Cat in the Hat Mask Craftivity

a fun craftivity to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday

Today we did another activity to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday: Cat in the Hat Masks! These are so fun to make and turn out really well. Read on to make your own.

You will need red and white construction paper, white paper plates, scissors, glue, and a stapler. First, cut the center out of your paper plate. Then, cut the red and white construction paper into 1 1/2" strips. For each hat you will need one 1 1/2" x 9" strip of red construction paper, and two each of 1 1/2" x 4 1/2" strips of red and white paper. I had all these prepped ahead of time for my students. Oh, one other thing: a piece of red cardstock (I just cut a regular letter-size piece of cardstock into 4 quarters).

First, line up your smaller red and white strips, then glue the large red square over the strips. This helps them stand upright on the mask.

Next, glue the large red strip to the bottom of the hat.

Staple the finished hat onto the paper plate. I also had red bows precut for my students (or cut them as they were assembling the hat). We used a marker to draw on whiskers, glued on the bowtie, and we were done!

This was a great activity for following directions, patterning, making requests, using describing words, and we even wrote target speech words on the stripes of some of our hats! Have fun with these!

In case you missed it: check out yesterday's roundup of Dr. Seuss activities here.

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Abby thinks all cats should wear hats.

Dr. Seuss Activity Roundup

ideas for celebrating Dr. Seuss in your speech room

March 2nd was Dr. Seuss' birthday, and schools all around are celebrating! Here's a quick round-up of activity ideas you can implement in your speech room as you celebrate the literary genius of Dr. Seuss. Thanks to all of these generous bloggers for sharing their ideas.

First up, from yours truly, the activities we did last year:

We had fun tossing our artic cards into the Cat's hat. Click here to read how I made this.

After reading There's a Wocket in My Pocket, we created our own speech pockets to store practice words in. You can read more here.

You can't celebrate Dr. Seuss without talking about green eggs! This is a synonyms/antonyms matching activity which is available here.

This was my favorite activity last year! Those little preschool hands are so adorable, and their creativity blew me away! We wrote our target speech words on the 'fins'. Read more here.

I cannot take credit for this idea, but a teacher I worked with last year made these truffula tree pencils for her students! Find out more here.

Now for some fabulous ideas that others shared!

The fantastic Jenn from Crazy Speech World has shared wonderful ideas in the past, including a list of words from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish sorted by speech phonemes, striped hat articulation words, and felt board pieces. Click here to read more about these ideas from Crazy Speech World.

You will also not want to miss this adorable Thing 1 and Thing 2 craftivity from Crazy Speech World. Too cute!

Super Power Speech created a couple AMAZING poems to help celebrate Dr. Seuss. You better click over and read both of them!

How about some healthy treats? Check out these edible Cat in the Hat snacks shared from Speech Language Pirates (scroll to bottom of post) (via Cooking Up Good Speech).

Check out this cute Cat in the Hat craft shared by Speech Language Pirates (scroll down to bottom of post). This activity would be great for following directions, describing words, requesting, and writing speech targets on the stripes. #mustdo

Busy Bee Speech wrote about the fun activities she did in her speech room last year. I am in love with her "Cat who eats everything" and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish fishbowl craft! Click here to read more about how she made them.

After completing all these fun activities, you're going to want a snack. How about making Truffula Trees?! Cooking Up Good Speech shared this fun and tasty activity on her blog. Eeek, they look so awesome!

If you follow PediaStaff on Instagram (you really should - tons of great posts!), you know they have been posting a lot of wonderful Dr. Seuss themed activities lately. Be sure to check them out on Instagram and Pinterest!

Finally, I leave you with a little humor. I cannot take credit for this wonderful poem, but I love it!

IEPs (in the style of Dr. Seuss)

Do you like these IEPs?

I do not like these IEPs
I do not like them, Jeeze Louise
We test, we check
We plan, we meet
But nothing ever seems complete.

Would you, could you
Like the form?

I do not like the form I see
Not page 1, not 2, or 3
Another change
A brand new box
I think we all
Have lost our rocks.

Could you all meet here or there?

We could not all meet here or there.
We cannot all fit anywhere.
Not in a room
Not in the hall
There seems to be no space at all.

Would you, could you meet again?

I cannot meet again next week
No lunch, no prep
Please hear me speak.
No, not at dusk. No, not at dawn
at 5 pm I should be gone.

Could you hear while all speak out?
Would you write the words they spout?

I could not hear, I would not write
This does not need to be a fight.
Sign here, date there,
Mark this, check that
Beware the students ad-vo-cat(e).

You do not like them
So you say
Try again! Try again!
And you may.

If you will let me be,
I will try again
You will see.

Say!

I almost like these IEPs
I think I'll write 6003.
And I will practice day and night
Until they say
"You've got it right!"

- author unknown

If you have more Seuss-tastic activity ideas, please share them in the comments and I'll make sure to add them to the post.

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Abby learned to read with Dr. Seuss' ABCs.

Friday Funny

The way this winter is going, I'm really looking forward to that one day in March. I don't know if spring is ever going to come!

