Rice Box

I've never been a big fan of using food for non-food purposes. For example, I really disapprove of pasta necklaces on principle. However, I do love my rice box and, sanitary purists plug your ears, I've been using the same rice for 4 years. We build immunity in my classroom!

I hide all kinds of things in the rice throughout the year. I don't bring it out until Halloween, when I hide some themed erasers. What you see in the picture is a selection of the mini-toys I hide around December. Sometimes I hide picture magnets and we put them up on a surface as we find them. As usual, say sounds, make sentences, describe objects at each turn.

Pinterest?

I recently became aware of Pinterest through the SLP Yahoo group I'm on. It looks like there are tons of ideas here. But I feel like my mom when she was trying to figure out Facebook. I have so far been unsuccessful at making a Pin. Oh well, still lots to explore here.

Speech Therapy on Pinterest



Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

Folder Articulation Activity

This one takes some work, but I used it as a warm-up for many weeks in a row. When the students and I were tired of it, I packed it up with this note and sent it home for homework.

Spiders

I must confess, I love spiders. I actually do a spider unit in March, far from the fall/Halloween stuff, since there is so much of that already. I don't really have a favorite picture book; I sometimes use Diary of a Spider. Here are some photos of the activities I do:

1. The upper left worksheet is from my favorite cut-n-paste artic workbook.

2. The lower left is a spider game I adapted from Speechtx.com Once again, very simple, but they love it!

3 & 4. On the right is a spider blank that I drew then copied onto cardstock. The kids complete the spider with cut out black legs, bingo stampers and googly eyes.

The picture above shows one of my favorite booklets to make. The cover and story are adapted from a Mailbox activity. Either I or the kids draw a tub, chair, etc, then use a thumbprint or a stamper to make a spider. Then they say the sentence.

I made a Tree.

I originally made this tree at the suggestion of my awesome special ed prek teacher. We hung Easter eggs on it that had different pictures inside (and some had candy - intermittent reinforcement heh heh).  I found, though, that I can hang lots of stuff on it through the year, like these flowers we made in the spring (each petal was earned by doing a speech task, but you knew that already!)

All I did was pour some plaster of paris in an old plastic flower pot (that I lined with a plastic shopping bag- gah so much plastic!). Then I stuck a suitable branch in it, and then put some gravel from my driveway around it for aesthetic purposes.

What else could we hang on this?

Cookie's Week

Cookie's Week is a nice, short, low text book with one of the most captivating first lines ever:

"On Monday, Cookie fell in the toilet".

I have yet to see a straight face after that! Below is a link to a Google doc I made (hope it works!). It contains scans of parts of each page of the book (just for reference) and some of the 'wh' questions I use for each page. I made 2 sets of days of the week so we could do some matching. The kids can order the days, then move the Cookie portrait along as they try to recall the book. I also made a word document with "On Monday..." etc, so the students can make their OWN week with what they do, did, or would LIKE to do. I don't have a file for that, but it is easy to make.

Here are some of the questions I ask while going through the book:
Click here for Google Doc with Scans and Questions.

Transportation and Cookie Sheets

Once again, I have to say that a unit study of "Transportation" is rich with ideas - both online, in your own toy box, and in the library. I just wanted to share one nifty idea pinched from Darci, one of our preK teachers. What I have here is a cookie sheet from the thrift store (with a background drawn with Sharpie markers), pictures of various vehicles, cut and laminated, double-faced tape, and a sheet of magnet. A great sorting activity!

Even more blogs!

Thanks to Julia Watson for this list of even more SLP blogs.

20 Best Speech Therapy Blogs.

Blog Resources

Happy New Year!

Last fall I discovered several SLP blogs that I have found useful. My blog is pretty low-tech compared the the type of content featured by some of these bloggers.

Therapy Ideas: Just a few ideas on this one, but it is collaborative and may grow over time.

Pathologically Speaking

Easy Speech and Language Ideas


Speech Techie : Just what is sounds like!

Know of any more good blogs? Leave a comment :)