November Mystery

It seemed that people enjoyed October's Mystery product. So I'm doing it again for the month of November. This month's mystery is for upper elementary grades (3-6). Here's a little hint: I asked my FB followers what their most commonly targeted goals were for this age group. I asked for a reason...hint, hint.

This month, there are a good variety of activities. Some are in color, some in black and white. There is an open-ended component as well. Since it's geared towards older kids, there is a writing activity as well. Similar to last month, if you purchase and leave feedback, you can enter a special giveaway so be sure to head back here to do that! 

This listing will be available for the month of November only and then it will disappear. I'm enjoying the fun of this and hope you are too! Click here to check out the listing!

To enter the giveaway, you MUST LEAVE FEEDBACK on the purchase. Leave your TpT username where it requests, so I can verify your purchase. If you win, you get to choose any product from my store (no bundles). 

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{Review + Giveaway} Sequencing App

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this app; however, the opinions expressed are solely my own.

Recently I was contacted by I Can Do Apps to do an app review! I am excited to be sharing my thoughts on their Sequencing app.

It is available in the app store for $4.99 (click above picture). Sequencing is an important skill for both functional daily living, as well as story telling. There are 5 different activities within the app. 

This is the main screen:

This is an example of the first activity (ID the picture that occurs first or last). This one was my favorite activity because a lot of my kids struggle with first and last. 

This is an example of the second activity (ID what picture happens next):

This is an example of the third activity (touch the pictures in the order that they occur). I have to say, this one was the hardest for my students. I don't know if they all understood the concept of touching one picture then the next picture. 

This is an example of the fourth activity (put three pictures in the order they happen):

This is an example of the fifth activity (number the stages).

Under settings, you can turn the words and reinforcement on or off, plus see other available apps made by this company.

What I Liked:

-several levels available so it can work for different students/ability levels

-clean, uncluttered graphics

-this app really targets temporal concepts, which so many of my students struggle with

-the fifth activity really allows you to see if your students understand the concept of sequencing (but they do need to be able to read)

What I Would Love To See:

-I'd love the ability to put in your own pictures

-I'd also love to see 4 and 5 step picture sequences

Overall, this is an excellent app with varying levels to help students learn sequencing. The different activities kept my students' attention and it was a fun way to work on this type of skill. 

Enter to win a copy below:

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{Review + Giveaway}: Let's Learn Emotions App

Disclaimer: A copy of this app was provided; however, the opinions expressed are solely my own.

It's time for another app review! This time, I'm reviewing Let's Learn Emotions from Everyday Speech. Plus, you have a chance to win a copy, so read through. 

Below is the screen you see when you open the app. There are 4 different activities: Matching, Discussion, Flashcards, and Manage Emotions. There are 15 emotions included; however, you can easily add your own. 

In the matching, discussion and flashcard activity, you first are taken to a screen where you can choose which emotions to work on. I love this feature!

This is what the matching game looks like: 

Below are some of the cards from the discussion game. You are presented with two cards. The one of the left gives a discussion question, while the card on the right gives the emotion. The group that I tried this with had a good time acting out the emotions. 

If you click the emotion card, it provides a picture of the emotion. 

Below is a picture of what the flashcard practice looks like. You are presented with flashcards and the student needs to name the emotion. What's great about this is that you can add your own and practice those as well within this activity. 

The last activity is "manage emotions." This is where you can add your own. I had my students draw pictures of particular emotions and then we talked about what our eyes, mouth, and body would do if we were feeling a particular emotion. Then I snapped a picture and it added it to the app! 

What I Liked:

-ability to add your own emotions

-discussion game really made it helpful for kids with more language abilities to act things out

-this would work well for kids at varying levels

-ability to choose which emotions to target

What I Would Love To See:

-more advanced emotions added

Overall, this app seems different from some of the other emotions apps I've tried. I like that it can work from a very basic level up to a more advanced level. I especially love the ability to add your own emotions! 

Enter below to for a chance to win a copy of these app! 

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S.A.L.L. for ALL: Fall [giveaway]

Did you see it? The latest thing to hit my store? I'm quite excited about it because I'm hoping it'll make planning much easier for fall. Perhaps another season might follow if people are interested!

It's 110+ pages FULL of fall themed material that is broken down by 4 themes: apples, pumpkins, leaves, and football. Did I mention it's CCSS aligned? There are activities that should work with K-5th grade students. Individual activities within each theme vary; however, in each theme there are nonfiction passages, 2 stories (one for K-2, one for 3rd-5th), and open-ended articulation activity, and a simple craft activity. 

