"Press Here": an interactive book for therapy

Press Here is a unique and magical interactive book for therapy

My caseload is 90% preschoolers (3-5 years old), and 90% of them have IEP goals addressing following directions and basic concepts. This book by Herve Tullet has been a great resource to have in my toolbox for addressing both of these goals.

It starts out with one yellow dot on the page, with the instructions to "press here". And when they do (and turn the page), they see that their pressing magically changed the dot!

As they progress through the book, following the directions causes more and more changes with the dots.

Those dots get pretty excited and chaotic before the book ends :)

Kid think this is the most magical book! And I love the language opportunities. We practiced following one- and two-step directions, basic concepts including left, right, middle, all, just/only, sizes, patterns, colors, counting, and also cause/effect. Pretty great to have this all wrapped into one book!

Then we did some follow-up activities with some quick dots I cut out of construction paper. We had big, medium, and small dots and we practiced more of those basic concepts, following directions, and prepositions around the therapy room.

"Put the dots in order from smallest to biggest."

"Point to the dot in the middle." or "Point to the medium-sized dot."

"Put the small yellow dot on top of the big blue dot."

"Put the big red dot below the medium yellow dot. Now put the small blue dot on top."

Note: There are also other similar books including Mix it Up and Let's Play! by this same author. I also recommend Tap the Magic Tree and Touch the Brightest Star both by Christie Matheson.

Snowflake Snowman Craft

snowflake snowmen make a perfect craftivity for winter months

The snowman with the green background is "on a football field" :)

Last week we made snowflake snowmen in my therapy room, and I LOVE how they turned out!

I was inspired by this post I saw on Pinterest. You probably already have everything you need to make these: construction paper, scissors, a pencil, glue sticks, a white crayon, and some markers.

It usually took 20-30 minutes to complete these, depending on the size of the group. I had the paper folded and ready to cut ahead of time, and helped most of my students cut through the thick folded paper. We were also able to target many skills including sequencing, making requests, making descriptions, following directions, fine motor skills, and predicting how their cuts would appear once the paper was unfolded. Articulation students were able to practice their target sounds in between steps.

I was surprised how many of my students were vocally excited about making these. There were a few I thought I'd have to convince to participate, but they were some of the most enthusiastic and most creative! Many of them had never made paper snowflakes, and they thought it was so magical unfolding the paper to reveal their snowflake. Try them today with your students!

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Abby enjoyed 40*F weather this weekend. It felt like spring! What's the weather like where you live?

Paper Airplane Activities

paper airplanes can be used to target many communication goals

This week we have been making paper airplanes, and it has been a blast! A quick Google search led me to three different websites with step-by-step instructions.

I found this website to be the best because it includes printable pages with the fold lines numbered which I found really helped my students understand exactly where to make their folds.

So how in the world can you use paper airplanes to target communication goals? So. Many. Ways. :)

FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS:
- how to fold the airplane
- how to fly the airplane

EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE:
- giving instructions and providing details in their descriptions
- prepositions ("The plane flew OVER the table.")
- pronouns ("YOUR plane flew farther than MY plane.")
- sizes/measurement ("The BIG plane flew a LONG WAY!"; "This time make the LITTLE plane have a SHORT flight.")

SEQUENCING: All of these planes include step-by-step instructions. Cut apart the instructions and have students put the steps in order.

ARTICULATION:
- Spread target words on the floor and try to fly the airplanes onto the cards
- Write target sounds and words onto the completed planes

COMPARE/CONTRAST:
- discuss similarities/differences about different styles of airplanes
- fly two different airplanes and compare their flight patterns

FLUENCY: Students can read the instructions aloud and practice their fluency building strategies as they do so.

FINE MOTOR SKILLS: All this folding and holding is great practice for our friends working on their fine motor skills.

Students are so proud when they're finished:

And then you get to enjoy the thrill of flying them!

Try it!
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Abby thinks the Bullet plane is the best for speed and distance, but the Condor does sweet tricks.

Bookmarks Craft

getting crafty in the speech room with personalized bookmarks

First of all, I want to thank everyone who supported Schoolhouse Talk during the big Teachers Pay Teachers sale this week. You are all such a blessing to me! I have some goodies up my sleeves to thank you in the next couple weeks. It will be to your benefit to follow my shop so you don't miss out on the surprise! It would also probably be a good idea to follow along on Instagram, or click "get notifications" on Facebook to stay in the know! Just sayin... ;)

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Here's what we've been up to in my speech room this week:

Bookmarks!

We have been busy crafting our little hearts out creating personalized bookmarks to take home! Let me tell you, my students have been loving these. I was observing students in a fifth grade room yesterday and saw a student using her bookmark in her silent reading book :) Students were even asking to make more, and one asked if he could make one for his mom <3

Crafts are a messy business!

I have an abundance of paper scraps leftover from the homemade cards I make, so I brought that in to school along with some paper punches, stickers, washi tape, and every crafter's must-have tool - glue gun!

You could easily do this with construction paper, washable markers, and reward stickers that you probably already have in your speech room anyway.

These bookmarks have been a good activity for following directions, encouraging creativity, and practicing carryover of articulation phonemes. I have one student who is working on carryover of those pesky 'r' sounds, and this activity naturally lends itself to lots of practice! All of these words came up over and over while we were working: bookmark, paper, scissor, marker, sticker, star, heart, stripes, ribbon, letter, glitter, reading ...and more! We even wrote some of her trickiest /r/ words on the back of her bookmark.

I love how each one is unique and reflects the personality of the student who created it! Give this activity a try in your speech room.