(By the way, a good way to beat the winter blues when you're cooped up inside is with some online shopping! Today is the last day of the Teachers Pay Teachers sale - don't forget your promo code: TPT3)

The Wolf's Chicken Stew {book companion + giveaway}

a book companion to accompany one of my favorite picture books

What's the one food you enjoy more than anything? I used to say creamy pasta, but I am really loving pizza all the time now. I'm pretty sure I could eat it multiple times a week. Every week. In The Wolf's Chicken Stew, the wolf loves to eat more than anything. And one day he gets a hardcore craving for chicken stew. This book is adorable, has a simple plot, and really hits all the story grammar elements really well. Come see what I came up with to help use this book with my students!

A large chunk of this book companion is dedicated to story comprehension. Question cards are included to check comprehension with picture prompts, and another sheet has questions without prompts:

       

I'm a big proponent of boosting story retell skills and identifying story grammar elements. This packet has it all! A rebus story for joint story retell:

Large pictures for sequencing events in the story and for story retell activities:

A mini-book for students to color, take home, and practice telling others the story of The Wolf's Chicken Stew:

Story grammar elements and story retell can also be addressed through these story maps and elements cube:

    

This packet also has lots of vocabulary activities, including a matching game, quick vocab check, compare/contrast graphic organizers, and a vocabulary web:

    

      

Articulation skills are also addressed through a cut-and-paste activity targeting /s/ blends! Students add the /s/ blend pictures into their Silly Stew!

      

There's even more in this packet that isn't pictured here: word webs, writing prompts, and open-ended game board! I'm really excited about the way this packet turned out - I think it's my favorite book companion yet! 

You can enter to win the packet using the rafflecopter below! If you don't want to wait and see if you win, you can take advantage of the Teachers Pay Teachers sale going on now and buy the packet here! Don't forget your promo code: TPT3

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Abby never was much of a soup eater until she married her husband. <3

What's In Your Cart {linky} + a SALE!

Schoolhouse Talk is having a sale!

Psst! There's a mega-huge Teachers Pay Teachers sale going on! The website has hit 3,000,000 users. THREE MILLION! We're celebrating by throwing a site-wide sale, and you better believe Schoolhouse Talk is participating.

Everything in my store will be 20% off February 27th and 28th, and if you use promo code TPT3 you will save a total of 28%!

In case you missed them, be sure to check out the newest items I've created:

Umbrella Categories - Perfect for increasing receptive and expressive vocabulary and language skill

The Wolf's Chicken Stew {book companion} - This is such an adorable book, and my book companion has tons of activities targeting story comprehension, story grammar/retell, and vocabulary.

Story Grammar Prompts  - This is a comprehensive packet for teaching story grammar elements, targeting story retell, and creating stories of your own. Includes developmental expectations and Common Core Standards.

Bugs and Kisses Preschool Articulation - Just because Valentine's Day is over doesn't mean you can't continue the love! This packet includes tons of activities for addressing P, B, T, D, K, G, F, M, and N with bonus pages included for S practice.

Year-Round Fortune Tellers - These are fun cootie catcher hand games that can be used along with any therapy goal. A variety of themes make them perfect any time of the year. This is also a progressive packet (meaning new themes will be added in the future).

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Now, here are the items I can't wait to buy :)

Tackling Apraxia (from Mia McDaniel) - I love all of Mia's activities, so I know this one will be perfect for my preschoolers who are really struggling with their speech sounds.

1...2...3 Artic and More for Me (from Tech 'n Talk SLPs) - These loaded scenes are full of practice words and a variety of phonemes are available. I'm excited for the S-Blends packet!

Match It Quick - /K/ from Courtney Gragg) - Students search for the picture in common on two cards and be the first to say it out loud. Sounds like a fun time to me!

Oh, and of course there's also some secret clip art in my cart for new creations ;)Head over to Speech Room News to see what everyone else is buying! If you have any requests for new activities, please let me know in the comments. If I use your idea, you will get the packet for FREE!

One more thing: before you make your purchases, be sure to leave feedback on items you've previously bought. You can earn credits towards purchases if you leave feedback on items, so get going!

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If you'd like to get in on the blessing that is Teachers Pay Teachers and start selling your own resources, just use this referral link to get started. Thanks! Happy shopping!!

Umbrella Categories

a new activity for increasing vocabulary and language skills

Raise your hand if you're sick and tired of winter! (*raising hand as high as I can*) I am longing for spring, so I created a new activity to get everyone in the mood for some spring showers!

This packet is chock full of goodies! But why should I tell you about what's inside, when I can show you? Take a look!

Name That Category! These umbrellas each have two pictures underneath.

Say or write the appropriate category on each umbrella.

 What's Under Your Umbrella? Cut apart the raindrop pictures,

then place them under the appropriate umbrella.

Category Match: Match the category (umbrellas) to the picture (raindrops). Even

blank cards are included to allow you to add your own items as needed!

What Doesn't Belong: cross out the item in each group of three that doesn't belong.

Then explain how the other two items are related.

Of course, reinforcer activities are also included! Use this dot marker page for any therapy activity!

An open-ended board game is also part of the fun!
There are two sizes: single page, and a larger two-pager.

You can find the entire packet here on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I hope you enjoy all these category activities! Now I'm going to go endure the 20* temps this week...

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Abby has a serious case of Spring Fever.