Back to School Blog Hop

Welcome to the Back to School SLP Blog Hop!

School has started for some, and is just around the corner for others. In this Blog Hop, you will get the chance to collect great back to school ideas for SLPs, win prizes and get freebies by touring 17 fantastic blogs!

Use the Linkytools at the bottom of this post to hop around 17 blogs, collect ideas and the clues!

This year I am going to be at a new school with new students. Seeing a "new" face on campus is hard for some students. In an effort to make the first day of speech fun, I like to do activities that will help me learn about the students, and also get an idea of what motivates them. To me, knowing what motivates and what is fun for students is key! Children learn best when they are having fun! I have created an activity to use during my first speech sessions. This activity is child centered an allows the students to draw themselves, and draw/write about their three favorite things. I will then use this information the rest of the school year to challenge and engage them with their own favorites! I hope you find this activity useful as well. It is in black and white to reduce the use of colored ink, and to make it easy to copy. (Should you have an alternate idea, suggestion, or want the activity tailored to fit your needs, feel free to email me at justwrightspeech@gmail.com.)

The freebie can be found in my TPT store, here!

Also, find me on FB for more ideas and activities as they are created! Just Wright Speech

The activity I am donating to the goodie basket of TPT products is: Understanding Negation , and can be found in my TPT store by clicking the link. Take a minute to download the preview of the activity for FREE!

Now back to the Blog Hop: 

5 WINNERS will receive a goodie basket of TPT products.

1 GRAND PRIZE WINNER will receive the basket of TPT products and the following:

* TpT Gift Card for $50!

*School of Multi-Step Directions App from Virtual Speech Center

*Articulation Station App from Little Bee Speech

* Kid In Story App from Locomotive Apps

The rules of the contest are simple:

* You must decode a secret message

* In order to complete this task, you will need to visit each of the 17 blogs and find the OWL CLUE

* The OWL CLUE will include one word that is part of the code. * When you enter the contest through Rafflecopter on any of the blogs, you will be asked to type in the secret code. Have fun and enjoy blog hopping with us! The contest will run from: August 11- 17, 2013.

Enjoy reading through the blogs, downloading the freebies, and participating in our Blog Hop! Good luck everyone!

Here is my Owl Clue:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

"S...peachy" Feedback Linky Party

Feedback is AWESOME! Reading the feedback from people who purchase my materials is great. It makes my day to read what you all have to say! Not only is it helpful to me as I plan to make more materials, but it is great for you all too. When you leave feedback on purchases, points are earned, and they can be used on other materials in the future....for FREE!

Nicole over at    created a linky party, "Speachy Feedback," to allow shoppers a chance to win materials based on the excellent feedback left to sellers. If you'd like to "link up," click the image below.

Here is the feedback comment that made my day when I read it: 

This comment made me smile, because I like that "moswogger" recognized the material included sorting mats, and that's not something he/she has seen in other materials. Moswogger, email me at justwrightspeech@gmail.com to receive one free item from my store. 

To find this item, click the image above! Thank you all for your continued support and great feedback. Do you have items that have been purchased and haven't been given feedback? Hurry, leave feedback....You could be the next lucky winner! 

Take care until next time!

~Natalie

Social Story Resource List

Hello and welcome new readers! I hope everyone is enjoying summer and keeping cool wherever you may be. Here in Texas it is suppose to reach 100F with a heat index of 100F+! Now that is hot, and to beat today's heat, I've spent the morning compiling a list of social story resources sent to my by other SLP's. 

About a month ago, I asked readers for their favorite/go-to resources when writing a social story for a child, and I got a great response. The trigger for this post came from a particular student, new to my school, who was in need of social stories for many different aspects of his day. I found myself writing one in particular, and asked, "Could I be writing this better, or differently?" Thus, the reason for asking peers for the resources they use to help when writing a social story. 

Currently, the resource list can be found on my FB page, here, under the "free downloads" tab. If you have a resource that you would like to see added to the list, please leave a comment below and I will add it to the list. 

Thank you & take care,
~Natalie

Activity Review & Giveaway

Today's Activity review comes from Queen's Speech!

Thank you Rachel for allowing me to review such a great activity, and for offering a copy to one lucky reader! 

Now to the activity! I am reviewing one of her newest activities, Summer Sea Creatures Language Pack. 

