Story in a Can!

Many of my poor language disordered students have such difficulty telling stories.  I'm sure that's no surprise to you.  Narrative skills are not usually the strong suit of someone with language learning problems.  They often lack structure, vocabulary, and understanding of overall language.  Needless to say, we work a lot with stories and books in our speech room.

My newest product targets just that - narratives.  It's a fun way to get kids excited about telling stories.  In fact, my little ones actually ask for the story cans!  (I love it when they don't realize they're learning something while playing).

Disclaimer: This post contains amazon-affiliate links.

Now, this product involves a little bit of craftiness on your part to set everything up.  Don't worry, it's nothing complicated.  You can make it as cutesy or as easy as you'd like.

You'll need about 6 small cans or containers, modge podge or glue, and scrapbook paper.

You can just print the labels and affix them onto any small container if you don't have time to mess with making it cutesy.  OR you can decorate the cans with scrapbook paper, stickers, or even have the students help you!  I used scrapbook paper and printed the labels onto full sheet sticker/label paper.  This made it easy to attach.  

This download also contains sheets to make your own story chips to place inside the cans.  I print these on full sheet label paper as well, so that I don't have to bother with sticky glue. 

Just cut out the circles (or use a 1.5" punch) and attach to poker chips.  I used these:

They turned out super cute.  :)  I put the different types of pictures onto different color chips to make it easier to separate.

There are pictures that target characters, setting, kick-off/problem, feelings, attempts/events, and extras/open-ended.  

It also includes story maps, graphic organizers, and illustrating/writing worksheets to use with the cans and chips.  

We use Braidy the StoryBraid in our speech room.  I LOVE Story Grammar Marker.  Find out more about it here.  Some of the worksheets and maps contain SGM terminology as options, since that's what we use.  There are blank versions as well for those of you who don't.  

There are lots of ways you could use these story cans.  I'd encourage you to get creative and find what works best for your kids!  There are several ideas for use in the download as well.

What do you think??  Could your kids use this in your speech rooms?  

Thanksgiving Fun in the Speech Room

Last week was all about Thanksgiving in my speech room.  I thought I'd share a Target dollar spot find with you that my kids had a blast with!

This came in one big roll of Thanksgiving fun.  I separated it out and made a couple rows, since my speech room wasn't big enough to spread the whole thing out!

We used EET stickers and talked about turkeys and other pictures on the sheets.

We did lots of do-a-dots and coloring and practiced our artic words lots and lots of times.

Some even glued pictures of words with their sound in them onto their sheets.

Overall, I'd say this activity was a success.  Their favorite part was probably getting to do speech on the floor!

What do you think?  Did y'all have any Thanksgiving fun in your speech rooms?

Shark Week in Speech with a {Freebie}

Shark week in the middle of the back-to-school hoo-rah?  I say that's a win!  This week we're celebrating a belated shark week in speech and you HAVE to check out all of our fun!

First, we're tying together our back-to-school theme with sharks by reading Don't Eat the Teacher by Nick Ward.  This book is super cute about a shark who likes to bite everything on his first day of school.  I think it might be out of print but you can still order it on Amazon HERE.
This post contains amazon affiliate links.

Next, I made this super fun shark out of an old tissue box and scrapbook paper.  He loves to eat artic cards and all sorts of therapy materials.  ;)

We also did a shark craftivity that included lots of teeth for target words and opportunities to practice following directions.  It's very similar to my dinosaur craft from a while back except this one has fun eyes and a cute dorsal fin.  Check it!

Grab the template for this for free HERE!

Also included in the freebie pack is this cute Do-A-Dot Shark worksheet.  Mark the bubbles each time you say a word or respond correctly.

What do you think?  How do you celebrate Shark Week?

Therapy Fun Find: Busy Bag Exchange

It's time for Therapy Fun Find, where I showcase an idea or activity or anything that catches my eye as useful for therapy!

And oh. my. goodness.  I am loving this idea that I came across from Second Story Window.  It's called a busy bag exchange, and I am digging this in so many ways.

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First of all, I love the bags that they made.  They are great for your littles and most of the bags target lots of fine motor and can easily be adapted to elicit language.

