A-HA Moment: iPad Camera

Graphic: www.graphicsfactory.com 

I use the camera/audio recording feature of my iPad at least a few times a week. Today, I decided to use it differently and it was a total A-HA moment. I was working with a couple 2nd graders and we were reading one of Nicole Allison's Nonfiction Texts for Spring/Summer (<---- these are amazing and made my life so much easier this week). I was having the students answer questions and then at the end of the session, I wanted them to create complete sentences to tell me what they learned about tulips. I wanted them to self-critique whether or not they actually produced a complete sentence. 

So I turned on the camera, aimed it at the student, and pushed record. Magic happened. After the initial giggles, they were totally motivated and wanted their turn. After their turn, we talked about if they said a complete sentence or not. I can see this working for tons of skills!

Dare I say I've found a way to get kids excited about talking? I hope so!! Do you use this feature for this purpose? 

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)! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Peek At My Week 5/9

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included for your convenience!

This week was all about Mother's Day! I happened to be rummaging through my closet and came across these felt heart ornaments I picked up on clearance at Target awhile back. Bingo! Craft idea for the week! I took myself to Michael's (with my teacher ID - did you know you can get 20% off your whole purchase if you show it?) and got some foam star stickers and card stock.

We put 3 stars on the hear and wrote MOM. I cut out tags and hole punched them so we could write "Happy Mother's Day!" on the front. Older kids wrote adjectives to describe their moms on the back. I just had them cut the string and we tied on the tag.

We also read The Mother's Day Mice by Eve Bunting. It's illustrated by Jan Brett, who is a favorite author of mine. It's about 3 mice who go out to find mother's day gifts and the surprising gift the littlest mouse gives to mom. Good for prediction and WH questions, plus there's a lot of vocabulary words within the text that we discussed.

I always have lunch bags on hand, like the ones shown below:

We decorated those and then put the heart in it and stapled it shut. I told students not to give it to their moms until Sunday...we'll see if that actually happens! Almost all my students did this craft, and they really loved it! Other goals were obviously worked on, but this was the highlight! 

May Is BHSM!

May is Better Hearing and Speech Month! This month, I decided to create a freebie that would showcase what SLPs can do with a cute puzzle theme. You can hand this out as a information sheet or share it with your colleagues!

Click on the image below to download your copy!

SLPs can work on so many different skills in so many different settings, it's overwhelming! Use this month as an opportunity to let co-workers, parents, and other professionals what SLPs do!  

What's In Your Cart? Linky

Sunday night crept up on me way too fast! I finally got the chance to sit down to share what's in my cart for the big TpT sale on May 6 and 7. My store will be 20% off and don't forget to use the code to save even more! 

Jenna over at Speech Room News is hosting another linky party so we can share what's in our carts. 

Here's a peek at a couple things I'm eyeing:

1. Language Progress Monitoring Tool from Natalie Snyders: Why? Data collection, that's why!

2. Nonfiction Texts with English Language Arts Targets from Nicole Allison: This is full of passages that can be used to address a variety of language goals.

My newest product is called Phonology Interactive Mini-Books for Final Consonant Deletion. They are loosely based on the cycles approach for phonological disorders. There is a mini book for final /p, b, m, n, t, d, k, g/ with original, repetitive stories for each sound. Once you laminate them, you should  hole punch each page where indicated. There are 2 words on each page that the student should say 5 times each = 10 trials. There are 10 words total with the target sound, which means you'll get 100 trials just by reading the book. 

Students can put their finger through the hole as they say each word, which increases their motivation  and makes drill more fun. A free mini-book is available so you can try before you buy (click here). 

That does it for me! Here's the starting the first full week of May! 

Clinical Skills Confidence: Banish the "video games" answer!

Graphics: My Cute Graphics

I don't know about you, but my sessions frequently begin like this:

Me: "Hi XXX, how are you?"

Student: "Fine."

Me: "What did you do over the weekend/last night?"

Student: "Played video games."

Sigh.

This seems to be a highly popular response. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion about technology, particularly video games. However, I got tired of hearing this response. So I decided it was time to do something about it. I'm ok with getting that response, but if this is what interests my students, then I should use it to my advantage!

What does that get you? A freebie! And maybe you'll be saved from that same response too!

I put each of the circles on a popsicle stick and put them circle side down in a cup. Students are warned as we are walking into the room that if they answer my question about their weekend with "I played video games," they will be required to pluck out the sticks and complete the corresponding language task (I decided beforehand how many I wanted them to complete). To grab your copy, click here.

I also had the students write down some of the video games they play, so I could find out more and maybe know what they were talking about for the next time. I'd love to know if you plan on trying this!

Peek At My Week 5/2

We ushered the month of May in this week. Albeit, with a lot of rain here. 

I did a lot of testing this week, so I chose a craft that was super easy and involved glue, cupcake liners and some paper. My younger kiddos love to bring something home with them. I see a lot of them for articulation/phonology, so it's nice to have something hands on they can do in between drill. 

I pulled out Formulating Questions Fiesta to work on asking questions. I seem to have a lot of kids who are working on describing attributes, so Describing Dash also made an appearance this week. 

One new thing that I discovered: I pulled out my Connect Four game to use with some preschoolers. There are 42 spaces for coins. I told them that we were going to "fill it up." I'm doing cycles with these two and drill can get somewhat boring. I told them we were going to see how fast we could fill it up and then we'd let it go "crash." I had each student do 5 words and put in 2-3 coins before I covered the top with my arm. It kept their attention and got more drill out of them!

This week was more about survival as I wasn't feeling particularly well. Some weeks are just like that. Next week, I have a cute craft planned for Mother's Day! Stay tuned!