Common Objects for Uncommon Speech Therapy: Pencil 'Lead' Therapy

I am so excited for the first post of my new series, 'Common Objects for Uncommon Speech Therapy'! To read about this new series, click here.  I hope you and your students enjoy these pencil activities as much as we did!  All you need for each of these activities are pencils, picture cards or task cards and the free download provided by me! 

Activity #1 - The Dot 'Pencil' Game

Ages: Any

Materials: Pencils & Picture or Task Cards

Goals Addressed: Any

Set Up: Place cards evenly spaced on a large table or the floor.  Place pencils in between each card, so that they are all connected.  See pictures.  

How To Play: Have students take turns taking one pencil off at a time. Continue to have students take a pencil until one card is completely 'uncovered' or untouched by a pencil.  The student who 'uncovers' one of the cards first has to either say that word 5 times (for articulation goals) or complete the task on the card (for language goals). 

If they correctly complete their task, they get to keep the card.  If not, the next student gets to try. Whoever correctly completes the task first, gets to keep the card.  The students can continue taking pencils until another card is 'uncovered'.  

Once all cards are uncovered and all tasks are completed, the student with the most cards wins!

Activity #2 - Spin A Pencil

Ages: Children who are able to spin the pencil correctly

Materials: Pencils & picture/task cards that have matching pairs

Goals Addressed: Any

Set Up: Place one card from each match in a large circle and place a pencil in the middle. Pass out the remaining matches to each student and have them place the cards in front of them facing up.  

How To Play: Have students take turns spinning the pencil.  Once the pencil stops spinning, the student has to say that word 5X or complete the task on the card that the pencil is pointing to.  

If the student has the match of that card, they get to pick up the card and place it with their match.  If not, it is the next student's turn.  Continue to take turns spinning the pencil and completing the tasks.  The student who gets all of their matches first, wins!

Activity #3 - Find The Pencils

Ages: Any

Materials: Pencils, Articulation Word List (free), Free Printable 

Goals Addressed: Articulation

Set Up: Write the numbers 1-6 on the erasers of the pencils. For a group of 3 students, I had four pencils for each number.  I also threw in three pencils with the number 10 to make it more difficult.  

How To Play: Give each student their own copy of the Pencil Game worksheet.  Place all of the pencils on the table with the erasers facing you, so that the students can't see the numbers.  Have your students take turns each pulling one pencil. When the students pick a pencil, they have to say their sound/word/etc. the amount of times as stated on the pencil.  Once they correctly say their words, the student gets to keep the pencil and place it on their worksheet.  If that pencil number is already covered, they have to put the pencil back in the pile.  Have students continue to take turns until one student fills up their entire worksheet to win the game!

Free Download

I hope you enjoyed the first post of the series Common Objects for Uncommon Speech Therapy! Just a reminder that you can also participate in this series by suggesting materials for me to use.  Just leave a comment with your suggestion!  

Common Objects For Uncommon Speech Therapy

Why did I want to become a speech pathologist in the first place?  The answer for me was that I wanted to be able to use my creativity to help my students communicate.

Well, working in a low income district for the past few years has been a wonderful experience, but it has really challenged me to use every bit of my creativity! I don't receive any money for materials, games or fun things for my students, which I think is pretty much the story for most districts. So, due to the lack of funding for speech therapy, I am starting a new monthly series on my blog called, 'Common Objects For Uncommon Speech Therapy'!

Here's the best part of this new series...I am open to using your suggestions! Leave a comment on this post with what you want me to use to create an activity or craft idea to be used in therapy.  You can suggest materials that you have in your speech room or you can just come up with some crazy suggestions...the harder the better :)  If I pick your idea, I have to use the materials that you suggested.

Here are a few rules about your suggestions:

1) They have to be safe materials that can be used with kids (obviously no sharp objects, poisonous, etc.)

2) Choose anywhere between 1 and 4 materials.

3) Materials must be less than $5.  I will be buying the materials, so I need to be able to afford them!

4) Each month, leave you suggestion on the new post for the next month's idea. 

5) Your materials will be the main focus of the activity.  However, I might also use common office supplies such as scissors, crayons, etc.

That's it!  I am so excited to start this series as I think it will be challenging and exciting to see what materials I will be using!  I will start the series next week with, 'Pencil Lead Therapy'!

Oh and of course, to make things just a little more fun, if I pick your materials, you will get a $10 credit to my TPT store! 

It's Time To Become The Student!

I am always trying to think of new and creative ways to keep my students engaged during articulation therapy.  I just wrote a new blog post called 'Tables Turn: When Students Become The SLP' on the Speech Spotlight Blog.  Personally, I had a lot of fun with this idea and I hope you will too!  Check it out HERE!  

What is Speech Spotlight?  It is a collaborative blog of 10 different speech pathologists who share their knowledge with you!   

