Our Speech Room Staples Linky Party

Do you have favorite materials that you use over and over and over again?  I know I do!  Thanks to Speechy Musings for hosting a fun linky party where we get to talk about those favorite materials! 

Here's a few that I use all of the time from other sellers:

I use these Articulation Menus from Speechy Musings A LOT!  My students love it and gets them working on something a little more practical.  It helps with carryover!

Another product I use all the time are these Home Articulation Packets from For His Glory!  My students love these fun, easy activities.  I love that my students do their homework and are doing activities that encourage carryover!

Another product that I use on a regular basis is the Curriculum-Based Language Assessments set from Nicole Allison.

My last staple to share with you today is Speech Sound Alphabet from For His Glory.  I use these for drill and for stations.  They hang at the front of my room, and my students know to grab them for practice!

From my store, I would recommend the following:

The first is my Making Sense of Idioms unit.  I have a lot of fifth grade friends with figurative language goals. I use this packet at least once a week!

The next is something I use every session of every day--my Speech/Language Folders.  These have helped me organize my students and be sure I am addressing their goals.

Head on over to Speechy Musings to see everyone who has linked up and find some new staples to have your in your room!

Which products are staples in your room?

Articulation Carnival {app review}

I have a huge caseload this year, and most of it is articulation.  I am always looking for an easy way for my students to have fun, get a lot of productions, and have their goals addressed.  Over the last few weeks, I have been using Articulation Carnival from Virtual Speech Center to help with this!

Here's a little about the app (from Virtual Speech Center):

The Articulation Carnival app is a comprehensive and flexible articulation program to practice pronunciation of ALL English phonemes at the word, phrase, and sentence levels. The app includes thousands of photos and prerecorded audio stimuli. It allows speech therapists to edit targeted words and to add their own photos and audio recordings.

To get started, put in your students' names.  Once you select the student(s) you want to work with, you can select the sound for each of them:

Once you select all of the sounds for the student(s), there is one main practice page.  You can use the options on the left hand side to switch students, levels, and sounds.  The first will be students, the second will be sounds, the third will be position, and the fourth will be word/phrase/sentence.  Use the buttons on the right to score each production.

Once the child completes their work, there are four games offered as a prize/ reinforcement. They are based on traditional carnival games!

Ducks:

Darts:

Basketball:

Hammer:

Once you are done, you can view the student's progress:

If you need to adjust the settings, there is a huge list of options:

One thing I love about this app is that the "About" video is embedded, so if you have questions at any time, it is available for quick referral.

I really enjoyed using this app with my students.  They had so much fun doing some drill and then playing.  Everyone loves a carnival, and this definitely motivated my students!  I really appreciate that data is recorded for you and that a reported is generated at the end.  This makes it very easy to run a smooth session.

The only thing I would like to see is a definitive stop and start time for the games.  The basketball game has a timer, but the other ones don't.  I would also like to see it automatically go back to the drill/practice page instead of me having to click back to it.

Overall, it is an awesome app that my students really enjoyed!   If you're interested, you can download the lite version and purchase your own sounds here or pay $36.99 for the full version here.
Have you used this app?  What do you think?

Note: A code for this app was provided for my review.  No other compensation was received.  All opinions expressed are mine. 

S...peachy Feedback: September 2014

I'm so very happy to announce that the S...peachy Feedback Linky Party is back on Speech Peeps!!

Here's how it works:
Each SLP blogger will choose a winner that has left amazing feedback on one of their products!  Each month, we select a new winner, so keep on leaving amazing feedback!  We love hearing from you and what you're doing with our products.

This month's winner is.....Sharon A!

Thank you so much for this feedback, Sharon! I love this set in my room, too!  Please email me with your choice of product (non-bundled) from my store!

Check out all of the bloggers who have linked up on Speech Peeps! Thanks, Nicole, for hosting!    Be sure to check back next month to see if you are the winner!

Arrrr! Pirates: A Speech and Language Unit

If you are celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19) or costumes, or are simply just having a Pirate theme in your room, this packet is perfect for you! It is designed to meet the needs of all of your students in just one packet. This includes various speech/ articulation and expressive/ receptive language goals.  

