Shadow? or No Shadow?...that has been our question!

Hi there!

With Groundhog Day drawing near, we have been learning all about Punxsutawney Phil himself.  Here's a few things we've been doing this week. I started by searching for "real" images of a groundhog so my students would have an idea of what a groundhog actually looks like.

While I love creating and making my own materials, I was running short on time with Groundhog Day coming up so soon. That is when I decided to visit DLTK-Kids for ideas. Have you been to their site before? If so, you know how easily the activities can be printed and ready for use. If not, take a minute to see what all they have. You will not be disappointed!

With my younger articulation students I used these 'Groundhog's Day Bingo Dauber Coloring Pages' from DLTK-Kids. Instead of bingo daubers I used the magnetic circles that come with the Chipper Chat activity (they fit perfectly onto the circles on the coloring pages). My students love using the wand to pick up the pieces when they are finished...don't yours? The pages can be found here: http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/happy_groundhog-dauber.htm

I also have younger students working on requesting, labeling, & following directions. We were able to target all of these goals with this cute groundhog paper craft I also found from DLTK. The paper craft can be found here: http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mpapergroundhog.htm

With my students needing help with multi-syllabic words, we used the word cards below. The students were also able to use the pacing mats (top and bottom row) to help with including all syllables in the words. These word cards and placing mats can be found here at my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Groundhog-Multi-syllabic-Words  When using these cards, I realized I did not include a pacing mat for words with more than three syllables. I apologize. If you have downloaded this file from TPT, I would love to send you a pacing mat for those words with greater than three syllables. Please send me your email and I will send you the pacing mat. :) Sorry for any inconvenience. 

Finally, with all of my students we also learned about predictions and how to make them. The chart below represents both the students who predicted we would have six more weeks of winter and those who thought it would soon be spring. Humor me with this side note :)...I'm sure you've used chart paper like that shown? Did you know they make a sticky version? It is seriously sticky at the top like a post-it note! Can't say how much I'm in love with this stuff. :) 

Hope you find these ideas helpful! I am always looking for new ideas, comments, and feedback . Thank you for taking time to stop by. Take care, 

Natalie

I Spy...Polar Bear Style

Hi there!

As promised here are the instructions for the I Spy Bottle I used yesterday with my students. They LOVED it!! I will definitely be changing out the contents and using it again!

After seeing many posts with various versions of the I Spy Bottle I was inspired to make my own! I started by using a clear beverage container with a lid. 

I wanted to use the I Spy Bottle along with Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear? So then I looked for animals to match the story's characters that were small enough to fit inside the bottle. Luckily my children have quite the animal collection. When I looked through their toys, these are what I found: a lion, zebra, hippopotamus, leopard, and zookeeper. (The penny is just to show the size :) 

Since I wasn't able to find ALL of the characters from the story I used Boardmaker to make the rest of them. (I now know I forgot the walrus...oops!) When I made the picture cards, I made two of each one. Then I cut them out and laminated them back to back so that the animal could be seen no matter which way it fell in the bottle. 

The next step is probably quite obvious, :) I put all of the animals and animal picture cards inside the bottle. Then I realized I had forgotten to "clean" the sticky residue from the bottle's labels off the sides of the bottle. I found that Goo Gone and a paper towel worked just great to get the stickiness off. I also used a spray or two of windex on the paper towel to wipe away any extra Goo Gone that may have been on the bottle. (it can be kind of greasy feeling)

The end result was a totally clear & sticky free bottle. Then I added the rice and the bottle was complete. 

I hope you find the activity useful! My students loved it!

Have you made an I Spy Bottle, or something similar? What did you put inside?

Thanks for stopping by & take care, 

Natalie

I've Tried This, Tuesday

Hi there!

Today seemed like such a LONG day after having been off for a three-day weekend! If you had a three-day weekend I hope it was a restful one. :)

In an effort to share my thoughts and new materials/resources I am going to refer to today's post as "I've Tried This, Tuesday." 

Recently the SLPs in my district gathered together for a meeting in which we shared a favorite material, idea, app, etc. I am going to share a few with you here that I have personally tried & used. 

