Fruit Bowls and Polar Bears!

Lots of fun things happening at Teach Speech 365! 

First: My Fruit Bowl Fluency Game is now posted on TpT. It is a game that targets preschool and early elementary age children. I wanted something with pictures for those younger kids who may not be aware of their disfluencies yet, as well as something fun for elementary age students. Plus, I found some fun fruity clipart from Graphics From the Pond that I grabbed during the Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale. It has 4 different types of cards: "apple" easy onsets, "orange" light contacts, "pear" pausing, and "grape" get bumpy cards. The goal is to fill up your bowl with as many pieces of fruit as you can!

If you want to purchase this, it's only $2.50. Make your fluency sessions extra fruity! Giveaway for this game is happening right now on my FaceBook page, so check it out.

Next: I am doing the finishing touches on a fun polar bear problem solving activity pack that uses graphics from Jeanette Baker ofJason’s Online Classroom (www.teacherspayteachers.com/ store/Jasons-Online-Classroom). I got a request to create some problem avoidance tasks, which fit in nicely with the problem solving pack! Another (holiday themed!) problem identification activity is also included in my Holly Jolly Holiday Language Packet! I can't wait to see if you like these activities! Here's a sneak peek of the polar bears:

Look for these adorable polar bears to show up again in a social skills packet that I'm also working on! 

Race Car Game Update + Giveaway + Freebie?!

Middle of the week slump? How about a freebie?!

I updated my Start Your Engines Following Directions Game on TpT with an additional 24 cards for 2 step temporal directions involving before/after! I also added a unique feature. I don't know what everyone else goes through, but having to give 2 step directions involving before/after sometimes confuses me more than the students! So I created the document in such a way that each of the temporal direction slides has a slide right after with an SLP "cheat sheet!" If you laminate them back to back, one side will have the car and the direction you read to the student, while the other side has the order in which actions SHOULD be performed. Ex: Touch your nose after you sit on the floor (back of card reads: sit on floor, nose). 

If you want the full version, you can find that here!

Because I'm so grateful for the purchases made on Monday and Tuesday from my store and the feedback you've provided, I'm offering some of the Start Your Engines Game as a freebie! 

Get it here!

Hmmm...giveaway time! I'm offering my Start Your Engines game (full version) to one lucky person! Enter below

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Big Thank You!

Thank you to all who have made purchases from my TpT store! Since I'm a new blogger, it really makes me happy to know that other SLPs think my materials are useful and are willing to purchase them! I have put a lot of time and energy into creating materials that  I use as well as ones that I hope others will benefit from. If you enjoy using something you download, please spread the word! 

So far, my WH question packet with visuals and Tongue Twisters have been purchased the most!

Next up: look for fun materials for fluency, prepositions and basic concepts!

Comment below if there is a specific skill YOU would like to see materials for. 

Holly Jolly Language Packet - 6 different activities!

I decided to create a holiday language packet that would target a variety of language skills. The activities are a smorgasboard of skills that I target on a regular basis in my therapy room. I also wanted to use ornaments for those who celebrate Christmas and dreidels for those who celebrate Hanukkah!

1. Pleasing Plurals (regular and irregular): given the singular noun, student provides plural form

2. Perky Pronouns (he, she, they): fill in the correct pronoun

3. Puzzling Problem Identification: I have students who have difficulty identifying problems in basic situations, so I created sentences and the student decides if there is or is not a problem. The SLP can then discuss how to solve the problem and expand on their responses. 

4. Oodles of Opposite Concepts: I decided to try a different way of targeting concepts. This activity is sort of like having the students come up with antonyms, but it focuses on basic concepts like tall/short, on/off, etc. The student is given a concept and has to provide the opposite concept!

5. Wonderful Word Finding (driedels): there is a phrase with a word missing that the student fills in

6. Clever Categories (dreidels): student is given a category name and has to name 2-3 members or name the category when given members

Each activity includes 36 ornaments or 36 dreidels. Print a tree/table for each student. Easy to work on different language skills in groups! See pictures below:

Just in time for my Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale, this 32 page packet is posted on my TpT store! Everything in my store is 15% off tomorrow and Tuesday too!

