Ideas as Fresh as Springtime {The Frenzied SLPs}

Spring has sprung! Thank the Lord!!! Even if it's still below freezing or you have snow on the ground, it's time to brighten things up inside. The Frenzied SLPs have your back and we're sharing fresh ideas for spring therapy. Here are my top five 🌼

1) Bring animals into the therapy room (if you're that ambitious!)

#chicksman

A few years ago I shared a classroom with the special ed teacher. Our school was in a small rural community, but not many kids actually lived on farms or had exposure to animals other than dog/cat/fish/gerbil pets. The SpEd teacher decided to bring a few baby chicks into our room for a few weeks in the spring and the kids were able to interact with them and watch them grow. They were so, so excited and it provided so many language and vocabulary opportunities! We were able to talk about what makes a good pet, make observations about how they grew (chicks change very rapidly!), compared and contrasted animals that give birth to live babies vs. eggs, and what makes a good pet. There's even research backing up the benefit of pets boosting social skills in kids with autism. I've also heard of therapists bringing in therapy dogs (swoon!). Are any of you doing this?

2) Sensory bins or water play

There are so many fun ideas for sensory bins out there! I started using them with my students a couple months ago and they have always been a hit. The participation and expressive language explode out of my students when these are on the table. Here are some ideas for spring bins that are inspiring me:

Garden bin from Mama Miss

Bird sensory bin from Anchored by Love

Easter egg water play from Momma's Fun World

Duck pond water play from Mama Papa Bubba

I highly suggest you try out a sensory bin this spring!

3) DIY matching foam eggs

A few years ago I found these foam eggs in the Target Dollar Aisle (♥) and made a pocket out of packing tape so I could switch out the pictures on the egg halves for different students. It was fun and I'll be busting this out again this year.

4) Spring-themed picture books

There are too many good picture books out to possibly get to them all, but if you're looking for some new ideas, I really suggest When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes and Hatch by Katie Cox. When Spring Comes was just released in 2016, so I don't think many people have heard of it, but it's an informative book about waiting for spring to come and it has beautiful illustrations. Hatch is all about animals that hatch from eggs. It gives clues to the animals on one side, and then kids can guess and open the egg to see if they're correct.


5) New activity packets

Finally, if you're looking to update your material supply, might I suggest some of the spring activities in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop:

Umbrella Categories

Capture the Whole Picture {spring inferences}

Two Scoops of Speech and Language

Set of 3 Free Spring Game Boards

Happy Spring everyone! Be sure to check out the rest of the fresh ideas from The Frenzied SLPs below. If you'd like to share your own ideas, feel free to add a link below or comment on this post!

An InLinkz Link-up

DIY Window Cling Craftivity

you can make your own window clings with two simple supplies

This week we have been having fun with a Valentine craft during our speech therapy sessions - DIY window clings! All you need for this easy craft are puffy paint and ziplock bags or plastic sheet protectors.

Step 1: This is not necessary, but to keep things under control I printed off heart patterns on a sheet of paper and inserted them into sheet protectors to act as a template for my students.

Step 2: Use the puffy paint to trace around the heart template.

Step 3: You can use multiple colors to make designs and patterns. Make sure the paint isn't too thin, or it will be difficult to peel off the plastic. Also, if the paint is too thick then it takes forever to dry.

Step 4: Let the paint dry overnight. Then you can peel the hearts off the plastic and decorate your windows!

This craft was easy peasy, and many of my students told me they really were excited to use the paint. Try it today!

**Thanks to my friend and colleague Kayla for the idea for this craftivity!

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Abby's husband will be out of town on Sunday. She will spend Valentine's Day with her kittens instead :)

Spring Bulletin Board

a bright and eye-catching bulletin board idea for the spring season

I spent the better part of three days in late March designing and assembling the parts for this bulletin board display:

This board is in the hallway right outside my therapy room. I've had the same display on it since the beginning of the school year:

It was fading a lot and I was just ready for an upgrade to get me through the remaining two months of the school year. I was also hoping for something that would remind people that speech-language pathologists work on more than just speech sounds.

