2013 is off with a bang....

It's the first full week back after the long Christmas holiday. This year has certainly gotten started off on an extremely busy foot. We've had two student transfers (one of which I had to re-evaluate immediately), introducing another student into therapy,  testing two students for re-evaluation (one of which I get to do tomorrow), screening a student from SST, writing several IEPs, and seeing another one of my students "graduate."  I love the dynamics of my job, but I'm pretty sure that this weekend will be spent sleeping.

To coordinate with this tornado of a week, I had all of my groups (asides from the inclusion ones) play "following directions" Twister. I wrote some basic two-step directions using before and after on note cards. I taped the note cards to random spots on the Twister mat and left 1 free space in each row. Even my kindergartners were laughing by the end of the game. It's also a good way to teach the concepts of "left" and "right." Honestly, I think it's pretty much impossible to go wrong with this game. You can tape articulation cards, vocabulary words, letters, sight words, etc to the mat.

We're reading snow-themed books this week. My older kids got to enjoy Snowflake Bentley, which is one of the few non-fiction books I've used so far in my sessions. I'm trying to broaden my therapy horizons as exposure to all types of text is a huge aspect of Common Core.

When I was a student, I observed our district's lead SLP using this book during one of her weekly sessions. It took all of three years to find a copy at Goodwill. The story is about a farmer from Vermont who loved snow. He wanted to share his love of snow to the world through the hard wrought effort of taking pictures of individual snowflakes. The ending is sad. I'm not going to lie. It mentions how he died after walking 6 miles through a snowstorm. Paper snowflakes are a great craft to incorporate with this story. However, I didn't incorporate a craft this week as I had the Twister game.

My younger students looked at an arctic themed book.

I love the pictures in this book. They drew my first graders in and held their attention.

Another round of articulation hedbanz

Quick post for tonight. 

Version for /l/, /m/, and /n/

Version for /p/ and /b/

Describing fun

I mentioned in a previous post that I was working on another crafty project. Today, I would like to introduce you to the next installment of my magazine/sales ad re-purposing frenzy. DESCRIBING

The third graders went nuts for this one. I also have a bed in a spoon, which they found amusing.

What you'll need:
Several months' worth of magazines and/or sales ads. (I used old issues of HomeLife Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, and Belks & JC Penny's ads)
3-Ring binder
Page dividers (if you want to section your book off like mine)
Page protectors
Scissors
Tape

The worst part about this project is the fact that it is time consuming. You can easily involve groups of older students in therapy sessions to make it a hands-on learning experience. I always try to a template ahead of time for them to follow. I have left extra page protectors in this book for the students to fill up during therapy sessions. As always, I start these books with some model pages and then invite my students to come up with their own ideas.

My kindergartners literally fought over these books last week. (Even I got climbed all over in the process.) They had a ball showing me which pictures they liked and talking about the people. We worked on the concept of open/closed by talking about the mouths we saw. We also practiced opening and closing our own mouths as well as the door. My older students had to describe the pictures using their adjectives and pronouns to form grammatically correct sentences. I have one that is working on attributes and will be helping me make object pages this week. (If you want an idea for syntax check out this post on a verb collage.)

O Valentine, Valentine, wherefore art thou Valentine?

Imagine it is February 14th. Do you see lots of red, pink, and purple? Perhaps some little candy hearts with messages of adoration? To me, Valentine's day would not be the same without those little cards my peers passed around as children.

Introducing my first craft of 2013.....

Pirates of the Caribbean Arr Crazy for Valentine's and Kung Fu Panda Follows His Heart.
I also have Spider-man  cards that will target wh- questions but those aren't finished yet.

32 cards with 2 slots each? This is a great opportunity to come up with lots of  tasks.

These are my favorites of the three. I know, I know, pirates get a little bit tiresome  for /r/.
I've said it myself. However, I didn't want to buy the Power Rangers set and feel old every time I used them.
My students do a great job of reminding me already when they tell me I'm the same age as their moms. 

The blue is a bit harder to see on here. I was afraid to use sharpies on this project
since they have the tendency to bleed through paper from time to time. 

What you will need:
Pack of 32 Valentines in the variety of your choice (Mine came from Dollar Tree)
A pen
Access to a laminating machine (I have to depend on the school's)
List of targets

It took me about an hour to make each set, which was mostly due to my stubbornness against making a target list. I just went with what came to mind instead. That being said, I can't wait to buy more of these cards for 2014 once they go on clearance sale.

The great thing about using Valentine's cards is that there are tons of colorful varieties that can be used for a multitude of goals. Valentine's Day has come a long way from pink and red hearts. It may not be a boy's favorite holiday, but they don't have to feel oppressed by the "cutesy" overload that I remember from childhood.

Have a great weekend!

Articulation Hedbandz: K & G Edition

It's a quick post for tonight. I've got loads of things to do for work in preparation for the next few weeks.

Here is the K & G edition of hedbandz....

Hope all of you have a great first day back! My students responded well to the first day of my Chinese New Year theme. :) I'm pretty excited about it.

Happy 2013!

Goodbye 2012....

Before the year ends, I want to share one last item that I recently made for therapy.

I love using hedbanz in therapy for language groups and decided to adapt it for my articulation groups. I hope to make versions for other sounds as time allows. Here is your copy. I suggest printing it out on card stock or taping them to note cards (what I usually do). 

As 2012 comes to pass, I just want to say thank you for reading my blog. My discovery and unexpected journey into this field has been full of blessings and trials. I hope that 2013 is a year filled with joy and happiness for everyone.