Holiday Gift Tag Activity & Freebie!

The holiday season has arrived in full force. I wanted a new seasonal activity that would focus on expressive language skills. I happened to see gift tag labels for $1.00 in Walmart today, which sparked an idea! When I came home, I found an old box (shirt box, shoe box, etc) and lined the bottom with white paper. Then I peeled off the labels and stuck them in random order around the paper until it looked like this:

I plan to give my students pennies to toss into the box, then describe the gift tag they land on using this Holiday Gift Tag Activity freebie I just posted on TpT! 

The great thing is that you can change this activity with the holidays/seasons: just use different stickers! I included a description chart for the gift tags, but also a general one to use with stickers. If you download it, PLEASE leave feedback! 

*NOTE: I realize that some schools do not allow Christmas to be discussed. In this case, you could use winter themed stickers instead. Enjoy and comment below if you think you'll use this! 

WH Questions Galore! *FREEBIE already posted*

I think a good 95% of SLPs have at least one student (or many) working on WH questions. I have noticed that many of my students struggle with these questions, especially when there are no accompanying visuals! So I wanted to create an activity that focused on these questions AND provided visuals/written words as answer choices. Included in my new activity are WHO, WHAT, WHERE, and WHEN question cards. These are simpler in nature (ex. who do you see when you're sick?), so they are more appropriate for preschool age or lower elementary grades. You get 20 questions for each type of question, giving a total of 80 questions. The nice thing is each question type has a different color border, making it easy for the SLP to easily work on just one or two types at a time. See what I mean below:

I offer some of the WHO questions as a freebie here if you want a better idea of how these cards look!

Since my whole TpT store is on sale for Cyber Monday and Tuesday, you can get this for 10% off here!

Black Friday Tongue Twister Sale!

Just finished up my tongue twister activity and posted to TpT!!! You get 35 different tongue twisters for TH, SH, CH, J, S, Z, and R. That's 245 total! It's 20% off for one day in honor of Black Friday! 

Twist up some fun in your next therapy session here! 

I'm hard at work on a new activity targeting WH questions and hope to have that posted before the Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale begins! Hope you all got some shopping done today if you went and if not, a little cyber shopping might be fun...

Cyber Monday and Tuesday Sale!

I'm joining other TpT sellers and throwing a 15% off Cyber Monday and Tuesday Sale for all the items in my store! Look here to see recently added activities!

As a reminder, if you download any of my freebies, please leave feedback on TpT! It will help me when I'm designing new materials! Look for the SH, CH, and TH tongue twisters to be posted very soon! I will be at work all day and then traveling, but I want to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving! :) 

Regular Past Tense Balloons! *PLUS FREEBIE*

The Monday before Thanksgiving is already here? How many of you are off on Wednesday?! I'm sure lots of people are looking forward to some time off to spend with family and friends!

To kick off this week, I've posted the regular past tense balloons over at TpT. These are green (irregular ones are red) and you get 18 for only $1.00!! If this is something you'd like to see more of, leave a comment below and I'll get to work on making more. This is what the regular past tense balloons look like: 

I'm also working on sentence level activities for "sh, ch" and "th." What other sounds would you like to see? Before the whole activity is completed, I'm offering part of it as a FREEBIE! Just in time for Thanksgiving, I thought giving some of the "th" material would be appropriate.

Get some "th" tongue twisters to spice up your articulation groups right before Thanksgiving break!! Gobble, gobble, gobble it up here!

"His" and "Her" Fun!

It's been a busy Sunday here at Teach Speech 365. I have ONE MORE thing to share with everyone! Many of my kiddos are working on possessive pronouns, specifically "his" and "her." Interestingly enough, if they are boys, everything is usually "his" and if they are girls, everything is usually "hers." This is rather difficult concept to teach without lots of visuals. Working in the private setting now, I have several younger kiddos who need the visual of a boy or girl in order to grasp this concept. 

Soooo...I give you: Possessive Pronoun Sort!!! 