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The ideas for use of some of these cute activities are endless.  I especially liked the "No Sew Fishing Game," the "Race Car Shapes," and the "Play Dough Mats."  Ok ok I liked them all!  

Another reason that I am in love with this idea is that it's an excuse to have a party...aaannnd to revamp it to make it more relevant for us, a speechie party!!  The premise behind the bag exchange is similar to that of a cookie exchange (if you've ever been to one of those around Christmas time).

Each person signs up to make and bring enough bags for the amount of people going.  In our case, it might be speech therapy material bags (handmade activities would probably be the most economical).  Everyone gets together and explains their bags and gives them out.  Soooo, if 10 people come to the party, you'd walk away with 10 new therapy activities!  Cool, right?  Check out more ideas and tips on how to host over at Second Story Window.

I think one of my speechie friends and I are in the process of setting up one of these bag exchanges!  Be sure and stay tuned for what we come up with.  :)  Oh, and if you decide to have a party of your own, pretty puh-lease email me a pic so I can feature it!

What do you think?  Are you as excited about this idea as I am?  I really wish I lived close to all of you.  Then we could have one gigantic party!  ;)

President's Day in the Speech Room

Happy President's day!  Did you have to go to school today like I did?  Or were you one of the lucky ones that got a little break?  Weeelll, I kicked off a week of President's day themed activities today!  Here's what's up my sleeve for this week.

• My President's Day Speech and Language Packet!

This packet is coming in so handy this week!  It includes a game board and lots of activities that address both speech and language skills including main idea, inferencing, predicting, comparing/contrasting, grammar, worksheets, and more.

You can even download the game board for free by clicking the preview button!  Find it at my TPT store here.

• Duck for President

I scored these cute mini-books from a Chick-fil-A kids meal a couple months ago, and I was saving them for this week!  It's a fun little fiction book that has lots of good vocabulary for my older kids, pictures for describing, and other good opportunities for summarizing and sequencing.

• Nonfiction articles from Readworks.org

Have you heard of Readworks?  It's awesome for finding short articles (mostly nonfiction) based on grade or lexile level with comprehension questions.  You can even type in a key word and search for articles about that subject.  These are perfect for a therapy session or even RtI.

I typed in "president" and printed out several stories for my kiddos across grade levels.

• Lincoln hat craftivity 

Here is the cutesie craft that we'll be doing in my speech room.  It's super easy and only takes a few minutes.  Check out our Abe Lincoln hat!

We just cut out a small strip of black construction paper and a large square.  Then we glued them together to make a top hat.  Pretty easy, right?

My artic students colored and glued little picture squares from a workbook to the hat.  It makes a great "blank slate" for whatever skill the students are working on, whether it's fluency strategies, writing sentences, vocabulary, etc.  They could write, draw, and glue anything on there.  ;)

I thought they came out pretty adorable.  My kids liked them anyway.  Well, that's what my week is going to look like.  Do you have any President's Day activities planned?  

Therapy Fun Find: Olympic Craft!

From time to time I like to showcase a speechie product, craft, toy, idea, etc. that I've come across and found cute or useful for therapy.

For today's fun find and in honor of the Olympics starting today, I found this super adorbs Olympic-themed craft!  Check it out. . .

These are little Olympic skis made out of popsicle sticks from Icanteachmychild.com!  She attached upper and lower case letters, so preschool/kinder aged kids could match them up.

I think these matching skis would be perfect for artic words, synonyms, antonyms, words and definitions, etc.  You could even keep the letters and have the kids practice spelling and decoding skills!  The possibilities really are endless.

Anyway, you can find a whole tutorial on how to create these HERE at I Can Teach My Child website.  What do you think?  Cute, right?

Dinosaurs in the Speech Room with a {FREEBIE}

It's dino week in my speech room!  We are reading dinosaur books, doing dino crafts, and having fun with all things dinosaur!  Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

I got out a few of my favorite dino books.  With my preschoolers and kinders we read Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs.  They LOVE this book, and I love it because I can target so many goals while reading it.  We talk about big/little, old/young, day/night, awake/asleep, etc.  Plus, my big book came with lots of cute dinosaur props that I make them do actions with.