These activities are included in the packet:

-Articulation Cards (pages 4-38): includes cards for /s/, s-blends, /z/, voiceless th, voiced th 

-WH Question Cards (pages 39-42): includes who, what, where, when, why, how questions with wild cards (take another turn, put a card back). Note these wild cards can be used with the articulation cards as well. 

-Writing Prompts (pages 43-45): includes three prompts about pirates, including making up an adventure and summarizing information learned 

-Synonym/Antonym worksheets (pages 46-47): includes two worksheets (one synonym, one antonym) with 20 questions each

--Following Directions (pages 48-50): includes cards with 1-step, 2-step, conditional, and before/after

-Cannonball Cause/Effect (pages 51-52): includes two worksheets (one filled in, one blank) with cause/effect boxes

-Problem/Solution (pages 53-54): includes two worksheets (one filled in, one blank) with problem/solution boxes

-Description Web (pages 55-56): includes two describing graphic organizers (one male, one female)

-Simple Story Sequencing (page 57): includes one worksheet with boxes for first, then, last

-Paragraph Writing Organizer (page 58): includes one organizer to assist students in writing paragraphs with topic, detail, and concluding sentences

-Reinforcer Game Board: A game board to be used with any lesson.

If you are interested in purchasing this packet, you can find it in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!  

I cannot wait to use this with my students this week!  If you use this with your students, please send me pictures! 

P.S.  I'm not sure why the words are getting cut off on these pages.  On the actual packet, the words are NOT cut off.  

Scheduling in the Schools

One of the biggest tasks of a school SLP is scheduling.   My school placement in graduate school was not until the spring, so I didn't have any practice trying to schedule 40, 50, 60 kids.  When I got to my school this summer, I realized I had double the caseload I thought I would and knew scheduling could turn into a nightmare.

To make it easy for myself, I created a schedule paper for the teachers.  I asked the teachers to fill out the form and return it to me ASAP.  I also kindly let them know that I have approximately 70 students that need to be scheduled, so I would appreciate their flexibility.

Once the teachers returned these forms, I was able to make my first draft of the schedule.  Honestly, I only had a few tweaks when I went to confirm it with the teachers.  Most of them were extremely understanding and actually told me whatever I need to do will work for them.

What are your thoughts?  How do you make scheduling easier?

Monthly Must-Haves: September

Some of the bloggers and I have teamed up to bring you a new sale that we are calling "Monthly Must-Haves."  One item that we would consider a must-have in our stores will be 50% off today (September 7) ONLY.  You can get some great products at a great price!

My must-have product for this month is my Making Sense of Idioms packet!  It is all about the history and use of idioms!  You can find it in my TpT store.    It will be on sale today from 9am to 5pm Central time!

Enjoy!

Let's Learn Emotions {app review and giveaway}

Thanks for sticking with me as I've adjusted to the life of a busy school SLP!    Today, I bring you a BRAND NEW app!  There may be a giveaway later, so read on!

There are three activities as part of this app: matching game, discussion game, and flashcards practice .  There is also a section called manage emotions, where you can add your own emotions to the set.

The first is matching.  A question is listed at the top and then the student selects the picture that answers the question.

If selected correctly, it will highlight it in green.  If it is incorrect, it will highlight it in red like below:

The next activity is called Discussion Game.  It is straightforward- a discussion prompt and an emotion pull up.  The student then talks about it.

If the student would benefit from a picture cue, just touch the emotion word card and it flips to the picture.

The third and final activity is flashcards.  There is a picture that pops up.  Click on it, and the emotion as well as an explanation for how you can determine it pops up.

The final area is where you can add your own emotions:

If you want to change any of the settings, you can go to the settings page from the main menu:

or you can change the settings within each game:

Things I Love About This App:
-It targets goals my students are working on.
-It's engaging for my students.
-It uses real life photos.
-There are a variety of activities.
-You can add your own emotions/photos!
-It is really easy to use.

For Future Updates:
-Some of the pictures confused my students with autism.  For example, my students thought proud was excited.  I would love it if the pictures were a little more distinct, but I can also just turn off the confusing ones.
-I would love for there to be a way to take data in the app itself.  Not essential, but it would be nice.

Do you think this is something your students would enjoy?  You can find it in the iTunes store NOW for $2.99 here!

Everyday Speech is giving away one copy to a lucky reader!  Enter below for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note:  A copy of the app was provided for my review.  No other compensation was received.  All opinions expressed are mine.