The light blue background is a tablecloth from the dollar store, the rainbow is made out of construction paper, and everything else was cut out of bulletin board paper from school.

I love how it turned out!

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Abby is still waiting for spring to arrive (and STAY) in North Dakota.

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.

Bouncy Balls Valentine Printables

free Valentine printables to make a bouncy ball treat for your speech students

Happy Valentine's Day from my speech room to yours! Each year I try to do something special for my speech therapy students for Valentine's Day. Last year, I was working with the preschool population and gave them bubble treats. This year, I have 3rd - 8th grade, so I was looking for something a little more on their level. By far, the most-picked item from my prize box has been bouncy balls, so that's what I went with!

The bouncy balls were purchased in the party supply section of Dollar Tree, and the 3" x 4" treat bags were purchased in the candy making aisle at Hobby Lobby. I created three different label options, printed on neon colored cardstock, and was all set! Simply fold the baggie over, and staple a label on top. Click HERE to download these labels for your own use.

I can't wait to give these to my students! Happy Valentine's Day!

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Forget the roses, Abby's favorite flowers are tulips {hint, hint dear husband}.

Make Paper Bag Books to Take Home

paper bag books make great take-home activities for your students

WOWZA! April really turned into a crazy wack-a-doo of a month, and I have been pretty absent from posting on the blog. I've been taking lots of pictures of the activities we've been using lately, but just have not had time to write up any blog posts. My apologies. That changes now!

My number one most favorite activity of the past couple weeks has been making paper bag books. Once the prep work is done, these are quick to put together during a session and are adaptable for many student goals.

I found this idea on Teacher Mom of Three, and you can read her post for more instructions on assembling your books. I did use ribbon instead of pipe cleaner for the handles because I felt they attached better.

My students made books containing their target speech sounds. I made an assortment of covers and black/white pictures ahead of time. We also included a few blank pages for them to draw and add their own pictures.

We also made some story retell books. This student was working on identifying story elements for The Wolf's Chicken Stew. As my preschoolers described the story elements and plot events, I helped them write in the books, and they drew the pictures. Pretty good illustrations for a 4-year-old if you ask me :)

You could use these for ANYTHING! Let me know how you'd use paper bag books in your speech sessions.

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Abby is so glad May is here! Only 21 work days left in the school year!

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.

DIY Token Reinforcement Towers

instructions to create your own token tower reinforcement system

 

Token Towers reinforcement system from Super Duper, Inc has been on my wish list since I was in grad school. It is really motivating for students to try to fill up the whole tower! However, I just couldn't bring myself to pay the $30 price tag. So I set out to make my own version, DIY style. Here's what I came up with!

The tube is a PVC plastic I got from Craft's Direct. I like it because it is a strong plastic so the tube won't cave in or dent easily. Plus, it has a cover to easily contain and store the tokens. You could also use leftover tubes from ornaments or might be able to find something at the hardware store. (Normally $1.99, I got mine on sale 2/$1)

I had a heck of a time finding tokens that where thick, filled the tube without using a million tokens, and slid easily in and out of the tube. I ended up using these chocolate candy coins from Party City. The wrappers are difficult to get off, so I should be able to use them for a while before needing to replace any. I needed 45 coins to fill my tube. (15 coins for $1)

Then I cut a piece of contact paper to fit the tube and made marks with a permanent marker for every 5 tokens.

Total price: about $4.00! I can make a whole bunch of these for the price of the commercial set :)

I started wrapping a hair band around the tube to mark where my students need to reach. A rubber band would also work. Enjoy! If you create your own, let me know in the comments below, or tag @schoolhousetalk on Instagram!

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Abby is giving up candy and is struggling not to eat her token tower.