Included in this activity:
- Following directions (with directions for each card)
-Regular and Irregular past tense cards
- Fact or Opinion cards
-Sentence Correction cards
- Who am I? (clue cards and answer cards)
- Sea Creature Game Board & Dice 

Why I love this activity! It is available for only $3.00 here, it is comprehensive in its contents, and can be used to target multiple therapy goals. 

Rachel is offering a copy to one lucky reader. Please use the rafflecopter below to enter for your chance to win! 

Do you like what you see and want to be able to get up-to-date information from Queen's Speech? Take a minute to follow her blog, FB, & TPT. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Activity Review & Giveaway

 Articulation BINGO for /k/ and /g/  
By: Straight Up Speech

Thank you Jennifer from Straight Up Speech www.http://straightupspeech.blogspot.com/ for giving me the chance to review this great activity, and for offering two copies to two lucky readers!

Included in this packet:

 •35 picture cards each for initial /k/ & initial /g/

• 35 picture cards each for medial /k/ & medial /g/

• 35 picture cards for final /k/ & 29 for final /g/ 

• 4 different picture bingo boards per word position per sound (24 total) 

 • 4 different picture bingo boards with all word positions represented per sound (12 total) 

**Cards can be used for traditional articulation drill and practice or to play one of the following game options: bingo, memory, or go fish.

What I like about this packet:

*The size of the picture cards are great for little fingers to manipulate

*There are BINGO boards included for both /k, g/ in all word positions

*As well as 'mixed' boards for both /k, g/

I really like this activity and its usefulness for young children. Thank you Jennifer for allowing me the chance to review! This activity can be found in Jennifer's TPT store here .

Jennifer is in the process of adding more sound packets in this "BINGO" format. In addition to this /k, g/ activity, she currently has /s, z/ in her TPT store as well. You can find it here. Stay tuned for more sound packets. She is currently working on /f, v/. 

Jennifer is offering two lucky readers a copy of this activity! Please use the rafflecopter below to enter for your chance to win. Are you a fan of Straight Up Speech? If not, check out her blog for amazing ideas (blog address at the top of this post), and make sure to follow her facebook page as well!

What are your favorite articulation strategies? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

To see Jennifer's review of my activity "Mr. Froggie Says," visit her blog here. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Activity Review & Giveaway

Activity Review & Giveaway:

 What do you need?  By: Speech2u

Thank you Kelly from Speech2u www.speech2u.blogspot.com for giving me the chance to review this great activity, and for offering a copy to one lucky reader!

This activity is designed to work on early problem solving skills, categorization, and answering wh- questions. Kelly also offers an optional hierarchy to use to teach the targeted skills in this activity.

This packet includes:

·       30 question boxes where children can provide two possible answers

·       Field pages for 3, 4, 6, or 8 field choices

·       2 sets of 72 picture cards to use with the question boxes or the field pages

(the color of the outline on the cards above matches the color of the question boxes)

(to make the task more difficult, the same cards are available with a black outline so as not to give away which cards go with which color boxes) I REALLY like this feature and use the color outline option when initially introducing the activity!

·       The last few pages of this packet can be used as homework OR they can be used once visual cues are no longer needed to check for comprehension of the concept.

    

I really like this activity and its versatility. Thank you Kelly for allowing me the chance to review! This activity can be found in Kelly’s TPT store.

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Speech2u 

Kelly is offering a copy to a reader. Please use the rafflecopter below to enter for your chance to win. Are you a fan of Speech2u? If not, check out her blog for amazing ideas (blog address at the top of this post), and make sure to follow her facebook page as well!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Speech2u/556482364366092?ref=ts&fref=ts

How do you target problem solving and/or categorization? I would love to hear your great ideas in the comments below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Earth Day Recycling Activity

Earth Day is fast approaching and I love being able to share with my students ways in which they can help protect our planet. I thought I would share with you the activity we have been working with this week! This is a very simple activity/lesson to prepare for...especially if you are already a "recycler" like me! :)

I started by gathering a small collection of recyclable items from my recycling bin. 

(I've added a few more items to this collection to include more aluminum cans and glass bottles.) 

Then I decided I needed a book to help explain the recycling process. I went to my elementary school's library and this is the book that I found. This book by Gail Gibbons has great illustrations of the process of recycling and is an easy book to paraphrase so that all ages of students can participate in the activity. 