Don't Hold Back In 2016

I hope you enjoyed the holidays!  As you can tell from the lack of blog posts, I thoroughly enjoyed the holiday and spent a lot of time with family and friends.  

Now that 2016 is in full swing, it's time to tell you my new year's resolution for my blog...DON'T HOLD BACK! Not that I didn't have passion in 2015, but I always struggle with the fear of being judged. Therefore, I feel like my posts are sometimes reserved or lack 'me'. This year, I plan to not 'hold back' and just blog!  My passion is to incorporate fun and creativity in therapy, so I want to convey that in my blog.  So, get ready for the whole new Speech Therapy Fun...where I will make sure to not hold back and blog with passion!

Also, I wanted to say that I sincerely appreciate all of you who take the time to read my blog posts.  It means the world to me that people take time out of their busy schedules to spend time with my ideas.

Here are just a few of the 'Passionate' and fun posts I have planned for 2016!

~ It's Time To Get Cottonball Crazy

~ Music Freeze for Winter Fun

~Love Is In The Speech Room Air

~ Updating An UGLY Speech Room...for $40

ASHA Giveaways!

It's the week of the ASHA convention and I am so excited to be here in Denver!  If you are at the convention, please come and visit booth #345!  I would love to meet you, plus I have some great giveaways, prizes and you can play SLPlinko!  

If you aren't at the convention, don't worry.  I didn't forget about you!  I decided to do a giveaway this week to celebrate ASHA and to make sure that everyone is included in the excitement!  

WIN A $50 TPT CREDIT TO MY STORE 
PLUS

The No Print, Holiday Language & Articulation Game Bundle

 This bundle is worth $48 and includes Language & Articulation activities for 6 different holidays!  Holidays include Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day & Easter.  This bundle is also NO PRINT, which means you never have to print, cut, laminate or prep in any way.  You can use it on your iPad, iPhone or computer!  Your students will love these games!

Here are some examples of the activities included on the Thanksgiving game. 

 First, click on what your students are working on: Prepositions, Pronouns, WH Questions, Following Directions, Categories or Articulation. Then, start to play, while addressing these goals! 

 Spatial concepts such as in front, behind, next to, under, over and more!

50-60 'WH' questions including What, Why, When, Where & Who

Each holiday addresses different categories!

Following directions with temporal concepts such as First, Second, Next, Then, Before & After!

Pronouns section addresses He, She, It & They!

Finally, your students get to build items when they use their good sounds! Each holiday lets them build a different picture!

The best part about this bundle, is that you can switch up activities quickly and easily during the same therapy session.  If you have students that are working on different skills, this product is perfect! 

It's so simple to download (easy enough for us older people to use)!  Just download it on your iPad or iPhone, open it in Adobe Reader or iBooks and it's ready to use!

Get more details by clicking HERE!

Enter this giveaway to try and win $50 Speech Therapy Fun Credit & This No Print Game!

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Congratulations to Krista Dahm!  Thank you to everyone who entered! 

Fall Articulation & Language Therapy

Fall is here and it’s a great time of year to get your students outside!  Personally, I love fall and creativities...so why not use them together for the ultimate therapy session!  Here is a creativity with suggestions on how to address your students’ goals. 

Leafy Animal Craft Materials

Free print out from this post

Glue

Crayons

Leaves

Ziploc Bags

Directions

1. Give each student a Ziploc bag.

2. Take your students outside to explore and pick up leaves.  While outside, you can address these goals.

· Describing: Have your students describe the trees, leaves, flowers, temperature, smells, etc.  Use descriptive words such as colors, feelings, textures, shapes and sizes.

· Following Directions: Give students directions, such as ‘Pick up the red leaf before you pick up the green leaf’ or ‘Run around the tree and then pick up two leaves’.

· Pronouns:  While describing the items outside, have your students use ‘it’ and ‘they’.  Also, talk about what each student is doing using ‘he’ and ‘she

· Prepositions: Talk about where the leaves are located.  Are they over, under, around, on, off, behind or in front of the tree?

· WH Questions:  Ask your students about the trees and leaves.  For example, ‘What is falling off the tree?’, ‘Where are the leaves?’, ‘Why do the leaves change colors?’, ‘When do the leaves fall off the tree?’, etc.

· Articulation: For each leaf the students place in their bags, have them say their sound 5-10X.

· Everything: Think about how to address your students’ goals.  Every goal can be addressed while searching for leaves and exploring outside. 

3. After your students collect their leaves, go inside and sit at a table to make your craft!

4. Have each student pick up one of the print outs that they would like to decorate and have them color their animal. 

5. Once the animals are colored, the students can glue the leaves on the animals.  I recommend gluing the leaves on the fox’s tail, the lion’s mane or the bear’s stomach. 

