Back to School Goodies!

I attended a back to school picnic for new hires tonight. It was a great opportunity to get to know some of the teachers I will work alongside, but also to get to know the big wig..AKA: The Superintendent. I found myself filled with anxiety as I was introduced to him, but he was super sociable. I was relaxed in a matter of seconds! In the school district I resigned from, I was one of 3000+ employees. In the school district I am entering, I am one of 400 or so. That is a huge difference and the picnic tonight was another reminder of this. 

I have a few things I want to share with you! I have created three documents that I plan on putting in my students folders. Some of my students do not have a speech and a language goal, so some folders will only have two documents, but you get my point! =) They are a parent contact log and a language and/or speech goal page. I follow many bloggers, and Kristin, at [simply speech], shared a student data sheet that I loved! I modified it a bit with my own personal twist, but she gets all the credit for the idea! Thank you Kristin! It is what I am calling my language and/or speech goal page. Here are the documents.

I wanted a contact log that I could put with each child's folder. Because we don't have an IEP facilitator, or someone who sends out prior notice forms and such for IEP meetings, I wanted a form that I could use to track all of my contacts with parents. I had a general "log" for all students previously and it took some time to figure out how many times one parent was contacted vs another.

I set up a bar graph type of system on the speech and language goal forms for two reasons. 1) The students can own how successful they are. 2) I see my students at least twice a week based on how their IEPs are (again..I'm new so I am entering in to someone else's setup). This will allow me to track percentages once a week rather than every session. If I don't get to it EVERY session, I won't lose sleep over it, but at least it's a possibility!

I have also created an "expectations" poster that I will hang in my room. I have stapled a sticker chart into each folder. I like the idea of keeping one's sticker chart out of the sight of anothers for privacy reasons, so I chose to staple. It's just a personal preference! Here is what I have for my "expectation" poster at this point. I have not printed it yet because it is ever changing, so please share your thoughts. 

 

Because I appear to be long winded tonight, I am going to end this with a freebie I just posted on my TPT store! I wanted an activity to use with my students during our first (or second) interaction with each other. I loved the use of M & Ms in icebreakers as a kid, so I chose to create an activity based on my memory. I am entering a district where the mascot is a tiger, so a pawprint only seemed appropriate! 

And...one more thing! To go alongside this pawprint activity, I plan on using what Jenn shared at Crazy Speech World in a different way. I plan on using these pawprints with my students names in the pad portion of the paw. In the outside portion, I will have them color/draw/write whatever describes them best! I will then hang these outside of my room as my first attempt at wall decor! The paws will look something like this (before the great color is added)!

Find the documents at the following links:
Parent Contact Log
Speech Goal
Language Goal


Enjoy!

Speechopoly!

Pinterest, oh Pinterest, how you make my creative brain explode with ideas! Yesterday, I decided I want to go through my board that holds all the ideas for the therapy room. One of the "pins" that stuck out to me as I began my decent down the page was that of "Homeworkopoly". Have you heard of it?! You can find the original post here! 


I like sticker charts and will be using them for my precious kiddos in therapy, but I wanted to add a perk of fun. By the way, do you have set expectations for your kiddos when they come in? Do they know what earns them (or doesn't earn them) a sticker? I believe every student should be aware of their behavior and know there are consequences to that behavior. I have a chart, of sorts, that states what expectations are in my room. If a student can say "yes" to all of my expectations, they get a sticker. If they can't, they don't. Is that harsh? My expectations are simple. They are to encourage others, do your best, have fun, etc. 


Anyway, I created this to add that perk of fun!

As you can see, it is no where near completed yet, but it's a start. Here are the pockets that will surround this portion to complete the board...

There are more, but I didn't feel like I needed to take a picture of all of them for you to get the idea. As you can tell, they are not completed because I need to label them with their "avenues" and such. My ideas for the avenues are...
Articulation: syllable avenue, word avenue, phrase avenue
Fluency: bumpy speech avenue, smooth speech avenue, disfluent avenue
Voice: rate avenue, hygeine avenue, volume avenue
Language: receptive avenue, expressive avenue, social avenue


That fulfills all 4 sides of solid colored pockets. For the designed pockets, I am stumped. That's where you come in! I have some ideas, but I have eight pockets to label. I thought about having the pockets on the main board (where Chance/Community Chest would be) labeled as Articulation/Language. In each pocket would be a "challenge" of sorts. For example: "Say a word with your speech sound 5 times with your eyes closed." Thoughts?


On the four corners, I will have the same (kind of) corners used in the original post of Homeworkopoly. Those are "Go" (of course!!), Free Speech, Take a Seat on the Bus, On the Bus (Just Visiting). 


I plan on spray painting craft sticks white and putting my students names on them. They can roll the dice and move their craft stick that number of spaces each time they come to speech. 


I know this is a premature post since it is not a finished product, but in case you were interested in using it in your room, this gives you time to complete it!


Please share your ideas for the designed pockets or options for the community chest/chance area. I have a creative brain, but you might have a special twist that I didn't think about! 


Happy Thursday!

Happy 4th of July!

My husband decided to spend his evening on the golf course, which left me with a little down time. We can all use some of that every now and again! Can I get an amen?! 


Well, as I was sitting here on the couch looking at the latest terms of use for clip art across the web (more on this at a later date), I decided I would upload a 4th of July freebie. I know the 4th of July is tomorrow, but I didn't start blogging until today, so please forgive me for my timing!


So, here it is. A reinforcement activity with rockets and fireworks. The document is 6 pages, which includes the title page. There are 4 pages of rockets, with each page having 12 picture cards. 

That leaves one page, with 12 picture cards, of fireworks.

Set up is super simple. All you need to do is print out the cards, laminate them, and use them for whatever goal you are targeting. With all the cards face down in the middle of the table/work space, the students take turns answering language questions/saying articulation words. For every correct answer given, that student can select a card from the middle. If it is a rocket, they get to keep the card. If it is a firework, they have to return all of their rocket cards to the middle. The student with the most rockets at the end of a session is deemed the winner! 

I hope you have a happy and safe 4th of July. Click here for your download!