January in the Speech Room

January is almost over. My winter bulletin boards will come down on Friday to get ready for February. But, I wanted to share what we did this month. I went with a snowy theme, even though we were enjoying 75+degree weather. Yes, a heatwave. Not a real surprise here in California. Our best weather is usually in January. Summers can be pretty foggy. 

Anyway, I digress. Let's get back to business!

One of my bulletin boards displayed a hot cocoa survey and mugs. I was inspired by these ideas: link and link. I asked (almost) all of the speech kids if they like hot cocoa, and added their name to either "yes" or "no" column. The two students who said "no" don't like hot cocoa, just warm cocoa.

The kids with articulation goals made hot cocoa. I have to admit, they were all a little disappointed that it wasn't real hot chocolate. 

For the small mugs, I found an image online shaped like a mug, printed it on blue paper, and made marshmallows with typed target words. Next, we did the same thing we always do: they practiced the words on the marshmallows, and glued them onto the hot chocolate.

Yum!

My winter scene bulletin board, Talking in a Winter Wonderland, features mittens and snow globes. Here is before:

And here is now:

The mittens are synonym pairs that the students matched and hung with tiny clothespins on the board. I found the idea here and made my own set with the die-cut machine at our school.

Next up: Snow Globes. These have been the talk of the school. Pretty cute. I found similar ideas here and here and here, and adapted them to work with my supplies. I ordered all of the winter stickers, gems, and snowflakes from Oriental Trading Company. Here are the links: stickers (sold out), gems, snowflakes (sold out).  I had the hardest time finding clear plastic plates. The plates are from Amazon and are 6inches around. An affiliate link is provided for your convenience on my side bar.  The snowy balls are from the Dollar Tree.

  
Here are the steps!

Step 1: Find a cute kid to come to therapy. After each therapeutic turn, the student can add a winter sticker, gem, or snowflake.

Step 2: Pour snowballs in the plate.

Step 3: Put a lot of glue on the edge.

Like this

Step 4: Flip the snow globe over so that it is upside down and the snowy scene will show through the plate.

Step 5: Set the snow globe on the plate.

Step 6: Gently press the snow globe to the plate. Ensure that the glue is on the entire circumference of the globe.

Step 7: Let the snow globe dry overnight.

Step 8: Hang and enjoy!

Do you want to build a snowman? I can't stop singing that song. Luckily for my students, I am singing in my head. I got this freebie from That Fun Reading Teacher on TPT here. I modified the activity a little bit to expand on adjectives and comparatives/superlatives. We talked about all the different ways we could describe the sizes of the snowballs that made the snowman. Then, they chose which words they wanted to use to describe their snowman. Add a little color, and Ta Da! A snowman!

Last month we did some scratch and reveal pages that I found on Oriental Trading Company. You can read about that activity here. It was super popular, so I decided to do it again to go with the winter theme this month. I found these at Oriental Trading Company but they are sold out. Sorry! 

I feel like I am repeating myself, but this is how we roll. Students completed their turn on whatever they are working on, and got to scratch off one portion of the picture. Something great about this activity is that it takes a little bit of time to scratch off a portion of the picture. So, I get a lot of time during each turn to practice with a student in the group while the other student is scratching and revealing their picture. A happy accident!

Happy winter, see you soon for more activity updates and February bulletin boards!

Holiday Update

We are winding down here in speech and getting ready for Christmas break. Here is a final look at my bulletin board. You can read more about it here in this blog post. I love how cozy it feels!

Our little tree is looking festive with handmade ornaments. It also has a new addition, articulation ornaments.

I found the idea for the articulation ornaments via Speech Room News (where I find a lot of good speech ideas). Here is her blog post about it.  I bought clear plastic ornaments from Michael's, a craft store. They were on sale this week for about 30cents each. I bought six to make ornaments for these sounds: /s/, /r/, /l/, "sh," "th," and /k/g/. 

Here are the steps to making these ornaments. I used sticker letters from my scrapbooking stash for each phoneme.

First, put sticker letters on each ornament with the target sounds.

Then, put the little things inside.

After that, close it up.

Last, add a hook, and you are done!

