Friday Funny

I *heart* puns so much!

Happy Weekend! Only 5 Fridays left of school for me!

SLP Trading Post {giveaway}

a product review and giveaway from Small Talk SLP

This week I'm participating in a fun party hosted by Sounds Like Fun! Several SLPs signed up to trade an item from their Teachers Pay Teachers stores, review the product, then host a giveaway. We're calling it a Speech Trading Post!

I was paired up with  Small Talk SLP and she was generous enough to let me preview her Fast Pace Race for S & Z.

What attracted me to this packet was that it's aimed at students who are moving away from drill practice and are working on generalization of their target sounds into conversation.

What's Included:
Three different activities are included to help students practice carryover of their skills:

Warm-Up Tracks: students produce their target sounds as they move down the track. I really enjoyed the variety of tracks that were included in this level. There are multiple warm-up tracks for sounds in the initial, medial, and final positions of words. My students used these in plastic sleeves and marked off their words with dry erase markers. I also have sent these home with students for additional practice!

Qualifying Races: students say a series of words or phrases (multiple levels of difficulty included), racing to beat their previous time while still producing accurate sounds.

Fast Pace Races: students produce carrier phrase sentences, racing to beat their previous time while still producing accurate sounds. These were my favorite cards for my students since many of them are working on their sounds at the sentence level or while reading aloud.

Additional Features:

Game Cards: tell students which race to complete

Pit Stop Cards: can be used by students or SLPs to stop the race and try again.

Flat Tire Cards are presented to students if they produce errors during their races.

Game Cards: a random pick from these cards tells students which race to complete

Prize Cards: trophy and ribbon cards to award students after their races are over

Things to Note:
- I printed about half of these pages in black and white to save on paper. I printed the cover pages for the decks in color, and also the prize cards. The Pit Stop and Flat Tire cards printed well in black and white on colored paper.

- Many of the elements of Fast Pace Race can be used with other phonemes or goal areas. For example, I used the Flat Tire cards with a 5th grade student who was working on her spelling words. If she didn't produce accurate Rs while conversing, the Flat Tire cards served as an excellent visual prompt to correct her sounds.

- Qualifying Race and Fast Pace Race cards were also excellent practice for students who are working on reading and fluency skills.

- I used the Warm-Up Tracks with some language students. They had to make a grammatically correct sentence using whichever word they landed on. Then we worked on expanding their sentences to include more details.

- You can choose to play this game as designed or just pick and choose the elements that will be most helpful to your students. That's the beauty of this packet - it's soooo versatile!

Overall Thoughts:
This was such a creative and original packet! The multiple levels and activities are so very well thought out making this packet useful for students no matter which level of difficulty they are working on. My students were insanely motivated to try and beat their previous race records, and came into my therapy room asking if they could play "that racing game" again! I can't wait for other versions of this set to come out! In fact, I request a rush order on the vocalic R set please!!

Want to win your own Fast Pace Race set? You know you do! Just enter the giveaway below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't want to wait until Friday to see if you've won? Snatch up your own copy here. And check out the TH version while you're at it.

One more thing!! Small Talk SLP is hosting a review and giveaway of my Fun in the Sun packet. Go check it out!

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.

Friday Funny

We're getting to that point in the school year where everything gets really hectic. Congratulations on making it to Fri(YAY) and enjoy the weekend!

(source)

How many days of school do you have left? My countdown is at 30!

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 :)

Speech Room Records {Bulletin Board}

a functional and motivating bulletin board idea

Since January, I have been making an effort to review speech/language goals with my students to help them be more aware of why they come to speech, which skills they are working so hard to improve, and that coming to Speech is more than "playing games".

There's also a push in my district this year to have students be a part of tracking their own progress through the use of rubrics and scales. So since we were regularly reviewing their performances anyway, I decided my students deserved to be rewarded for their efforts. Voila - the Speech Records Bulletin Board!

When students achieve a personal best on a certain skill, they get to fill out a speech record ribbon and hang it on the bulletin board.

Now students come into my room asking what their records are, and are so motivated to try and beat their personal best. I love it!

We even recognize "fun" achievements, like the all-time speech room Jenga tower record!

A few records have been shattered this week: one student went from producing vocalic /r/ correctly 60% of the time when reading aloud to 78%! #speechroomwin

Give it a try with your own speech students - and get ready for lots of celebrating :)

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Schoolhouse Talk achieved a personal record yesterday: Ready, Set, Communicate {task cards for Grammar} was featured on the TPT home page!

Using Google Read and Write in Speech Therapy

Google Read&Write is a super handy resource to have in your SLP toolbox

Raise your hand if any of your students struggle to read. (Both of my hands are raised.) Now raise your hand if any of your students are motivated by technology. (Both of my hands are raised again!) Do any of your students take great lengths of time to complete writing tasks? (Now my feet are raised too!) Did you know there is a tool available to help all of your students, no matter what their speech/language goals are?

