Time for flip flops [freebie]!

I wanted to thank all my new Facebook followers so I thought I would gift everyone who likes my page! To get this freebie featuring some fun flip flops, simply like my Facebook page HERE: 

Enjoy and please share with your friends!!

Five, Fast, & Fun: Open-Ended Games

I asked on my Facebook page what types of activities you wanted for the end of the school year. Many people responded with "no color ink and no laminating." Among some other responses that made me laugh! :)

So I created Five, Fast, & Fun! It includes 5 different games that all involve no color ink or laminating - which means no-fuss prep for you!

These are the games:

1. Cool Kites

2. Fancy Flowers

3. Summer Sandals

4. Beautiful Butterflies

5. Sweet Scoops

To play all games, you need a standard 6 sided die, crayons/markers, and glue. The directions are pretty simple. After the student answers a specific number of questions, he/she rolls the die and colors in the corresponding color(s) or patterns. The Cool Kites directions are shown below:

Give each student a copy of the following pages:

They color in a kite, cut it out, and glue it to the page. Easy peasy! They are great for groups - it gives the students something to do when it's not their turn. You can write words on the items for articulation/vocabulary practice at home too! Hope this helps with the end of the school year craziness!

Grab it HERE! Comment below and I'll pick someone to win these games on Wednesday (5/1)!

Chutes & Verbs?

I have looked at this game board at least once a week since I got it. I have also completely missed something kind of cool about it! 

Chutes and Ladders = Chutes and Verbs (and pronouns and adjectives, etc)

For some reason, one of my little guys likes playing with it. By playing, I mean making the games pieces walk across the board (haha). I JUST realized that there are 37 opportunities to make sentences using pronouns, verbs, etc. See it? He is mowing the lawn. She is petting the dog.

Please someone tell me I am not the only one who has missed this...

Clinical Skills Confidence: Areas I'd Like To Learn More About

Now for something a little different: Areas I'd Like to Learn More About

After only 3 years in the field, there are some areas that I'm more comfortable with and some areas that I'd definitely like to gain more experience with. The following are my top 3:

1. CAS or Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Prior to this year, I've had minimal experience with this area. It seems to be controversial (as far as diagnosis, treatment, etc) within our field. I've been trying to do more reading up on it in order to gain more insight and will share as I go along. I would also love to get do PROMPT training at some point in the future. 

2. AAC: With all the different devices/companies/systems out there, it's hard to know where to even start. I've had some experience with various devices, but don't feel that I'm really knowledgeable about any of them!

3. Intervention for 2 year olds: Before this year, the youngest age I worked with was 3. I feel that the 2 year olds require a different kind of therapy, so I've been reading a lot about what approaches work with this age group. They are definitely cute though!

What do you want to learn more about?

{Review} Ice Cream Adjectives

I was so excited to be asked to review a product for Miss Speechie of Speech Time Fun! I chose Ice Cream Adjectives because summer is just around the corner and I have some kids working on adjectives. Head on over to her blog to see her review of There Was A Silly SLP Who Got Stuck To Some Plurals!

In this activity, you get the following:

-Sort by Senses activity: I love this one! You sort the adjectives by sense (ex. salty - taste, sticky - touch).  I love that there is a visual included!

-Describing Cones activity: there are 8 cones that each have an adjective. Students sort the ice cream scoops by the adjective. This activity was the main reason I really liked this activity, because I have a lot of preschoolers who need the visuals. Plus, you can use the scoops for describing, sentence formulation, etc. I have one student who can read, so I created a sentence prompt to encourage a complete sentence: The (item) is (adjective). 

-Listening For Adjectives activity: Students listen to a sentence and state what adjective they heard. 

-Complete the Sentence card game: Students fill in an adjective. If they provide an appropriate one, they keep the card. There are point values on the card, so students can add up the points to see who wins. 

There is also a board game, a color by adjective page, a review worksheet, and a word search! My students really enjoyed putting the colorful ice cream scoops on the cones and I loved that the activity was versatile enough to target other goals. 

Other ideas for this activity: 

-Describe the items on the ice cream scoops

-Pick 2-3 ice cream scoops and create a sentence

-Absurdities: use the complete the sentence cards and put in a silly adjective. Say the sentence and have the student fix the sentence with a more appropriate adjective.

-Following directions: spread out some ice cream scoops and have your students follow directions "find something sticky and then something soft." 