 
Another reason this project was so appealing to me, is that I already have a speech activity that I call Tiny Objects. I have been collecting little things for each phoneme to store in these drawers. When we do this activity, students practice target sounds using the miniatures. This is a favorite in speech class! I will write more about this activity in a future blog post.

Anyway, what made this so easy is that I have all the little things to go into the ornaments!

 

 

Here they are on the tree. When my students are finished with their own paper ornament, they get to hang it on the tree. Then, they look for clear ornament with their target sound. Time for more speech practice! We talk about all the things inside of the ornament. This has been a fun new addition to our therapy week.

Have a great break, ans see  you in three weeks for more fun ideas from my class!

Speech Activities for the Holidays

I love Christmas! Especially in my speech room. The kids are having a great time with each activity/craft-ivity we are completing daily. The first activity I want to share with you is from Oriental Trading Company, my go-to for cheap/fun crafts. I found these advent calendar scratch-n-reveal Christmas trees and thought they would be so fun for my students. Think of a lottery ticket, same idea. Sadly, they are no longer selling them. Maybe next year. There is a chance I bought out their inventory. Sorry!

 

I used the tree in a variety of ways to target different types of speech goals. For students working on articulation, they said a target word as many times as the number on the ornament, and then could scratch off the green paint to reveal the holiday picture. For example, if they chose to do number 2, they said the target word 2-times. Or, when they chose number 25, they said the word 25-times. They got a lot of practice!

I have a student working on some beginning AAC skills, so he scratched off an ornament, and we talked about the picture that was revealed.

Students with social language, language, and fluency goals used the tree as a reinforcement after a response to a question or target of some sort with a picture card.

Another activity primarily for my students with articulation and vocabulary goals, is to make an ornament for my little tree. I pre-write target words on the ornament. For the students working on antonyms, they give me an opposite for the word on the ornament, and then color that words. For those with articulation goals, the student says the word a few times and once in a sentence, and then can color that word. Here are a few examples.

 Another articulation activity is a quick BINGO game for /r/ and /s/. I got it for free here from Communication Window on TPT. Cut, paste, laminate, and buy red and green M&Ms! So easy!
 

I made mulitple TPT purchases on Cyber Monday for social skills materials with a holiday theme. I got the HOHOHO! Social Pragmatics pack from the Dabbling Speechie. Included in this pack are a variety of activities including Santa & Rudolph Perspective Taking Activity, Stocking Stuffer Perspective Taking, HOHOHO Gift Giving Perspective Taking Activity, Christmas Gift Giving social story,  HOHOHO Tone of Voice Lesson, Candy Cane Madness game, and  real life photos to work on perspective taking. Here are a few images of this great Christmas pack. 

I also got the Big Problem, Little Problem Presents set from Lindsey Carol in her TPT store. This activity includes 60 situations in which students must determine if the problem is a big issue or a little one. Students can also provide a solution to the problem. Many of the scenarios have a holiday theme. Here is a picture of my printed set. 

The other purchase I made on Cyber Monday was the Holiday Social Language Activities set from Splashy Speech Stuff. This set has so many great stimulus cards, each related to the holidays and current best practice in social language instruction. Included in this social language packet are Social Problem Solving task cards, Expected vs. Unexpected task cards, Expected vs. Unexpected signs, Gift Giving Inferential scenarios, Gift Giving Matching board, Gift Giving Rubric, Identifying Emotions scenarios, Conversational Questions, and much more. Here is a picture of my set.

Students with language goals also had a lot of work to do these past few weeks. But, it was fun work! I made this Christmas Tree synonym game. Students find the three words that go together to build the trees. I found the idea here at the Speech Room News blog, and made my own set.

For those working on language memory and sequencing, we read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and answer questions that I found here. I am always surprised at how many students have never heard this story!

This Holiday WH Question Mini Pack was a freebie on TPT from Sasha Hallagan. Students working on basic levels of question answering made these WH question books. Do you like the red snowman? Interesting interpretation...

 
I hope I have given you a few ideas for the rest of this week, or maybe for next year!

P.S. Sorry for the shiny pictures of lamination...