It's Spring! Fresh Ideas for Speech Therapy

I used to love spring when I lived in NJ. The daffodils and crocuses would lift their sunny heads and the weather would warm up. Spring in NH is not nearly as nice. In fact, yesterday, the 24th of March, we got eight inches of snow. Earlier in the week we had indoor recess, because with the wind chill the temperature was below zero! After everything melts we get blessed with MUD. Oh the mud in NH! We live on a dirt road and it gets perilous! I learned early on after our move to New England to drive fast up the mountain in the snow and slow up the mountain in the mud. It seems counter intuitive, but that is how it works. Oh and try to stay out of the ruts!

I am fairly busy these days, so my therapy is going to be somewhat simple. Simple as springtime!

• Several years ago, I picked up these pretty little flower gems at the Dollar Tree. Simple positive reinforcement; roll a dice and that's how many little flowers you take. Add them up at the end.I had a little guy who put a fun spin on these babies.Check it out!  https://www.instagram.com/p/0-YbS9lQR7/?taken-by=anniedoyle226
• Do you have mud? 
  
• Now that our daughter is in college and we are in the poorhouse, I look for freebies. I am grateful to all you amazing SLPs who generously share your talents with all of us. The Autism Helper often posts freebies that are perfect for my students. Here she shares a pictures and printables to go with There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick. http://theautismhelper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/There-Was-an-Old-Lady-Chick.pdf
• For my older students I created a Spring in New England Nonfiction Text product. It covers six topics relevant to New England: peepers, frost heaves, mud season, black flies, ice out, and vernal pools.
  
  You can find it here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spring-in-New-England-Nonfiction-Text-Passages-for-Middle-School-2441915
• Do you Know the book Miss Rumphius? It's one of my favorites! Last year I found a Lupine color page and we used ink pad and fingerprints to color them. We also used little bitty pieces of tissue paper.
  
  
• Pam of Small Talk SLP made a splash in my speech room with this take on Go Fish. Thanks, Pam! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Go-Fish-Go-Splash-Go-Hop-2475662

I realize I could go on, but I must stop somewhere and I need to get ready for a Saturday middle school play rehearsal! I hope these ideas inspire you to spring into spring with some fun and fresh therapy!! Enjoy and HAPPY SPRING (when it gets here!). Please link up with the Frenzied SLPs and share your springy ideas.

An InLinkz Link-up

Taking Therapy Outside

It is finally starting to look like Spring in NH! It was a fairly mild winter in terms of snow, but the rain!  There was some serious cabin fever happening in my speech room this winter!

With the weather improving it is a perfect time for a change of therapy venue and the Frenzied SLPs are taking it to the streets!  Well, the playground anyway!  I have a couple of ideas for you, some I have done, some I will be doing! As always, thanks to Nanette (Speech 2 Me), Kelly (Speech 2 U) and Jen (My Speech Universe) for the behind the scenes linky work!

• Chalk rocks! I was thinking it would be fun to take our chalk and work on narrative development outside using the amazing Story Grammar Marker by Mindwing Concepts. On a beautiful sunny day, read a book outside and then have your students become screevers.  Oh, by the way, a screever is an artist who draws on sidewalks using colored chalks. Students can draw Braidy on the playground adding narrative elements as a means of story retell. 
• Who remembers this game? "A my name is Annie and my husbands name is Andy. We come from Alabama and we sell apples." This rhyme is said while bouncing a ball while progressing through the alphabet stating your name, your husband's name, where you're from and what you sell, using alliteration. Great vocabulary work and super simple!
• I always loved hopscotch as a little girl.  I still sometimes play a game with students when I'm on playground duty.  A variation could be played where following directions is targeted. Offer students a series of numbers or square positions to jump in a pattern.  

• Two years or so ago I bought cardboard cake rounds and painted them with chalkboard paint. We use these as bases when playing kickball. You can also draw EET beads on them and use them for describing.  We had a blast doing this!
• Finally, who says an outdoor theme can't be an inside activity?  At the end of each school year my students look forward to two activities, Camping and Wheel of Fortune.  During camping week we pull out Curious George Goes Camping, an inflatable fire, toy food, s'more dip, and camping gear. We tell stories and sing songs around the campfire.

I am always up for some new ideas, so link up and share.  How are you taking therapy outside?

All About Water in Speech-Language Therapy: A Frenzied SLP Linky

The Frenzied SLPs are back with some fun ideas for using water themed activities in speech-language therapy. Thanks to Laura, Nanette, and Linda for hostessing this week. Just click on their names to be directed to their amazing sites.

I haven't done a lot of actual water play lately. I used to do it all the time! I think I just forgot! You know how you tend to go on an activity jag for a period and then move on to something else! I am, however, using my water themed activities and books during April.

• YouTube is a wonderful resource for books and videos that are well suited to speech-language therapy.  

    

Two books from my collection, that I love to use during April are Come On Rain, by Karen Hesse and It's Raining, It's Pouring by, Kin Eagle. 

Ideas by Jivey offers a free mentor sentence sample and activity coordinating with Come On, Rain.

• A craftivity I plan on doing this month is making "rain sticks." Rain sticks are a fun and easy craft that allow for individual creativity, use of informational text, and sensory input via rice or beans and a soothing sound. Have students decorate paper towel tubes with markers, washi tape, or colorful duct tape, seal one end with clear packing tape or clear contact paper, fill with beans or  rice, seal the other end and turn the rain stick over end to end. I found this wonderful lesson from Prairie Public Television to supplement making a rain stick!   https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiYzdeu7vLLAhXJeCYKHR-1C80QFggvMAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prairiepublic.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FSue-Anderson-Rain-Stick-Lesson-Plan.docx&usg=AFQjCNEN__O9flkFR3XmbtPc7COp52DH5w&sig2=oNOpPmphhKH_urT79BqiWg

• Wonderopolis has some great "wonders" about water and rain. If you haven't visited this site; run, don't walk! This particular article; Why Does it Rain, offers informational text, tiers 2 and 3 vocabulary, a science experiment and questions for further investigation! It is a fantastic, educationally relevant and user friendly site.  http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-does-it-rain-2 (Here is another great wonder: http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-much-rain-can-a-cloud-hold)
• Newsela is another wonderful source of informational text. Search rain and amazing articles greet you! Here is a sampling: https://newsela.com/articles/amazonbasin-conservation/id/13877/; https://newsela.com/articles/southafrica-drought/id/14631/; https://newsela.com/articles/water-california/id/6292/
• Finally, Teachers Pay Teachers has a multitude of sellers who have authored a wealth of rain and April inspired products. I recently created a product supporting question formulation. Find it at Doyle Speech Works

Do you want to find more water themed ideas and activities? The linky begins with Laura at All Y'all Need. The Frenzied SLPs would love to hear how you incorporate water into your speech-language therapy. Follow the instructions below to link up.

An InLinkz Link-up