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Which skills would you target by using this activity?

Using Marble Runs in Speech Therapy

Marble runs are versatile, super fun, and can be used to target multiple communication goals.

When I was working in a private pediatric setting in Texas, we had a giant marble maze in one corner of the common therapy area. And the kids went bonkers over it! It was a great reward at the end of our sessions, and almost every kiddo asked to use it each day. As time went on, I began incorporating it into my therapy, because marble runs have plenty of opportunities for speech and language practice!

Since leaving that clinic, I have missed having a marble run in my bag of tricks. Luckily, I acquired a small table-top sized one over spring break, and let me tell you, EVERY student I worked with today wanted to use it! Here's a rundown of the many ways you can use marble runs in your speech therapy sessions.

*Basic Concepts: talk about the colors of the marbles and the maze pieces; the number of marbles being used; count the marbles at the bottom of the maze; discuss the shape of the marbles; construct different shapes out of the maze; talk about which marbles were first and last; are the marbles going fast or slow?

*Emerging Language Skills: Marble mazes are excellent because there is a definite start and a definite end, and it doesn't take long for the marbles to reach the bottom. You will have lots of chances to elicit "ready...set..." and wait for your student to yell "GO!". Marble runs are also the perfect opportunity for students to practice requests: more, please, my turn, more marbles, all gone

*Turn-Taking and Pronouns: Some of my preschoolers have a behavior goal for turn-taking. Marble runs are perfect practice for this. We also get tons of opportunities to practice pronouns: my turn, your turn, we go at the same time, his turn, you do it, etc.

*Prepositions: up, down, around, bottom, top, inside, through, first, last - they're all covered here!

*Following Directions: You can instruct your kiddos how to build the marble maze, or have them practice telling each other directions. Since the maze pieces are different colors and shapes (curved, straight, wheeled, etc), it's perfect for adding describing words to your sentences: "Put the curved red piece on top of the short purple piece."

*Articulation: I have my articulation students practice their target sounds a designated number of times before they can shoot a marble down the run. Or they earn the marbles as we practice and enjoy sending them all down at once :)

Marble runs are a versatile and FUN addition to my speech therapy supplies. I hope you get great use out of them too!

(Note: The small size I have is perfect for me to carry with as I travel between buildings, but the bigger sets include additional exciting pieces such as rotating wheels. If you have the budget and the space, I'd spring for a larger set.)

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Abby assembled her marble maze as soon as she got home from the store, and played with it by herself :)

Leprechaun Mask Adapted Craftivity

 instructions for creating and adapting Leprechaun masks in the speech room

Last week it was Cat in the Hat Masks, and this week we've moved on to Leprechaun Masks! We've had a blast with these :) Read on to learn how to make your own in six easy steps.

You will need:

*paper plates (precut the centers out of your plates)

*yellow construction paper (precut into 2" x 2" squares)

*black construction paper (precut into 1 1/2" x 9" strips)

*orange markers, crayons, or paint

*green construction paper (9" x 12")

*glue stick

*scissors

*tape

Step 1: Have your students color the entire plate ring orange. I had them color on the back of the plate.

Step 2: Fold your green construction paper in half. Cut the paper into an L shape over the fold. Note: it's very important to pay attention to how you are cutting your L. Make sure you're cutting off the edges, NOT the fold (see below)!

Step 3: Glue the black strip onto the hat. Instead of cutting the black strip to fit each hat, I just had my students fold over the extra and glue it down onto the back.


Step 4: Cut out the middle of the gold square. An easy way to do this is to fold the paper into fourths, then cut out the corner halfway down each folded side:

Then glue the buckle over the black strip:

Step 5: Attach the hat to the paper plate beard. I think the easiest way to do this was with good ol' scotch tape.

Step 6: Cut strips every half inch or so along the edge of the paper plate to make it look like a beard. Voila! You are finished!

I made some visuals to go along with this craftivity. Some of my students benefit from using picture symbols to make requests and expand their utterance length. This download has picture symbols, sentence strip, and sequencing activities. You can download it for free here.

This was a great activity for all my students. My little ones worked on increasing their length of utterance by making requests and adding in descriptive words (colors). Others were perfecting sequencing and following direction skills. My articulation students wrote words with their target sounds on the hats. I just adore how they turned out!

Don't forget to download your visuals for these marvelous masks here. Please leave a comment or follow my Teachers Pay Teachers store if you download the freebie. Thanks! May the luck o' the Irish be with you!

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Abby would pay off all her student loans if she found the leprechaun's pot o' gold.

Winter Mitten Craftivity

these mittens are a quick and cute activity to target multiple goals

This week in my speech sessions we did a winter craftivity! I loved this activity because there was minimal prep time involved, and I could use it to target a lot of different goals. I pre-cut a mitten template from multiple colors of construction paper, and also had probe pictures cut and sorted. Then we went to town crafting!

For my preschool language students working on expanding utterance length, we used carrier phrases as we glued our pictures onto the mitten: "The cat is on the mitten.", "The rocket is on the mitten.", "I want robot please.", etc.

For other students we used location words in relation to other pictures to talk about where we were placing each item: "The present is under the robot." Other students practiced following directions after I instructed them where to place each picture. And with some students we talked about describing words, functions, or categories.

Students with articulation goals were practicing their target sounds in words, phrases, or sentences before gluing on each picture.

When we were done with the pictures, we had fun adding ribbon and glitter! This also provided excellent language opportunities for my kiddos to describe colors, shapes, make requests, and take turns. We had a blast!

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Abby wears grey mittens, but is not impressed with the touch-screen compatible variety. What color are yours?