For the Love of Speech Blog Hop

I'm so excited to be a part of this blog hop that contains TONS of wonderful Valentine's Day freebies from lots of great SLPs!!

My freebie is a Valentine's themed NO PREP activity to target comparing and contrasting. You can just print and tada- you're ready for therapy! Included are 3 pages containing Venn Diagrams with objects to compare/contrast and one coloring page (student has to describe how each pair is alike and different and then color the heart!) You can find it in my TpT store here.

If you're looking for even more no prep materials, you might want to check out my Valentine's Day Print and Go Language Pack.  It has a variety of activities that target different language goals, and best of all it's print and go!  You can find it here. 

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoy the freebie :) To head over to the next blog, just click on the picture below.  Next up is The Speech Space.

To start at the beginning, click HERE.

Happy hopping! 

Interactive Book of Pronouns!

This has FINALLY happened!  I finished the book that I've been working on for two WHOLE months :) :) I am so extremely excited about this pronoun book- it's going to be very helpful to many kiddos on my caseload. I have always needed something to help teach and work on pronouns, both receptively and expressively and this is now my go-to.  It's been tested by my students over the past couple of weeks and they've really enjoyed using it. I have seen more progress toward this goal in the past few sessions with this book, then I have all year- YAY!!

Here is what's included in the book: it addresses the following pronouns: she, he, they, his, hers, him, her, them, their, and theirs. The majority of the book is comprised of receptive tasks to target pronouns. However, I also included activities to work on this goal expressively. There are sentence strips which can be used with any of the pictures (student has to state a sentence using a pronoun), as well as sentence pages (student has to write a sentence about each picture using a pronoun). The entire book is 46 pages in length which means tons and TONS of pronoun practice (this number does not include the additional picture pages)!! Many of the sample pictures included below have multiple pages to use to target different pronouns (with different pictures of course!).

The first page in the book is a teaching and reference page for students to have. When I use the book, I take this out of the binder and use it for the students to refer to if they need additional help.

There are many different pages that look like the one above and below, which are pointing tasks. Or, you could spice things up by using a dry erase marker and have the student circle the correct picture. :)

In the picture above, the student has to place a star on the correct pronoun (there are lots of these pages included in the book!). 

On pages like the one above, students choose from several pictures to place next to the correct sentence. (Pictures are below).

There are several pages where the student has to put the correct word (pronoun) in front of the sentence. (Words below).

At the end of the book, a variety pages are included for students to write sentences using pronouns that they've learned. I've also included optional word banks to place on the sentence pages (shown below), if the student needs a little extra help with forming a sentence. These can be removed if the student does not need them.

And finally, there are four sentence strips to use with any of the kid pictures. Place a picture on the square and have the student complete the sentence. 

I made a quick video explaining the set up and use of the book:

You can find this interactive book in my TpT shop HERE. Please let me know if you have any questions about it! 

The Liebster Award

I'm excited to say that I've been nominated for the Liebster Award by Donna, of Badger State Speechy. The Liebster Award is an award given by bloggers, to new bloggers with less than 200 email followers, to help them get their blog started and welcome them to the blogosphere. Anyone who is nominated is then asked to nominate others. To accept the award, the blogger must answer 11 questions posed by the blogger who nominated them. Thank you so much to Donna for nominating me!

1. Why and how long ago did you start blogging?
I began blogging in August 2014. About six months before that I came across a wonderful website, Teachers Pay Teachers, while frantically searching for materials and activities to use with older students. In doing that, I discovered all of these amazing blogs created by SLPs that I just LOVED reading. I enjoyed reading them so much that I decided to embark on the blogging journey myself. :)

2. What one word sums up the heart of the blog and why?
SIMPLE. I don't know if this is an asset or a flaw, but I am truly a simple person at heart. Since our jobs as speech-language pathologists are so all-encompassing, I try to simplify my job as much as possible. Doing this helps me to feel much more organized and effective. In writing this blog and creating materials for others to use as well, I'm trying to make other's work lives as simple as possible too.

3. Is there something that you learned late in your blog journey that you wished you had known before?
Hmm, I don't know that there's anything that I've learned that I wish I knew before. I just wish I would have taken the time and started blogging sooner! I honestly learn new things each and everyday from this new adventure, and it has been amazing to say the least.

4. What is your favorite pastime other than blogging?
I love decorating! I could spend hours looking through magazines and pinterest for home decor ideas. LOVE it!