The following CCSS are targeted in this packet:

K.L 1b. Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs

K.L 5c. Identify real life connections between words and their use

1.SL 6. Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation

K.L 1f. Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities

1.RL 1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text

1.L 4a. Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase

K.SL 6. Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly

2.L 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning words and phrases

K.L 5a. Sort common objects into categories to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent

2.3.L 1b. Form and use frequently occurring irregular plural nouns

1.RL 9. Compare and contrast the adventure and experiences of characters of character in stories

K.L 1e. Use the most frequently occurring prepositions

3.L 5a. Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases 

K.L 5b. Demonstrate understanding of frequently occurring verbs and adjectives by relating them to their opposites

K.L 5d. Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action by acting out the meanings

2.3.L 1d. Form and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs

You can see all the different activities in the TpT listing and by downloading the preview. Here are a couple more pictures to give you more of an idea:

This is an idiom matching game, you can also choose to play without the answer choices:

These helmets are for comparing/contrasting:

These leaves are for irregular plurals:

Roll a die and cross off an antonym (synonym page also included):

You can win a copy by entering below:

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Thank You + Freebie + Giveaway

Last week marked another TpT site wide sale! The buzz these sales create is amazing. I am beyond grateful for anyone who made a purchase from my store (during the sale or anytime). 

I picked up what I mentioned in this post and managed to find a couple other things:

Cariboo Cards from Kathy Grover: I have and love this game! 

Let's Make Analogies From Speech with Sharon

So now I'd like to offer a freebie and a giveaway as a thank you! The freebie focuses on story retelling, which is something that so many of my students struggle with. I created these to help them practice this skill. Use these “stick-ups” when you’re reading a book with your students. I included a variety of terms that you might use in your classroom, so feel free to just use some of them. When reading, you students can put the “stick-up” in the book to mark a character, the problem, an emotion, etc. When you’re ready to have them retell, they can turn back in the book and find that detail. I call them “stick-ups” because I designed them so they would stick up out of most books! 

This is an example of how they might look:

Grab your copy here and don't forget feedback if you like them!

And now for the giveaway! Enter below for your chance to win 3 products of your choice from my store (bundles excluded)! 

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{Review} Preposition Remix App + Giveaway

Disclaimer: A copy of this app was provided to me; however, the opinions expressed are solely my own.

Time for another app review and giveaway - one of my favorite combinations! Be sure to enter the giveaway after reading my review!

Preposition Remix is an app by Smarty Ears that sells for $9.99 in the App Store. It is a single player app that targets 20 different prepositions.

You can customize it in the settings to only target certain ones, which is a great feature. Some of the prepositions include ones that I've found myself targeting on a regular basis, such as: above, behind, under, in front of, etc.

You can choose to have the written cue on the bottom or not:

Some of the prepositions are less common, such as: furthest, closest to, etc. 

When the student selects the correct choice, they get an audio and visual reward, which is very motivating to my students:

What I Liked:

-ability to customize and target just what you need

-pictures are clear

-ability to target less common prepositions like further, closest to, etc.

What I Would Love To See:

-the ability to make it multiplayer since I work with many groups

-an expressive part where students could name the preposition once they've mastered the receptive aspect

Overall, this is a fantastic app that will get your students excited about practicing prepositions! 

For your chance to win a copy, enter below:

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{Review} iName It from Smarty Ears + Giveaway

Disclaimer: A copy of this app was provided to me; however, the opinions expressed are my own!

It's time for another app review! This time, I am reviewing iName it from Smarty Ears. This app is currently on sale in the app store for $14.99. Initially, I thought this app was geared more towards adults. After some exploring, I think it will definitely work with children as well. Specifically, it works well for anyone who has difficulty recalling functional words in the household. 

There is a choice of 5 rooms, including the bathroom, bedroom, garage, kitchen, and living room:

Once you choose a room, you will see a room with a variety of items. Along the bottom of the screen, you will see all the items that you can touch and see in a larger view. 

If the client isn't able to name it right away, there are a variety of cues that can help with word retrieval. You can hear a phonemic cue, complete a phrase, the whole word, or a semantic clue (a place to store dishes). This is great for learning what kinds of cues work best for each client. 

What I Liked:

-ability to target following directions along with vocabulary (touch the cupboard, then the cup)

-expansion of utterance (I see the ____, The ____ is in the kitchen)

-realistic pictures are awesome for a lot of my kids

-clean, uncluttered presentation of rooms 

What I Would Love To See:

-ability to touch the item and hear the word: I think this would work really well with some of my kids with autism, because I think they would be able to start connecting the verbal word with the item

-ability to only choose one type of cue at a time

Overall, I think this is a great app for vocabulary development, answering "where" and "what" questions, and learning functional life skills items.

Smarty Ears has provided me with a copy to give away, so please enter below!

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Teach Speech 365 is 1!!