I included a boy to help kids visualize "his" and a girl to help visualize "her." I have plastic pillowcase bags (the plastic pouches that pillowcases or curtains come in) hanging on my wall. I can tape these visuals to the outside of the bags and the kids can just drop each card in the pocket.

If you would like this now, visit my TpT store here! Win a copy below: 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

AHHHHH!!!! The /r/!!!!!!!! Includes a *FREEBIE*!

As SLPs, I would venture a guess that we ALL have at least one if not several students who are working on articulation of /r/. As a relatively new SLP, this sound can be frustrating for the student, the parents, and sometimes me! 

Some tricks that I've used recently include: 

*For the "ar" variation: have students place a hand horizontal just below the chin. Instruct them to make sure the jaw comes down and hits their hand, which sometimes helps achieve the jaw depression that is necessary for correct production.

*For the "or" variation: I've had students put a DumDum lollipop just inside their mouth and instructed them to make sure no part of their mouth touches the lollipop. The "or" requires the lips to be rounded and pretty wide open to sound correct. I've also had students look in the mirror and make sure their teeth don't touch when producing these words. 

I have spent a lot of time researching how to help students produce the /r/. Dawn Moore M.A. CCC-SLP from www.expressionsspeech.com is a great resource! The "help line" on www.speakingofspeech.com is also my go-to whenever I'm stumped! 

Lots and lots of drill is necessary in order to remediate the /r/. For that reason, I've continued my "cupcake" theme with a prevocalic and vocalic /r/ sort. This document includes words with vocalic /r/ variations: prevocalic r, ire, air, ar, or, ear, and er. Included are yellow cupcakes for sorting purposes. There are 24 green cupcakes for each of the /r/ variations, which gives you a total of 168! The words are written, which means this is more appropriate for older children, but perfect for the drill that this sound requires. You can choose to sort 2 or all of the variations! See below:

If you'd like this "sweet" activity, you can get it here for a low price! Remember, you get 168 cupcakes!!

I also have posted 12 of the "er" cupcakes as a freebie here!

Freebie: /sh/ cupcakes! And /l/ cupcakes!

Sunday should begin with a freebie, right?

Many of my children are working on the /sh/ sound. What child doesn't love cupcakes? I have created a freebie that targets /sh/ in initial, medial, and final positions! While there are no pictures for this freebie, I find that if we are doing "drill" (i.e. playing a game and saying a couple words prior to taking a turn), the child is not even looking at the cards. I usually just say the word and the child repeats it. If he/she is at the phrase or sentence level, I sometimes provide one or have him/her make up a phrase or sentence, depending on the age of the child. 

Take a peek below:

Get the freebie!

I also posted cupcakes that target /l/ in initial, medial, and final positions on my TpT website. Take a peek below:

Get this one here!

Hope your Sunday is "sweet!"

Irregular Past Tense Freebie!

Head on over to TpT to "catch" my first hot air balloon freebie! It targets irregular past tense verbs...an extension activity with regular past tense verbs to follow very soon!

Float on over and get it here!

Language HW Calendar Freebie!

I know many SLPs work in schools; therefore, many of you send homework assignments. In an effort to make your life a little easier, I've created a 10 week homework calendar. Ideally, you would send a similar calendar home in speech folders approximately every 2 months. Each day consists of a short language based assignments. While these assignments may not meet every child's goals, they are broad enough that they should cover some aspect of language. If completed, parents can simply initial the box. If this is something that you enjoy, I will create more in the future! This is what it looks like:

Get it here!

Please link back to my blog if you choose to use this document! Let me know of any changes you'd like to see in the future! 

Welcome to Teach Speech 365!

Hello and welcome to Teach Speech 365! 

I am brand spankin' new to the blogging world. I am super excited about this new adventure. I have experience working in the public schools as well as private private, so I plan to post materials that are appropriate for a wide range of ages. I am choosing to remain anonymous; however, feel free to email me at teachspeech365@gmail.com if you have questions! 

I will be creating a FaceBook page soon as well, so feel free to stop by that when it's up and running. 

I will be posting some of the materials that I have come up with as freebies in order to begin building a fan base. Look for them in the next few days!