The first one is one that I have come to use when introducing speech sounds to students. It is an iPhone app called SmallTalk Phonemes. It can be installed on your iPad as well to allow for a larger picture. The app features examples of consonant and vowel sound productions. The students enjoy being able to touch the screen and scroll through the different sounds to find their speech sounds. 

 

The other resource that was shared was: The Picture Book Teachers Edition. The blog can be found here: http://thepicturebookteachersedition.blogspot.com/ What I enjoy most about this blog is the Searchable Book List that is found in the column to the right on the blog. The list is made up of over 75 books. The list includes book title, author, theme, reading level, an activity that was created, and the link to the TPT store for the activity. This list is very helpful if you are in need of books to target a specific goal, i.e. inferencing, sequencing, & compare/contrast to name a few. 

Have you ever used either of these resources? Were they helpful to you? Are there other resources you would like to share as part of "I've Tried This, Tuesday?" If so, please leave a comment and/or feedback. 

Thank you for stopping by & take care, 

Natalie

Check back next Tuesday for more of

"I've Tried This, Tuesday!"

Martin Luther King Jr.

In anticipation of today's holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, my older elementary students and I read Dr. King's story as told in this book:

Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier

The students really enjoyed the book, had many questions, and offered their own information about MLK as well. 

To assist with making the lesson more meaningful and concrete we used Jenna's, over at: http://www.speechroomnews.blogspot.com, Martin Luther King Jr. Language Activities that can be found in the link below at her TPT store:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Activities-for-Speech-and-Language

You will not be disappointed with this Activity Packet and it's not too late to use it as a follow-up lesson to today's holiday. 

Enjoy the rest of your day & take care, 

Natalie

Snowmen Construction

Hi there!

I hope you all are enjoying this three-day weekend (if you have one) as much as I am! I am spending part of my day updating you all on what happened last week in my Speech room....lots of fun stuff. :) Last week started with most of my younger students helping to construct the life-size snowmen I created out of bulletin board paper (mentioned in a previous post.) 

We started by deciding if we were going to make a "girl" snowman or a "boy." As you can see, this group decided to make a 'girl'.

We had enough time after making our "girl" to make a second snowman, so we decided to make a "boy" snowman as well. My students had a great time with this activity! We were able to target many things: sequencing, requesting, identifying, labeling, & pronouns to name a few. What other activities would you target with this activity? 

Thanks for stopping by & take care,

Natalie

Groundhog Multi-syllabic Words

Today was a busy day (I will post pics of my students making my life size snowmen soon), so I'm going to make this a quick post. :) To go with my previous Groundhog Day post, I made this packet of multi-syllabic words. I have several students working on multi-syllable words and these cards are going to work perfectly!

You can find the packet here in my TPT store:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Groundhog-Multi-syllabic-Words

Thanks for stopping by!

Natalie

Life Size Snowmen

Who loves snowmen? I do!! I can't say that I've ever actually built one, but I love them and have quite the collection. The "winter" weather in Texas does not usually allow for snow, much less snow that will stay long enough for us to be able to get out and enjoy it. One day, when my children are older, I hope to travel somewhere, find snow, and build a snowman with my family!

On that note, Friday before I left work I decided I needed to make life size snowmen for my students to be able to manipulate during an upcoming sequencing lesson.To give you an idea of the size of the snowmen, I have laid a remote control on the snowman. 

I made enough white pieces for two snowmen with the intention of also targeting pronouns after constructing the snowmen in our classroom. "He has ____." "She has ____." 

The pieces were made of bulletin board paper and then I laminated them for durability. (I plan to store them and use them in the future) The laminate also allows for sticky tack to be stuck to the back during use and removed when finished without ripping the paper. 

I will take more pictures while we are constructing our snowmen this week and let you all know how it turned out. 

Stay tuned! :)

If you find this post helpful, have suggestions, or would like to leave feedback please comment below. 

Thanks for stopping by!

~Natalie

Feed the Penguin

Hi there!

