Going Green in Speech: Using Lamination Scraps

Like many of you, I find myself in a sea of excess laminating film that I just can't, in good conscience, pitch. It is my goal to reduce what I am throwing into landfills for perpetuity, so I have been both limiting what I laminate and squirreling away the excess for later use. I want to share only a couple possibilities.




First, rather than purchase page protectors and plastic sleeves, why not make your own? Here is a video of how to make your own. I use them as overlays for books when students are practicing articulation while reading. Using dry erase markers they highlight or underline any words with their target sounds. I also place worksheets in them and again, students use dry erase markers to complete the page. I can then send the same page as homework.

I've made them in varying sizes so I can put articulation or task cards in them for use with dry erase or as smash mats with play-dough. It keeps unlaminated cards clean and reduces waste. I made these for Texas Speech Mom's speech counters by folding a piece of laminating film and using washi tape to seal the two sides. I left the bottom a little higher than the top so I could easily insert and remove the cards.

Another fun and green idea is to save the cut off ends of laminated materials. They are perfect as makeshift whiteboards. I often cut them into strips and write words for practice or sentence formulation and expansion. I have a sentence frame and then have different morphological endings on each card that students can manipulate. Erase for a new sentence.

I don't have pictures of my scraps, but this is the general idea.

These scraps make targeting interrogative reversal a snap. I call it the "magic flip." Write a declarative sentence on the laminated scraps and then abracadabra, do the magic flip and formulate a question!

Do you have any handy laminating film hacks? I'd love to hear of the ways you use it. Please share!!

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

Imagination Speech Therapy

It's March already! Wow! I have been on winter break this past week enjoying balmy temperatures when suddenly the temperature dropped to 5 degree! It's hard to imagine it will ever be warm, but imagine I will.

As I dreamed of flowers and bird song, I started planning therapy for my return to work. I have so many St. Patrick's Day and spring activities, but I wanted something different. It's important for me to stay motivated in speech therapy as well as my students. Our students are keenly aware of when we are bored, too! When my children were little they would engage in the most creative and imaginative play. They would have "set ups" with fairies and dragons and knights. I headed straight to the attic and dusted off the bins of fairies knowing the kids at school would love them. Imaginative play is immensely motivating as well as therapeutic. I decided to create a leprechaun and fairy village that can double later in the spring as a gnome village. Out into the bitter cold I went collecting mossy bark, sawing fungus off stumps and collecting branches. I thought my little fingers would freeze off!

I began the process by applying Mod Podge® to all the pieces to seal them and give them a glossy finish. My husband helped me cut stepping stones and ladder rungs. We devised a seesaw and a swing hung from a fungus canopy. He cut pieces for a table, chairs, and benches. As my friends commented, "It's enchanted." I couldn't help playing, arranging pieces and rearranging them. Oh my word, had I had a village like this as a little girl, I would have played on end.

The possibilities for language are endless. I've added just a few of the language targets I will incorporate in speech therapy. I don't want to use any cards, worksheets, or printables while using the leprechaun village, I very much want my students to play in a naturalistic language context. I will, nevertheless incorporate tools like the Expanding Expression Tool and Story Grammar Marker.

1. sentence formulation and expansion
2. vocabulary development
3. categorization
4. associations
5. similarities and differences
6. defining and describing
7. grammar
8. making explanations
9. question formulation
10. social pragmatics
11. narrative development
12. concept development
13. understanding complex sentences for direction following

Not only will my leprechaun village be seasonal and motivating, it can be recycled as a gnome village later in the spring! The best part of all was using my imagination to plan and design the different features and spending the afternoon with my husband in construction. We had such fun and it was wonderful to watch him get "speechie" as he said, "Let me make these different widths, so you can work on following directions with different thicknesses."

I will certainly post pictures of my little ones playing, imagining and learning.

The Frenzied SLPs are on the Downhill Slide

It's that time of year for school-based SLPs, where a visual reminder to "breathe in, breathe out, and repeat" becomes all too necessary. The Frenzied SLPs are joining forces once again to offer suggestions as to how to make the end of the school year more manageable. Thank you to this month's frenzied hostesses Tracy, of Gold Country Speech, Laura of All Y'all Need, and Linda of Looks Like Language for coordinating the behind the scenes organization.

Our school district usually ends the school year within the first two weeks of June. We begin before Labor Day, but our snow days are not factored into the calendar, so we typically end up having to make up missed weather days. This year our winter was so mild we only had ONE snow day (very unusual for NH). From the beginning of May until the middle of June I have about six weeks of school and it goes FAST! Here is how I manage to stay relatively sane.

