Lately....

As my Facebook followers have seen, I have been battling it out with a nasty ear infection for the past week. It is an interesting experience as an adult, particularly as an SLP. The pain was excruciating. Luckily, I already had an appointment to be checked for strep so I was put on antibotics within 3 hours of it flaring up. (My poor husband has had strep for the past week.) It really makes me wonder about the children we catch during mass hearing screenings that have had an infection for months without anyone knowing. Not being able to hear out of my left ear is about to drive me bonkers! 

In other news, I wanted to share my newest therapy tool that I created after watching the SLP Institute. They had a course about sensory bins and it reminded me of how much my students enjoy using my Mr. Potato Head bin. I found a dinosaur play set over the weekend at Mighty Dollar and couldn't resist. The total cost for the bin was about $3 including tax. I'm going to hunt for some superhero figurines, particularly Batman, and make another one before this school year is over. 

You can target so many goals with these bins and it barely takes any effort at all to make them. I will be using this one for prepositions mostly.

With an eye towards the future....

To celebrate the last week of school, I thought I would go back to some language basics with a sorting activity. Figurines, the Expanding Expression Tool (if you have it), and sorting mats are all it took to make a fun end of the year review. 

One of the biggest things that made this activity different from our beginning of the year sessions, was the Spanish that I added into the mix. Each of the sorting mats has the Spanish word or words that they might use at home when talking to their parents. If you aren't facing a time crunch, you may want to print out multiple sets (probably multiple slides per page) so that students can make their own basic concepts dictionary. All they would need to do is a draw a picture on the card to serve as a visual reminder before taking them home to practice.

Grab your copy here.

Looking beyond....

It's been an interesting week so far. I had a nasty stomach bug over the weekend and it's taken me until today to finally feel back to my usual self. As a result, I have been one very scatterbrained therapist these past two days and trying to play catch-up from my sick day. My students probably think an alien has taken over my brain. Then again, they're so excited about the prospects of reeling in a big haul of candy that nothing else really matters at this point. 

It seems like moods are running a little bit high at work this week. I got fussed at today for pulling a student on my normal day at my normal time. It's the first time that I've ever had to deal with this kind of reaction to me holding a group and it was a bit shocking. It was also a touch humiliating as the person made a small scene in front of a class of students. Hopefully, it's just pre-fall benchmark jitters and not something that will continue to occur. 

So to soothe my emotions and take a much needed mental vacation from all things Fall, I made this preposition activity. It's very similar to the spooky prepositions activity that I made for the Spooky Fun Frenzy. The file is black and white so students can color selected targets and to avoid the need of color ink. 

You can grab a copy of Snowy Prepositions here.

Opposites DIY

You may have seen my pronoun notebooks. If not, I would like to introduce you to the wonderful possibilities of magazines & sales ads. I spend an hour or two each weekend cutting out pictures that I like from them and newspapers. I mainly use the pictures to create notebooks that target various skills, but you can use them for following directions or art projects as well.

Here are a few pictures from my giant book of opposites (1 page to introduce and 5 pages of opposites). 

Here are a few pictures from my book of feelings too.

Got stuffed animals? Let's teach some positional concepts!

Children (most of the ones I know) love to cuddle with soft little stuffed animals. Who can blame them? Stuffed animals come in all kinds of sizes and shapes. You can find familiar faces or make a new friend all of your own. I have found that, much like my puppets, a brightly colored stuffed animal can break up the tension in tricky situations. They pass the test with getting undivided attention and getting those reclusive introverts to smile. (And, if that doesn't work, you might try letting the shy students dump a bucket of plastic bugs on your head a few times.)

Elmo and Cookie Monster are both Goodwill finds for $1.
You can find  many stuffed animals at yard sales & flea markets for .25-.50 cents  too.

Elmo and Cookie Monster are the most visible of my stuffed animal friends. They help me model & practice positional concepts with my K-1st grade students. I start out by teaching in, top, bottom, and out with Oscar's trash can. My students get to put Elmo or Cookie around the trash can or even each other for practice.

Elmo and Cookie Monster quickly ensue in the ever-popular "hide and seek" game complete with funny voices and dance moves. My students have to help the characters locate each other.

The size of these stuffed animals are great for tossing in a little tote or carrying for inclusion groups. I usually tuck them in my arm and take them with me to morning remediation (I suppose this would be considered a "duty" but the administration & teachers have worked with me so I can see several of my students during this block).  It's a simple but fun solution.