Make sure you follow Speech Time Fun on Facebook, and TpT! She always has new activities and fun ideas for therapy!

The Silly SLP Strikes Again (Introducing Sam SLP)

I received some really kind feedback about my plurals mini-book that I decided to create another with categories! 

The mini-book uses a very similar storyline to the plurals book. In each room, Susie gets stuck to 3 items within a category for a total of 8 different categories:

Sequencing mat: 

Full page Susie! Students follow 1-3 step directions to stick the objects onto her!

Following directions cards: 1-3 steps included on one card. Simply give the students the number of steps they are working on:

Sorting mats:

Say Another cards:

Spot the Silly Cards (students need to fix the error in Susie's sentence):

3 writing pages are included (plus a blank one):

Board game: talk about what things Susie got stuck to in each room!

Comprehension questions (with visual answers):

I also decided to include the same activities featuring a male SLP, so meet Sam SLP (who is just as silly as Susie):

All the same activities in the same packet! Grab this HERE! Enter below for a chance to win your own copy of this packet!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What are all those letters for?

Time for a little Friday fun! Who likes to write all those letters after your name? Come on, you know you do! My credentials are M.A. CCC-SLP, so I created a little picture to show what we SLPs are. My favorites are the Circus Ringmasters and Laminating Machines. 

Then I realized that some of you are M.S. CCC-SLP, so see below for one you can use! 

Had a request to make one for M.Ed CCC-SLP:

That is all for today! Feel free to pin!

Clinical Skills Confidence: When Plan A Doesn't Work

Next in line: When Plan A Doesn't Work

It's a skill that I think you have to keep refining as you move along in your career. In grad school, I had every session planned down to the last minute and I generally didn't have too many kids with behavioral issues. So my sessions were pretty smooth and Plan A almost always worked. 

Nowadays? Not so much. 

So what do you do when Plan A doesn't work? Sometimes your kiddo doesn't much care that you spent hours planning out this great activity. Like when he spots the cars or she REALLY wants to play with stickers instead of the awesome activity you had planned. What to do? Not to worry! For this post, I'm going to focus on the 2-5 year olds. 

Remember, with young children, therapy involves following their lead. This doesn't mean letting the child run the session. It just means that you should adapt your goals for therapy for the moment. There are times when I've forgotten this very important detail. Alas, when I step back for a minute, I can see that almost anything that child picks is something I can USE and ADAPT to fit therapy goals. So the child is dying to play with cars. Ok! Talk about the colors of the cars, hold out two cars and have the child choose which one he wants, talk about going up in the elevator and driving down the ramp, and going in the garage, which car is fast vs. which car is slow, and take turns pushing the cars down the ramp! Before you know it, you've covered verbs, prepositions, adjectives, requesting and turn taking all in one activity.

So, Sally just wants some stickers? Ok! Stick some stickers on the table, on the door, under the table, on her ear, or in a box. Talk about which stickers are big, little, shiny, or purple. Talk about what is ON the stickers and where you find those things. Use a board book and let her put stickers on the characters (following directions, anyone?). You've now covered prepositions, adjectives, WH questions, vocabulary, and following directions all in one activity.

What do you do when Plan A doesn't work? 

Spring Into Speech Blog Hop

I'm so excited to be participating in this blog hop! I "hopped" through the other blog hop posted by some awesome SLPs and was happy when I got the opportunity to join one myself! 

It's looking a lot like spring weather around here! Pulling out the spring coats and knowing that it stays lighter longer makes me one happy SLP! Minus of course, the week of adjustment after springing forward. :) 

Onto the hop information: There are 17 bloggers participating, each providing a freebie! 
Click on the flowers below to hop through the blogs! I'm the 2nd stop, so make sure you hit them all. Look for a flower with a secret letter and unscramble them to make a phrase! Enter it on the Sublime Speech's blog! These are the prizes you could win:

Prizes

1st Prize - $50 Gift Certificate to TpT 

2nd Prize - $30 Gift Certificate to TpT 

3rd Prize - $20 Gift Certificate to TpT 

See below for an example of a completed flower:

Flower "centers":

 Flower petals with sentences are below (the flower petal color doesn't mean anything - they are mixed). There are a total of 6 petals for each flower. I also included blank petals, as well as an answer key! 

See below for all the participating bloggers!!