Google Read&Write is an extension for the Chrome browser, which increases students' accessibility to text! There are many useful features within the extension, and I'll be highlighting a few of my favorite features in this post. Mostly, I utilize the extension with students who are working on increasing their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills.

DICTIONARIES:

Dictionary

There are two dictionaries included: a picture dictionary and a talking dictionary. To use the dictionaries, simply highlight a word and click on the icon you'd like to use, and the dictionary will appear in a pop-up window.

How I Use It: For students who are working on building their vocabulary skills, we use the picture dictionary frequently while reading online passages. I just love the pictures that help solidify that word meaning for students. This is also a great feature for English Language Learners.

TEXT-TO-SPEECH:

Text-to-Speech is an excellent tool for many of my students who are struggling readers. Highlight the text you'd like read, then click the Play icon. Hover Speech will also read text aloud, simply hover over the text you'd like to hear instead of highlighting. You can even change the reading speed and choose from 5 different voices in the settings.

How I Use It: I use the text-to-speech tool a lot with students who are working on reading comprehension. They enjoy listening to the reading passage on the computer rather than having me read it to them or taking turns reading. Many of my students also practice using the text-to-speech tool since that is an accommodation they will be using on the upcoming Smarter Balanced assessment. We can practice using text-to-speech ahead of time so that they are comfortable using it when it comes time for the high-stakes testing. We want to make sure they are being assessed on their knowledge, not their ability to maneuver through the online test, right?

HIGHLIGHTS/COLLECT HIGHLIGHTS:

Highlights Icon

This is one of the BEST features. There are four different highlighting colors available. You can also collect the highlights, which will create a new document of all words that have been highlighted throughout the document.

How I Use It: As we are working on vocabulary skills and reading passages, I have students highlight any target vocabulary words or words they are unfamiliar with. When we are finished, we can click the Collect Highlights icon, which generates a new document containing all the words that have been highlighted as well as their definitions and a picture icon. Now my students have their own little dictionary to take home!

Document created when you click "Collect Highlights"

I've also used this feature with articulation students who are working on generalizing their skills into reading aloud and conversation. We will open a reading passage in Google Docs, then use Google Read&Write to highlight all the words in the passage containing their target sound. Saves on printing and paper.

SPEECH-TO-TEXT:

The speech-to-text feature is pretty self-explanatory. Students simply speak into the microphone on the computer and their words appear in the document.

How I Use It: Speech-to-Text is perfect for students who can't type or write very quickly. Some of my kiddos might take a couple minutes to write a complete sentence, and writing an entire paragraph would use up most of our session. With the speech-to-text feature students can get their thoughts down on paper, then review what they said to see if it makes sense. This is also a great tool to use with articulation students to help them monitor their sound errors while reading aloud or having a conversation. Visually seeing how their errors have an effect on their speech can help them become more aware of the changes they need to make and start self-correcting their errors.

MORE FEATURES TO LOVE:

- Word Prediction: If you've clicked this icon, a small pop-up box will predict which word you're trying to type - just like predictions that pop up on cell phones when text messaging.

- Simplify Text: This only works with certain documents, but if you click the icon, it will paraphrase an article to a simpler reading level.

- Fact Finder: If you highlight a word or phrase in your document and click the Fact Finder icon, a new browser tab will open with a Google search of the highlighted term.

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If you haven't yet started using Google Read and Write in your therapy sessions, you need to start yesterday. It's mind-bogglingly useful and has so many great tools. There's always something for me to use with any of my students. It's a useful tool for students with who face language and academic challenges, and it gives students access to technology that might otherwise be too expensive. It only costs $1.50 per student for my district to give access to students. What a deal!

Click here to view the getting started document and see how to install a free 30-day trial onto your computer. (If you talk with your district, they may be interested in purchasing licenses for students and staff, which are pretty inexpensive.)

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Abby is gearing up for next week: we're rolling out the new state testing system and we have three days of parent-teacher conferences. Double whammy!

Friday Funny

I'm off work today thanks to a conference trade-day! But I wanted to share this video that the foreign languages teacher shared with me last week. Enjoy your weekend!

(Click on the picture to view the video; if that doesn't work, click here.)

Quick Tip Tuesday!

a quick tip to help make our work as SLPs easier

Hi everyone! I'm linking up with the fabulous Kim over at School SLP to provide a tidbit that has helped me the past couple weeks.

One thing I've noticed when laminating materials on my personal laminator is that the first sheet or two comes out of the machine a little wavy. Now I've discovered that if I first run a plain sheet of paper (no laminating sheet) through the hot-and-ready machine a couple times, it helps prevent the first couple laminating sheets from coming out wavy!

Head over to School SLP to see what other quick tips are being shared this week!

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Abby has used 69 laminating sheets in the past month.