Articulation Toss A Sound Game

My students love to get up and move around, so I am constantly trying to think of new ways to engage them during articulation therapy!  Kids love playing my Toss A Sound game and usually never want to leave the speech room.  Since it's Wonderful Wednesday (which means you get a giveaway or a freebie), you can download this game right here for FREE!  Don't wait to download it though, because I am only leaving it up for one week.  

This game, along with many other game, worksheets, activities and more, is a part of my Articulation Therapy Plans For The Entire Year! 

Speech Therapy Back To School Organization

I started school last week (so not ready) and this year I have a goal of staying organized.  That is usually my goal in the beginning of each year, but I swear this time I mean it! I came up with a few ideas that I think will keep me organized and I hope they will help you too.

1) Laminate Your To Do Lists

 I go through so many to do lists throughout the year.  This year, I decided to laminate mine and simply wipe off all of my completed tasks.  Why didn't I think of this before?

 1) Laminate your To Do List   2) Use a dry erase marker to write your notes  3) Wipe off your completed tasks    *To Do List shown is part of my SLP Planner, Files & More

2) Separate Your Files

Files usually have so many random papers in them that make finding anything almost impossible.  Organize your files with strips of paper labeled with years, categories, etc.  This makes finding paperwork simple and quick!

3) Use Manila Envelopes

All of my upcoming IEP files are placed into a large manila envelope labeled 'Upcoming IEPs'.  This makes them so easy to grab when I am working on paperwork.  It also reminds me of what I have to do!

Here's to keeping organized this year!

YEAR LONG ARTICULATION THERAPY BUNDLE GIVEAWAY!

Do you ever find yourself saying...

· How do I keep my students engaged during drill?

· Articulation therapy is so boring!

· I am out of activities to do with my students!

These are the questions that I have constantly asked myself since becoming an SLP.  So, I decided to make one large yearly lesson plan that I could use for the entire year and never have to think about another articulation therapy lesson plan again!

After 200+ hours of work, I finally have most of it finished!  It is a growing bundle, so it will continue to be updated until September through May are finished.  Enter below to win this prize worth $140!

Here is some of what it includes!

14 SOUNDS ADDRESSED 

· Sounds include K, G, F, V, R, S, Z, L, SH, CH, TH, L Blends, S Blends, R Blends in all positions.

9 MONTHLY ACTIVITY CALENDARS

· Each calendar includes 11 different activities per month for you to choose from.  Most kids are seen 2X per week (8X/Month) so you can take your pick of activities!

· Make your own plan….you have options!

   9 MONTHLY MATERIALS LISTS

  · Each month has a list of materials that are needed to complete the activities (such as  crayons, glue, etc.) 

· Next to each material is a list of corresponding activity numbers so you will know what activity you need the material for.  That way, you will know which materials you need for your specific monthly  plan.

  9 MONTHLY PRINT OUT LISTS

· Each month has a list of pages that you will need to print out in order to complete each    activity

· Next to each materials is a list of activity ‘numbers’ so that you will know what you need to print for your own monthly plan.

 PROGRESS MONITORING (14 Sounds in All Positions)

· Monitor your students’ progress each month with these fun seasonal worksheets!

· This set is sold in my store & includes 400+ Color, Cut & Paste worksheets and all progress monitoring tracking forms (See it in my store)

 ACTIVITIES

Each month also includes directions on how to have a fun activity or party day!

 CARD GAMES (2 Different Game Ideas Per Month)

· 39 UNO Game Sets—Each contains 14 Sounds in all positions (Total of 2379 game cards)

· 39 Playing Card Game Sets—Each contains 14 Sounds in all positions  (Total of 2028 cards)

· 39 Picture Card Game Sets—Each contains 14 Sounds in all positions (Total of 1422 cards)

· Directions for each card game are also included

ART PROJECTS (2 Per Month)

· 18 Different Art Project Ideas—Each art project idea includes a materials list, directions and any print outs that are needed (some art projects are holiday or seasonal)

 

WORKSHEETS (2 Per Month)

· 18 different sets of worksheets/print out activities (includes Dot to Dot, Scavenger Hunt, Color By Word, Silly Stories, Dot A Dot, Word Searches, Roll A Picture, Artic. Scenes, Artic. Stories, Color By Number, Color the Picture and more!)

· Each worksheet set addresses 14 sounds and most worksheet sets include all positions of each sound. 

 

GAMES (2 Per Month)

· 18 Different sets of Games/Ideas (Bingo, Candy Land Artic, Artic Hopscotch, Artic. Board Games,  I Spy, Toss A Sound, Ball Time, Music Freeze, Bean Relay, Chutes & Ladders, Coin Toss & More)

· Each game comes with directions, printouts and necessary game materials.

MY SOUNDS BOOK (2 Pages Per Month)

· Includes a ‘My Sounds Book’ for each of 14 sounds.  Each book is 18 pages long. Students get to make this book.

All activities, games, worksheets and card games include directions on how to use each during articulation therapy!

Interested?  Check it out here!

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