My older ones read The Dinosaur Who Lived in My Backyard.  My first grader group was targeting reading for details, so we asked questions and wrote sentences on a giant dinosaur footprint I made out of bulletin board paper.

We also did a fun dinosaur craftivity that I wanted to share with you today!  Check it!

It's a super cute dino mouth!  Lol  Perfect for my artic and fluency kids especially.  We talk about the way we use our tongues and teeth and where we put them as we say our sounds.  :)  Here's how we make the craft.

1.  Print the templates and trace them onto construction paper (OR you can just print them directly onto colored paper if you have some that will fit the printer).

2.  Glue the red oval onto the center of the green oval.

3.  Print and cut out the teeth with regular white paper.  Write artic words on the teeth, fluency strategies, vocabulary, or just use as reinforcement.  Glue the teeth onto the edges of the mouth.

4.  Fold the mouth in the center and voila!  You've got yourself a big ole dino mouth.  I sent mine home with my kids and had them practice their artic words.

Cute right?!  You can download the mouth templates for free HERE!  Please leave a comment below if you download!  :)

Do you do any dinosaur activities in your speech room?

I'm Obsessed with Washi Tape

When I first saw washi tape I was kind of confused.  I didn't understand what exactly you were supposed to do with it, but I knew I loved all of the fun designs and colors.  Since then, I've discovered SO many ways to dress things up with washi tape.  I've been sticking it all over the place lol.

Check out some of the fun things I've been doing with it to "prettyfy" my speech room.

1.  I decorated my laptop with it.  Now, this is actually my home laptop, but you could decorate your work computer with it too.  Find washi tape with your room theme and go nuts!  Lol.

2.  I cutesied up my room clips and hall passes.  My school uses clips for hall and bathroom passes.  It's just a regular wooden clothespin with washi tape on top.  Loving them!

3.  I even decorated old pencils lol...sometimes it's the little things.

4.  I found a $.99 toothbrush holder and spruced it up to make a fabulous sharpie cup for my desk!  Love!

I've even used it to frame artwork and photos to my white board and bulletin boards.  The possibilities with this stuff are endless!  Stay tuned for more washi tape ideas in the future!

Do you play with washi tape too?  What do you do with it?

Earth Day Fun!

It's a beautiful day here in South Louisiana!  A little on the warm side, but clear and sunny and cheerful.  Spring is definitely here.  The grass is greener, and flowers and trees are starting to bud.  Even my fig tree is sprouting some big, fat leaves.  

Since it was so nice out, I decided to take Maisy for a long walk.  Well, I think I need to do this more often because this is what she looked like afterward.  

LOL...poor baby is so out of shape.

This is some perfect weather to celebrate Earth Day!  I know some of you have already done your Earth Day activities, so you'll just have to put these in your pockets for next year.  We'll actually be doing fun "Earthy" activities all this week!  Check out what's happening in my speech room.

First, I grabbed The Lorax to read with the kids.  

They LOVE this book and so do I.  I created a few of these half-page worksheets to use with some of my groups.  They fill this out while we read...with a little help of course.  They include worksheets for artic, rhyming, and vocabulary.

You can grab a copy of these worksheets for free HERE.

We also made some cute crafts to go along with it.  I snagged this fun foam earth-themed set from Wal-mart last year.  

Every time they responded correctly or said their target word a certain number of times, they got a foam sticker.  They turned out pretty cute!

I also made a giant Earth out of bulletin board paper and attached it to my classroom wall with sticky tack.  The students traced their hands and cut them out.  I had some of them find Earth Day vocabulary that included their artic sounds and write them on the hands.  It turned out super cool, if I may say so!  :)

The whole thing will be filled with hands by the end of the week.  It's looking a little bare right now, since we were just getting started.

Oh, and be excited because I've got some FREEBIES for you!  :)  Check them out!

Color-a-pic worksheets:

Sentence writing cards:

Vocabulary wordlist page.  This page can be used for describing, defining, conversation starters, etc.  I had my articulation kids find words with their sound in them and write them on the hands.

Grab your own copy of these freebies HERE.

What do you think?  Hope you can use some of these activities, even if for next year!