how to play with a toy. It is a good learning experience for all of us.

Another new addition to my therapy toolbox are 6 webkinz figurines. I like them because the animals are good for articulation and language goals. They come in different outfits that are associated with a variety of actions like painting and even playing golf. Plus, figurines don't take up a ton of room.

I'm good for categorization too!

While convinced that I have magically turned into an ice cube....

Too cold to think? Hurricane Sandy getting in your way?? Try our new and improved 100 page program on for size. It will surely make you forget about that tingling feeling in your hands.

True story...I cannot figure out what to go to at the ASHA convention. Is this how it is for most conventions??? Or did I just decide to go to the most confusing/overwhelming one first?

finally a tiny piece of progress

The first of the reading goal banks is finally here. My guess is that I won't have the other ones started until Thanksgiving or Christmas with the way my schedule is for the next month. The best laid plans have the tendency to go to waste. Oh well, I did mean well at the start of my Common Core project. It's been a great learning experience and finishing those reading goal banks will make me a happier person. I must say that I greatly admire Jenna at Speech Room News and Jenn over at Crazy Speech World. I do not know how they find the time to make such wonderful materials with all of their other responsibilities. Honestly, I feel like I'm doing good to at least post once a week.

Organization

I will be the first to admit that I do not consider myself a pro at organization. My intentions are always great at the beginning of the year even as a student. Every object starts out with a specified place that is usually by alphabetical order, theme, or color....it generally goes okay for the first month. I have the tendency to slowly decline as the workload increases....most notably affected is my desk. It always ends up looking like WWIII if one could use paper as ammunition. I, generally, know where everything is even at the height of my chaos.    

My finds from pinterest and "home-made" items are housed in a green bin. I originally used it to store construction paper. I had to change strategies this year as my "crafts" started to overflow. Now, this is definitely not the end to my collection of therapy ideas. The majority of them are still stored on my flash drive as I never have time to print everything off. I've learned to save everything and leave a back-up on my computer. It's not a great feeling to find out that the project you were going to use got taken off or blocked via internet restrictions. 

I put many of my game card items in note-card holders that I snag for .50 at Salvation Army. I put the pieces for my file folder games in these as well unless I am running out of room. I pull out zip-lock bags when all else fails. 

Some things are just too big for my usual strategies. My great-aunt gave my grandmother a bunch of things she didn't want anymore. I found this card holder and immediately claimed it. I bought a bunch of cards at the Dollar Tree for parts of speech that are too big to fit into anything else. It's a great solution that doesn't take up much space as you can see. 

Organization....it's a never ending battle. 

P.S. I did my first presentation today! It went pretty well I think. :)

A Tale of Two Buckets...

Once upon a time, there were two buckets that lived on a teeny-tiny shelf in a cozy room. They sat on the shelf for months waiting for their turn. They dreamed of their moment of glory.

The sound muncher haven.

The buckets are finally released from shelf duty. Now, they must help the speech detectives make their sounds.

Bat rings for Halloween? Yes, please. They make great reinforcers.

Now to be serious, I used these two buckets to help the kids see how well they can make their sounds. They got to judge whether the sounds were good or bad (in sets of 5) with a little help from me. The good sounds earned a bat in the blue bucket and the not-so-great ones went in the red. I had enough colors to keep the count separate for each student. They got to count out their bats and see how many they had of each kind. I drew faces on the table and put the bats next to the number.

Whole Body Listening

I will *finally* be giving a presentation this week at my district's monthly SLP meetings. It will be mostly focused on the social skills class I took over the summer. I also plan on bringing in a few things that I have made to use with my groups. 

I don't have many students on my caseload with goals for social skills. The majority of them are language and a few articulation. However, I have one fourth grader that has been learning social skills for several years now. It's one of those cases where you can talk about the skills and the student will always answer the questions correctly. The problem is actually carrying that knowledge over into actions. Listening is a particularly tough issue at the moment. I found the Whole Body Listening poster on pinterest and made one of my own. I used it to introduce the topic to the group with examples of listening styles. 

I made a second poster that is identical to the first. I cut up the poster into manipulative pieces. The students have to match up the pieces to recreate the poster from memory. They did really well with this activity as you can see. 

Now, the guy on my poster is named Listening Larry. I found this little super hero stuffed animal at goodwill. He's supposed to be for some sort of telecommunications company that happens to start with an "L". I can't remember the name off the top of my head. He's one of those finds that you just immediately snatch up with an obvious purpose in mind. Listening Larry becomes a super hero when he sees other kids making listening mistakes. He swoops in to save the day for the teacher and class. (P.S. My kids have a HUGE thing for super heroes even in the 4th grade...lol.) If the kids don't feel comfortable pointing out mistakes, they can use Larry to talk about them. 

I've also created a 5 point scale poster for this group. It's another manipulative poster that uses velcro to attach the feeling statements for each face.

Miss Thrifty's Tips for Graduate School

Everyone will experience something different in college and in graduate school. I thought I would share some tips based from my personal experience for readers who are going through the admissions process.

1. Determination- Stay strong. This can apply to rejection letters but it can also be said for your experience in graduate school as well. I had several naysayers due to my introverted nature. It was certainly frustrating to have people question my abilities and it also made me rise to the challenge. I wanted to prove them wrong and here I am. I pushed through the doubts and found ways to shine. Find the thing that makes your inner light come out. It may be in creating your own materials, making crafts, using games, reading....etc. You are the only person who truly knows what drives you and will make you happy. 

2. Seek out advice from others- There is something to be said for honest and helpful advice. This can go from asking a trusted friend, mentor, or professor to look over personal statements or feedback on a particularly challenging therapy session. You learn by doing and receiving feedback. Try not to be offended if something does come off a little bit harsh. You may end up interacting with someone who isn't so kind in their explanations. It doesn't mean that their opinion should be discounted. Among the bad news, you can usually find a gem of wisdom that will help you improve. 

3. Study- This shouldn't have to go on any list. Unfortunately, some people don't realize that you do have to put some effort into a program to get results. (Others, have very valid reasons for academic woes and this doesn't apply to these people.) We had one person fail in the cohort ahead of mine because all that person did was play around. Neuroanatomy is tough....study even if it takes study groups to get you motivated.

4. Patience- The best things in life come to those who wait. It's not always fun to wait but things work out in the end. This is also something that will be invaluable when interacting with clients. (It also applies very well to people who want to work in a hospital as that is a very competitive area.)

5. Passion- If you love what you are doing, it will shine through in every action. It will ring through your applications and therapy sessions. This field is not about making money. Yes, it is a fairly stable career in a crazy world where most jobs aren't secure. It doesn't bring a huge monetary reward and that can be a huge drawback for people who don't really care for the field.