"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?

Halloween Language Tricks and Treats

spice up your language therapy with these spooky Halloween activities

The Frenzied SLPs are back! This time we are sharing Halloween Tricks and Tips for Language :) Your therapy room will be loaded with fun, just in time for Halloween on Saturday! I started using Halloween activities in my room last week, and here's what has been successful.

Green Ooze! This was a super fun project that I was able to complete with a couple students last week, and will use with the rest of my older students this week. It's a great activity for following directions, sequencing, and making descriptions about the texture, smell, feel, and behavior of the ooze. If you'd like to make your own, here's an instruction sheet with visuals that I put together. This was so. much. FUN!

For the past couple years I've made a masking tape spider web on the floor during the week of Halloween. This is a reinforcement game students can play while they practice any therapy goal. I added point pumpkins and ghosts throughout the web and had students toss glow-in-the-dark spiders. If the spiders hit or land on any pumpkin or the ghost, students get that many points. So easy and simple, but the kiddos LOVE it.

Another perfect activity for this time of year is Ned's Head! My students can't get enough of this gross game and all the disgusting items packed inside Ned's noggin. I love to use this game to talk about making thorough descriptions of objects. We talk about the features of all the items inside - size, shape, soft/hard, does it have legs, will it be flat or bumpy, etc. We also look at the cards first and predict how those items will feel so they can be more successful at picking out their object.

S.L.A.P. for Halloween: I created this packet so I could use it with every language goal on my caseload - following directions, inferences, vocabulary, synonyms/antonyms/multiple meaning words, categories, plural nouns, past-tense verbs, story sequencing, compare/contrast, barrier game - it's loaded! Bonus - it's almost completely black and white printing!

These Sentences are Scaaary: This is a semantic absurdities packet, and my students have loooved it this year! Each student gets a sorting mat, then they draw a card and correct the semantic error in the sentence. If they get it correct, they can add the card to their mat. First student to fill up their entire mat is the winner!

Spooky Spiders Halloween Words: Need some seasonal vocabulary ideas? This packet has lots of great new Halloween words to learn, and they are sorted by phoneme in case you have some articulation students in your groups. I've been helping students look up the definition of their card, then they have to teach the rest of the group what their word means. Sometimes we draw definitions of our words on the back of the cards. You can also put the cards in a pile and play an open-ended game.

Build a Monster Play-Doh Mats (from The Speech Bubble SLP): My preschoolers and early elementary kiddos had a blast with this one. It's great for following directions, number sense, identifying colors, basic concepts, and body parts.

Apps: Don't forget apps - there are so many great ones! I especially love Mask Jumble Halloween, SagoMini Monsters, Millie's Book of Tricks and Treats, and Parents Magazine Carve-A-Pumpkin.

Thanks so much to Doyle Speech Works , Twin Speech Language & Literacy LLC, and All Y'all Need for hosting this linky. If you'd like to add your own ideas, feel free to join using the link below. The linky will run through October 30th. Happy Halloween!

An InLinkz Link-up

Speech/Language Learning Targets

help students understand their speech/language therapy goals and progress

Does your district require you to post student learning goals? Where I work, we follow the Marzano teacher evaluation model, which does require us to post learning goals. With special education, it's a little more tricky to post goals since everything is so individualized. And you know with speech/language students that we have dozens of different therapy goals that we work with.

I have a set of learning targets that I have been using, but needed something portable that I could take with me if I was working in classrooms or hallways, and would also allow me to quickly let students know what they are working on. My district has also talked extensively about using scales with students to give them some insight into how they are doing. Thus, this little flip book was born:

Features:
- 88 different learning targets with "I can..." statements
- student rating scales on each card to discuss progress
- blank cards for you to write your own student goals
- full-page blank targets
- tabs to make it easy to flip to the content area you are working on

You can pick up a copy for your own therapy room here. I hope they are useful for you and your students and help you score points during those teacher observations/evaluations!

No-Prep Speech Therapy Activities

quick & minimal-prep activities for the busy SLP

Tis the season - for high stakes standardized testing! My district has spent the past five weeks completing state assessments followed by MAP testing. (Too much testing! But that's a whole different post...) Now, with the end of the school year quickly approaching, we're looking at special activities, field trips, music programs, awards banquets, and class events. What does this mean for me? Reduced time with students, modified schedules, proctoring tests, and trying to fit in make-up therapy sessions. Time is limited. What's an SLP to do?

Here are my top 10 favorite go-to activities when prep time is short and I still want to make the most of time with my students. The majority of these things are always ready and I can just grab-and-go.

For PreK-2nd grade:

1. Magnet Wands/Dot Pages - easy to complete while practicing any therapy goal; dot pages can turn into colorful works of art for students to take home
Recommendation: Chipper Chat

2. Flash Cards: not just for drill - play a matching game, hide cards around the room for students to find, students keep the cards if they say their target correctly and SLP keeps the cards if they don't, etc.