The first week of May comes on the heels of our spring break and includes kindergarten screenings. We have a larger than usual number of kindergarten students registered this year, so we had to add another 1/2 day for screenings. The key for this week is organization, time management, and optimism. I had the pleasure of taking Sparklle SLP's soon to be published kindergarten screening out for a test drive. It took me 5-7 minutes to administer (yes, I timed it), depending on the child and when I was finished I felt I had a really good sense of each child. Organization: for screening days, having everything printed and laminated with names and birthdays already entered is most helpful. Time management: it is also helpful to have an idea of what you would like to accomplish during those periods when you are not screening, like during lunch when the cafeteria is unavailable. I got some evaluations and IEPs written in the down time. Optimism: it is very easy to become overwhelmed when faced with the prospect of a new and needy cohort entering kindergarten. I have to remind myself I am only getting a snapshot of a child and much can change in the four months between now and the beginning of school.

The end of the school year brings an onslaught of evaluations and IEPs. In order to avoid becoming anxious I have to stay very organized and focused. When I am at work I have to avoid relaxing. I know that sounds awful, but I have to close my door, not chat with friends and chip away at the to do list. I keep a list of all evals, IEPs, progress monitoring, etc. I often prioritize the items on my do to list by number. this too keeps me organized. I enter due dates and meeting dates on my paper calendar and google calendar and set alarms for 30 minutes and 10 minutes before a scheduled meeting. Sounds a little over the top, I know, but this scattered brain needs over the top! There are also a million special class activities, school wide activities, and field trips that impact therapy. It is crucial to know what it going on in order to prevent having to plan and prep therapy that will never happen. That is a time waster! All this allows me to leave at a reasonable hour and have time for exercise and my family. I used to neglect those things and work to the exclusion of all else and then I got smart. The work will always be there, my health may not!

I have mentioned before how I love to exploit a theme. The end of the year is the perfect time for theme exploitation! After screenings we have two weeks of bug week, two weeks of camping and two weeks of wheel of fortune. I do two weeks of each theme because my students look forward to them every year and I have amassed a wealth of materials to support the themes. I have listed only a few of the wonderful activities available around bugs and camping.

Spin and Speak Bugs Articulation

I love to use these worksheets as a therapy activity by placing them in page protectors and then sending them as homework.

Bug Collecting Concepts

Pam of Small Talk SLP authored this versatile product that can be used to target so many skills. I love this one!

Don't Bug Out...Apologize

I needed an activity for my intermediate and middle school students with social needs, so in the spirit of capitalizing on a theme I created Don't Bug Out...Apologize, which targets when and how to apologize.

Getting Buggy Articulation

Sparklle SLP has a wonderful freebie that is just right for homework. I'm just itching to use this one again!

I love a craftivity to complement a book. This is actually a craft I did with my own little ones when we read the book A Firefly Named Torchy. The craft itself is simple. The only extra supplies needed are clear sequins and wax paper. I drew templates for the body and wings on cardstock and have students trace them independently.

Camping affords so many opportunities for activities and fun. I found this recipe last year after camping week(s) was finished, but I am definitely making them this year; Nutter Butter Camping Cookies. You can find the recipe on the blog Party Pinching: Budget Friendly Party Ideas and Cute Food Inspiration. 

Pathways for Articulation and Language

I just love this activity for articulation and language targets, and so many can be addressed. It was a hit with my students, too.

Camp-In Speech and Language

This baby is so comprehensive targeting articulation, details, grammar, following directions, similarities and differences, conversation skills and more. Sparklle SLP is my hero (and camping buddy).

If you don't have LessonPix, I recommend it highly. It is an amazing alternative to Boardmaker, which, in my not so humble opinion, has become overpriced and inaccessible. LessonPix allows you to make games, dice, communication boards, visuals and more, so for $36.00 a year it is well worth it. We used these dice for sentence  formulation and expansion.

So grab your inflatable fire, pretend food and canteen and go camping. Isn't it nice to get away?

Last but not least is one of our all time favorites. Wheel. Of. Fortune. This happy take on hangman is perfect for any speech-language goal. Last year I had a brainstorm and started using the colors on the wheel to coordinate with the colors used with the Expanding Expression Tool. I downloaded the music and use the sound effects from the show including spinning and buzzers.

I hope these activities give you some nice ideas for finishing out your school year without too much stress. One consolation is, you know it is going to go fast and then, if you are anything like me, you will be sitting on your porch with your coffee and a book relishing summer!

We would love to have you link up and share your ideas for rounding out the school year.

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