On Friday I used Carrie Manchester's, over at www.carriesspeechcorner.blogspot.com, Feed the Penguin Articulation activity with a PK student. It was a big hit!! 

This activity is great, and can be found at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Feed-the-Penguin-Articulation-Pack! The fish contain the target word AND the picture...perfect for the 'non-reader.' This activity can be delivered in different ways, you can either 'feed the penguin' (as shown in the picture above attached to a tissue box), or you can use smaller 'penguin mats' for students to collect fish as they practice their target sounds. 

Thanks for stopping by! Please comment below if you find this activity helpful!

Natalie

Geoffrey Groundhog

Hello!

Anyone getting ready for Groundhog Day yet? I love this holiday as it provides lots of information to share with my students! I created a companion packet to follow the book, Geoffrey Groundhog Predicts the Weather by Bruce Koscielniak. This is a very cute story with a funny new spin on the typical Groundhog Day tradition. 

                                           

The companion packet is available here:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Geoffrey-Groundhog-Companion-Packet

The packet includes materials to target:

● Who, what, where, & why questions

● Comparing (Winter vs. Spring)

● Articulation word lists

● "I have ___. Who has ___?"

● Vocabulary cards and definition list

Thank you for taking time to stop by my blog and look at the latest materials I have created. Please consider following as I will be posting more companion packets to other books as well. 

Woodland Animals Verbs/Negation

Good evening!

In addition to using books in therpy, I enjoy doing thematic units. Anyone else enjoy doing thematic units? So much can be targeted when following a theme for a period of time. I decided to create an activity for my students to target identifying/using present progressive verbs and also to help with the understanding of negation. 

This activity is based on a woodland animal theme. I have provided options within the materials, but certainly one's own spin or interpretation can be used. If you'd like to take a look, the activities can be found on my TPT store here:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Woodland-Animals-VerbsNegation

Thanks for stopping by! 

Arctic Animal Magazine Picture Idea

I'd like to share with you an idea that came to me today...you may already have the materials in your home to do this as well. 

While I was thinking of the upcoming week and the Arctic themed materials I purchased from Jenn Alcorn over at www.crazyspeechworld.blogspot.com, Carrie Manchester at http://carriesspeechcorner.blogspot.com, & Jenna Rayburn at www.speechromnews.blogspot.com I decided to go through the collection of National Geographic, National Wildlife, and Ranger Rick Jr. magazines we have in our home in hopes of finding real-life pictures of arctic animals....my children love nature and learning about different kinds of animals. There were quite a few pictures of arctic animals that I'll be targeting with my students in the coming weeks. So I am going to cut and laminate the pictures from the magazines to use during therapy to help with identifying, labeling, and comparing/contrasting the animals. 

Texas is a LONG way from the Arctic and with the pictures I hope to continue to develop students' vocabulary as it relates to places/things outside of their everyday lives.

I hope you find this idea useful...perhaps it triggers an idea for you? If so, please share your comments below. I'd love to hear from you!

Thank you for stopping by!!

First FREEBIE companion packet

Hello there!

I'd like to think I'm getting the hang of "blogging," but I still have A LOT to learn. There will be mistakes I am sure of it...none are intentional and I appreciate feedback that will help me in this new venture. (If anyone knows why my image is blurry, I'd love to know how to fix it!)

With that being said, it's been a work in progress, and I am ready to show my first companion packet. I love to bring books into my therapy and like to see the students faces light up when they are familiar with the story or have heard it before! Many thanks to +Kristine Lamb over at http://livelovespeechkl.blogspot.com for helping me during this process. I look forward to creating more companion packets. I have one in the works now for Groundhog day...please feel  free to check back and take a look! 

My first companion packet can be found below:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Biggest-Snowman-Ever-FREEBIE

Thank you for taking the time to check out the FREEBIE...please leave feedback/suggestions if you download. 

A new beginning...

Hello there! Thank you for stopping by. This blog is a definite work in progress as I am new to the blogging world and a bit overwhelmed with all of the editing options available! :) Please check back for more information!