It is Definitely Winter

Winter has arrived! In fact, it has arrived all across the country. There is snow in states that rarely see snow. In NH we have had 3 snow days already. January 2nd was our scheduled return to school. We had a two-hour delay due to cold (it was -22)! Last night it was -100 atop Mount Washington. That's some frosty weather. Yes, winter has arrived and in NH, it sticks around into April. This video captures the trip to my car yesterday!

After the frenzy and inconsistency of December, school-based SLPs are contending with more of the same because of weather and student absences. Next week I will be getting a little help from my friends who have authored some fun and therapeutically effective winter-themed materials. I decided to do a therapy week round up in order to "snowcase" these wonderful therapy activities. Since I will be using these activities next week, I don't have pictures of the products in action. Sorry. (My husband did get me a beautiful new camera for Christmas, so my pictures should be improving) All of these items can be accessed by clicking the respective images.

The first is Gold Country Speech's All Around a Winter Wonderland. Tracy's candyland-based game is perfect for mixed groups and more. She has included cards targeting problem solving, describing, wh-questions, multiple meaning words, following directions, articulation, AND a design your own option. Click here to grab this amazing product.

Laura, of All Y'All Need has created a series of jokes that are so fun to use in therapy. I've used her jokes for articulation, social pragmatics, fluency, and targeting ambiguities. They are "snow" punny and offer wonderful opportunities for discussion. Winter Jokes can be found right here.

Are you "yeti" for this one? Sparklle SLP's materials are the carrot for my snowman. She always includes a variety of materials that are perfect for mixed groups. "Mixed groups" seems to be the term du jour for how my groups have been for 35 years.  Homogeneous grouping is extremely difficult in our line of work, so I've always had to tailor my activities for multiple targets. Sparklle's Yeti packet targets "snow" much including: describing, comprehension, tier 2 vocabulary, informational text passages with QR code links, grammar and syntax practice, analogies, conjunctions, spatial concepts, positive reinforcement, AND recipes for snow and snow paint. To add an extra element of fun, this packet can be used as a complement to the game Yeti in My Spaghetti. Sled on over here to find it.

If you haven't used Small Talk SLP's Find it on the Go materials, ski, don't snowshoe, to get one. They are perfect for younger students and the format is easy to use and motivating.  Add to that a plethora of speech and language targets and you've got a winner. Pam has included multiple targets in three areas: concepts, receptive language and expressive language. While I don't laminate all my seasonal materials (I am trying to consider the environment before I wrap everything in plastic), I have laminated this one. I give my students a wipe-off marker and they draw right on the pages. It can be found here.

Mary of Old School Speech has put the "bomb" in "bomb cyclone" with her Joke Dominoes.  This game is played like traditional dominoes, which is fun because kids will then know how to play traditional dominoes! Joke Dominoes is a wonderful way to address articulation, fluency, social-pragmatics, multiple meaning meaning words, and more. It is easy to prep and easy to use and the price is right at $1.00. This winter staple can be found here.

I "met" Mia many years ago, as a TpT customer. I have files on my computer named Mia. I remember a snow day many years ago, when I received an email from her, whereby she sent me her most recent winter product for free. She wrote something along the lines of, "You've been such a good customer, I want you to have this." It was the start of a lifelong friendship. Mia has created a wonderful series of interactive books that encourage true language interaction. Each interactive book comes with cue cards explaining what each wh-question answers. She then provides information about the theme and targets various questions along the way. I like her interactive books because they create a very naturalistic context for language therapy. Grab this Louisiana girl's All About Winter Interactive Book here.

I hope you see this post is about more than winter-themed products; it's about friendships and support. It's about how we all can try to make life a little easier for each other in a very demanding job. Oh, and for your wintry viewing pleasure here is the video of my return trek up the mountain to home.

"Snow" Much Fun

It seems this week the snow was falling across the entire nation. Snow in Tennessee, Oregon, and Louisiana. Everywhere, except right here in New Hampshire. It has been bitter cold, though and we have a lovely base of white to play in. I just love the snow! I love how clean everything looks with a fresh coat of white. I especially, love a snow day (who doesn't?). After all the reds and greens of December, the visual and auditory overload, I relish the white, stillness of a snowfall.

I also relish the calm that is reestablished in my speech room. The hustle and bustle of November and December, while exciting, can also be overwhelming. January brings snowflakes and icicles and blues and whites. I look forward to bringing out my trusty winter activities.
Here are some of my favorites:

Last year after effectively emptying a box of Ferrero Rocher candies, I re-purposed the container for a fun and frosty game. I used Sharpie markers to transform a ping pong ball into a snowman and students take turns bouncing the ball into the candy box which has snowflakes with points adhered in each candy divot.

Don't Break the Ice is fun, fun fun! Last year I made mats to complement the game. This year I added eight new mats that including practicing word finding strategies and formulating compound sentences.  You can find it here in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, Doyle Speech Works.

What do you get when you mesh crafts with speech and language activities? Why, craftivities of course. I have always found crafts perfect for therapy and love coordinating articulation and language targets to them.  I Heart Crafty Things is an amazing site full of clever and simple crafts that are easily adaptable for therapy.

A few years ago I found Penguin Pile Up at a yard sale. This game puts the "berg" in "iceberg." I haven't done this before, but this year, I am going to use dry erase markers to write targets in the iceberg. 

My students love using pacing sticks and when theme-based they are even more motivating. 

Ink daubers and stampers are must haves for quick and easy reinforcement in speech-language therapy sessions. I bought sets for several seasons and holidays and pull them out on those days when simplicity is a must. I bought mine through Oriental Trading.

I feel as if I could add more and more photos of snow themed activities, but I really better stop here. I am certain I am not alone in having a bevy of materials at my disposal, but it's nice to get some crisp new ideas once in awhile! I hope these suggestions provide you with something new to try in your therapy. Please comment with what you'll be doing in your speech rooms this winter. I'd love some new ideas!!