Hooray, Teach Speech 365 has officially been around for 1 year! I'm continually amazed that people follow my blog and enjoy the materials/information I share. I'm also grateful for all the support from other SLP bloggers and the SLP community in general. I hope that you have found at least one thing that makes your life easier as an SLP (or teacher, parent, etc). I frequently use my own materials in my therapy, along with those of other fabulous SLP bloggers who have become "friends" over the past year.

In celebration of my blogiversary, I am and giving away some products/apps!

The first giveaway is for your choice of any 5 products from my store (bundles excluded) - enter that here:

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The second giveaway is for Articulate It from Smarty Ears - enter that here:
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I will also be hosting some giveaways on my Facebook page, so make sure you check that throughout the week!

I am beyond grateful to all the support over the the past year. I have thoroughly enjoy diving into the blogging world. SLPs are a wonderful bunch of people! I look forward to what the next year brings!

{Review} Virtual Speech Center: Verbal Reasoning

I recently got the opportunity to review another app from Virtual Speech Center called Verbal Reasoning! Stay tuned...you might be able to win a copy.

From the developer's website: This is an app for ages 12 and up to target reasoning and critical thinking skills, with over 1000 stimuli. Activities include the following: identifying problems/solutions, predicting what will happen next, what would you do type questions, pros/cons, similarities/differences, why questions and negative WH questions.

This is an example of the puzzle reward - this is not a typical "place the pieces" puzzle, rather it's one where you have to keep moving the pieces around until you get the correct picture.

This screen allows you to choose which activities you'd like to target:

This is an example of the "predicting what happens next" with no multiple choice. 

This is an example of the "pros and cons" activity. This was one activity that I felt was definitely meant for older students - middle school/high school.

This is an example of the "negative why questions" activity:

What I Liked:

• Although the app says it's meant for ages 12+, I was able to use this with some of my students who were as young as 1st grade (if I chose the right categories)
• I liked the ability to chose if choices were given vs. open-ended
• I really liked the problem solving pictures - this generally resulted in discussions that went beyond the actual question
• I love that this app targets some different concepts than in other apps I've seen, like pros/cons and negative WH questions
• You have the option to record the student's answer, which would be a great way to work on grammar 
• You can email reports to yourself

What I Would Change:

• The puzzle as a reinforcer was too hard for some of my kids and they quickly lost interest (it's a puzzle where you have to move the pieces around rather than simply placing the pieces)
• For the pros/cons activity, it would be nice to have some examples for students to "drag" into a pro or con section

Overall, I like how this app takes a different approach to language skills that I frequently target. While it does state that it's for ages 12+, I believe you could use it with younger students with some adaptations. It currently sells for $12.99 in the app store.

Virtual Speech Center has been kind enough to offer a code for me to giveaway, so please enter below: 

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School Is Back In Session (and a new APP COMPANION PACKET)!

And breatheeeeee a big sigh of relief that the first day of school is OVER! I thought I was so prepared: my (8th) schedule was set, I'd ventured outside of my "room" without the school map a few times, I remembered some teachers' names, and I was ready to go. Right?! 

Well, maybe not so much...

The day went quickly and it was fun to see all the kids excited about coming back to school. But I didn't really accomplish anything other than going into some of the classrooms to at least put faces to names. I have to complete kindergarten screenings this week, so I will do the dry run of my schedule next week. Good thing this week is only 4 days!!!

It will get better. I did want to share something exciting that I finally finished up last week. If you remember my speech/language companion packet for the My PlayHome app, then you'll love the latest addition to my TpT store: My PlayHome STORES Companion Packet! I received permission from the author to create this one too! This one has all the same pages as the original one, plus a few different ones. Take a peek at some of the pages below:

It includes:

•pg. 3-6: vocabulary for each store

•pg. 7-10: 1 step directions separated by store

•pg. 11-13: 2 step directions

•pg. 14: 3 step directions

•pg. 15-18: concepts that can be targeted by store

•pg. 20: receptive clue activity

•pg. 21: expressive activity

•pg. 21-24: life skills questions targeted by store

•pg. 25-28: price lists – Give your students play money and have them purchase items.

•pg. 29: additional activity ideas

I hope you'll try this one out! I'm giving one away for free, so enter below:

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1,000 Likes Party!

This morning, I awoke to find that Teach Speech 365's Facebook page had reached 1,000+ likes! 

I am beyond excited and grateful to each and every one of my followers! I started this blog in November 2012 and never dreamed that 9 months later anyone would actually read it! 

To thank you, I have some fantastic things planned. I know everyone is busy with back to school preparations, so I'm making it very simple. 

On 8/12/13, 8/13/13, and 8/14/13 I will do flash freebies. I will try to give everyone a heads up as to when it's happening. Each flash freebie will last only 10 minutes, so make sure you have fast fingers! I'm also hosting a big giveaway: one lucky winner will get to choose any 5 products from my TpT store (bundles excluded)!

Stay tuned for some other fun things throughout this week!

Enter here: 

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