5. How many hours per week do you dedicate to your blog?
This is a tough one! Honestly, I devote as many hours as I can on a given week. It certainly ebbs and flows due to life in general. I really am trying to find a way to devote more hours to blogging and creating materials and to become more organized with it all. One day, I'll get there!! :)

6. What category of blog posts do you enjoy the most?
I LOVE reading other speech blogs. I seriously can't get enough! Because of the fact that I am the only full time SLP at my school, I am not always able to bounce ideas off of other SLPs (like I used to in private practice- that was SO nice to have!). So, this is my outlet for learning and collaborating with others in my field.

7. Where does your blog inspiration come from?
So many things inspire me!! I'm always thinking of new ideas and activities to write about. I'm trying to take my inspiration from my daily work life and create simple, effective ways to do therapy.

8. What post have you written that you are most proud of?
I am most proud of Ideas for Using Articulation Cards in Therapy. I want to do more like this one and am planning to very soon.  So many ideas floating around my head!!!

9. Is there any post that you have been planning to do but keep postponing?
I hate to admit it, but this one!! I have been planning to write this post since Donna nominated me, but I wanted to take a little more time to be able to answer these questions with some blogging under my belt. If I had written it back in October, I wouldn't have had as much experience to base my answers on. So, I'm glad that I waited! :)

10. What is your favorite aspect of blogging?
I LOVE that I have met so many wonderful SLP bloggers and am able to learn and collaborate with them. I am awed by all of these ladies and their creativity! It has truly been a great experience so far!!

11. What recipe, project, or idea on my blog would you most like to try yourself?
Donna has many great ideas!! I really like the idea of a speech ladder and would love to incorporate something like this into my room. Find it HERE.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to nominate me, Donna!!  Here are my nominations for the Liebster Award:

School SLP
Speech is Sweet
NW Speech Therapy Blog

Please check out their blogs- they are wonderful!!!

Top Board Games of 2014

Today, I'm linking up with Kristin, from Simply Speech to talk about my favorite board games that I used in therapy over the past year. These are the games that my kiddos love the most!

1. Don't Wake Daddy- this game gets requested ALL the time in my speech room. The kiddos love the suspense of when dad will pop up!

2. Guess Who? - this is another all-time favorite. I LOVE to use this game because it involves talking/asking questions and you can adapt it to target many different goals.

3. Ned's Head- this game is disgusting, but that's what makes it fun!  It's a great game to stick articulation cards or language cards in with the objects. I'll have my students choose a card out of the head first, and then choose an object for the game. It works perfectly!

4. Jumpin' Monkeys- An oldie, but a goodie!  I love that I can choose how many monkeys the students get. We'll take this game out during the last few minutes of therapy, and I'll give everyone 3 monkeys- it's quick and fun!

5. Topple - My older students always choose this game (on days when we actually get to play a quick game!) This is another one where I can choose how many pieces (or turns) a student can have. I'll give each student 5 pieces at the end of the session, and we'll play until everyone's out!  That's usually when time's up anyways :) 

Head on over to Simply Speech to get some other great game ideas!

SLP New Year's Resolutions for 2015

Happy New Year!! I'm linking up with Natalie Snyders to talk about my work-related resolutions for the upcoming year.

1. I would LOVE to learn more about AAC options for non-verbal students. It's hard to know which path to choose for each individual student and what will work best for them. I find that it's a lot of trial and error, and I think it would help if I knew more about the area in general. I'm currently looking into CEU courses on this subject to attend this year.

2. Revise and improve my data tracking system. I made data sheets in the beginning of the year for each student, and while they get the job done, I would love to have a more efficient/organized way to take data- especially when I see students in groups. There is just not enough table space for ALL my data sheets, plus materials!  I want to have more individualized data sheets for each area- articulation, language, etc. Hopefully that will help the never-ending battle that I have with taking data!

3. Be MORE flexible. As each year goes by that I spend working in the schools (I'm currently in my 3rd year) I slowly learn to become more flexible. People tell me that I'm a patient person, but I don't think that I am! Maybe I'm a good actress, haha, because when things change last minute (usually BIG things, like when a teacher says- "We're having a meeting for a student this afternoon who needs a speech evaluation and we forgot to tell you about it until now, sorry"), I may seem ok on the outside, but I'm FREAKING OUT on the inside!! I'm trying my best to realize that things come up, changes are made, last minute meetings happen, and the better I am able to accept these, the better off I will be :)

So there it is folks! I could go on and on about the changes and improvements I'd like to make this year, but I think beginning the year with 3 is a great start! :)

What are your New Year's Resolutions?