3. iPad Apps - kids will willingly do the same activity on the iPad that they refused to do with flash cards five minutes ago
Recommendations: Toca Boca, Lego Junior Create & Cruise, My PlayHome

4. Marble Maze - great fun for following directions, reviewing basic concepts, and building language skills

5. Board Games - who doesn't love adding in a little competition to therapy?!
Recommendations: Candy Land, Cariboo, Pop the Pig

6. Garbage Pails - pick one up at the dollar store; it's so satisfying for students to "throw away" cards or objects they have completed

7. Speech/Language Path - walk down the path and collect articulation targets, or story elements, or build sentences as you go

8. Picture Books - so many options available and you can always incorporate speech and language goals
Recommendation: wordless picture books; use book companions

9. Bubbles - they are my secret trick to get shy preschoolers to interact with me
Recommendation: buy Billion Bubbles solution - it lives up to its name!

10. Building Blocks - fun for all ages and you can target almost any speech/language goal

For 3rd-8th grade:

1. Magnet Wands/Dot Pages - these provide numerous practice opportunities and it's just so satisfying to use the magnet and collect all those colorful chips
Recommendations: free 100 challenges by Peachie Speechie

2. Barrier Games - so many language opportunities here; also great for carryover of articulation skills

3. QR Codes - students adore scanning those magical pixelated boxes
Recommendations: QR inference cards; SpeechBook from Speech Bubble SLP

4. Dry Erase Board: students love drawing on these. Draw Venn diagrams for compare/contrast activities, create word webs with vocabulary words

5. Hangman - you can easily incorporate academic vocabulary terms or spelling words

6. Board Games - serve as an excellent tool to make mundane therapy activities more fun
Recommendations: Jenga, Don't Spill the Beans, Connect 4, Guess Who, Apples to Apples Jr.

7. Write on the Table - use dry erase markers or paint pens; easy way to "keep points" for any activity. Students are blown away that they get to draw on the table!

8. iPad Apps - apps are super motivating, and with structure and guidance they really do serve as helpful therapy tools.
Recommendations: Bluster, Story Wheel, Classify It!, World's Worst Pet, Phonics Studio

9. Interactive Websites - because anything involving technology can't possibly be work, right? ;)
Recommendations: Make Beliefs Comix, Scholastic Story Starters, Newsela, Readworks

10. YouTube - pair with graphic organizers to discuss story elements, sequence events, make inferences/predictions, etc.
Recommendations: Simon's Cat videos; Speech Tube from Speech Room News

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What are your go-to no prep activities when you're short on time? Any recommendations for high school grades?

Triangles of Meaning {vocabulary activities)

a visual tool to make connections between word meanings

The majority of the students on my 3rd-8th grade caseload this year have an IEP goal related to vocabulary. We have spent a lot of time working on synonyms, antonyms, and multiple meaning words in an effort to help their speaking and writing skills become more advanced.

Visuals always seem to assist students to make sense of what we are talking about, and I found myself drawing this over and over again to show students a word might have more than one antonym:

This simple visual has really helped my students throughout this school year, so I decided to make something a little more permanent.

This packet contains 42 pages of hands-on activities to practice word relationships.

The Sorting Mats come in a variety of colors, and students use the Word Tiles to arrange sets of words on the mats so the relationships match the triangle. There are two levels of Word Tiles included.

Next, are the Task Cards! Again, two levels of difficulty are included. Students show understanding of word relationships by filling in the missing words on the triangles.

Finally, there are also Color by Relationship Mystery Patterns! Students read the pair of words in each box, decide how the words are related (synonyms, antonyms, or no relationship), then color the box according to the key to reveal the mystery pattern. There are five different patterns included, and each page provides 100 pairs of words to practice.

Download Triangles of Meaning in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop! Also, I'm giving away a copy to one of you! Enter in the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Abby had a fun Cinco de Mayo fiesta last night.

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.

Spoiler Alert! {making predictions}

leveled activities for predicting what will happen next

Do you use Netflix or Hulu Plus to catch up on all your favorite television shows? If you haven't watched the most recent episode of a show and you hear people talking about it, do you plug your ears and hum a tune so you don't hear what happened? That's because we all hate spoilers, or when we hear what happens next. If you're reading a book or movie review and you see the words "Spoiler Alert", you know to look away because someone is going to reveal what happens in the plot.

My newest activity packet is full of spoiler alerts, because it's all about predicting what is going to happen next.

The download includes an anchor chart to help you teach your students what it takes to make logical predictions. I also use this as a learning target when we are practicing making predictions.

Three levels of prediction cards are also included. Level one includes scenarios which have only one plausible outcome.

Level two cards include scenarios which might have more than one outcome, but multiple choice answers are provided to assist students in picking which outcome makes the most sense.

Level three cards also have situations which could have more than one possible outcome, but no prompts are provided.

There is also an open-ended board game to use alongside any of the prediction card sets. Students take turns moving around the game board. If they land on a space labeled "Spoiler Alert!" they get to select a bonus card and follow the instructions on the card they draw.

At the end of the packet there are three writing sheets which are great for homework. Each page presents three movie plots. Students need to write their predictions about what will happen next in the movie.

Click here to view the packet for yourself in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop. Enjoy!

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Abby watched all 13 episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix this weekend. Spoiler alert: it's awesome :)