                                       

After introducing the idea/process of recycling we then used our collection of items and sorted them into different containers. Some students were able to make connections to this activity and shared that they recycled at home. To see their faces when they make a connection and share a personal story is wonderful! 

We had four bins: paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum (cans). In the bottom of each bin I placed a visual of each type of material we were sorting. The students were very engaged in this activity and enjoyed picking items out of the bag. After each student had an item, we labeled the item and then described what it was made of. 

At the conclusion of our sorting activity, the students were very excited to see the many available options of items that can be recycled. 

To follow this activity, I made a category sort activity that uses task cards and sorting mats. This activity can be downloaded for free from my TPT store at the following link: 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Earth-Day-Recycling-Freebie

I also created a poster that I hung out my office door for Earth Day! You can find it for free here:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Earth-Day-Poster-FREE

Thank you for your support and for visiting my blog. Please leave feedback if you download either item from my TPT store! 

Take care, 

~Natalie

Activity Swap

Today I am going to share with you an activity from Jessica, the author of Figuratively Speeching SLP. She is from Long Island, NY, and is one of the first Speech-Language Pathologist I met when I started blogging in January of this year. She has helped me throughout the process, and continues to do so when I have a "newbie" question. We decided to do an "Activity Swap" and today I am going to share one of her great materials with you. 

The name of the activity is Spring Idioms, and it includes:

• 24 idiom cards with matching definitions 
• One 3-page game board
• Poke cards, to include multiple choice idiom definitions
• Blank cards for you to create your own idioms
• Graphic organizer to illustrate the meaning of the idioms

What is special about this activity?? Why do I like it so much??

• It is interactive and my students loved it! The game-board allows the students to visually see their progress as they are participating. 

• The graphic organizer allows students to illustrate and explain the meanings of the idioms. 

• The idiom cards themselves can be paired with their definition.

• The poke cards are a great feature as well. I used them with the game board to initially introduce the idioms, but they can also be used independently to promote self-correction with students.

• The price of this activity is appealing as well. It can be found in her TPT store for only $2.00 at the following link:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spring-Idioms

Thank you Jessica for allowing me to preview this great activity! If you like this activity as much as I do, follow her on Teachers Pay Teachers. There are many more activities in her store (link above) and for up-to-date activity information you can follow her on her FB page, Figuratively Speeching SLP.

SLP Spring Fever Blog Hop

Welcome to the SLP Spring Fever Blog Hop! Are you ready for your chance to win GREAT activities and prizes? By touring 12 fantastic blogs, you will get the chance to win! Here is the lineup:

1. Figuratively Speeching SLP

2. Just Wright Speech

3. Queen's Speech

4. Putting Words in your Mouth

5. Straight Up Speech

6. The Speech Umbrella

7. Miss Thrifty SLP

8. Rae's Speech Spot

9. Speech2U

10. Word to the Wise

11. Let's Talk Speech Language Pathology

12. SLP for Me – guest posting on Figuratively Speeching SLP

12 winners will receive a goodie basket of one spring-themed activity from each participating blog owner/page owner in the blog hop. 

A grand prize winner will receive the following in addition to the spring-themed activities:

• *Codes for 3 Hamaguchi Apps (see Figuratively Speeching SLP’s reviews)

• *A code for a Mobile Education Store App

• *4 songs from Music Therapy Tunes

• *A green Big Grips iPad 2 case

The rules of the contest are simple: You must decode a secret message. In order to complete this task, you will need to visit each of the 12 blogs and download a freebie. The freebie will contain a word that is part of the code. When you enter the contest through rafflecopter on Figuratively Speeching SLP's blog, you will be asked to type in the secret code. Have fun and enjoy blog hopping with us! The contest will run from Sunday, March 17, 2013 through Saturday, March 23, 2013.

Enjoy reading through the blogs, downloading the freebies, and participating in our Blog Hop! Good luck everyone! 

**Friendly reminder: as you visit the blogs and download the freebies, don't forget to write down the "word" embedded in the freebie. It is part of the secret message for the giveaway. Once all of the blogs have been visited, the 'words' create a sentence needed to enter the giveaway.

(CLICK THE "FROGGIE" TO HOP OVER TO THE NEXT BLOG)

The FREEBIE I am featuring that contains one word from the secret message needed to participate in the contest can be found here: 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comparing-Winter-Spring

The activity that I am featuring for the contest winners can be viewed here:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/SingularPlural-YesNo-Negation-Easter