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.

Source

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.

Source

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!  ;)

S-Peachy Feedback and Jamberry Nails!

I've got TWO things to tell you about today.  First, I am loving doing my nails lately.  I have no idea why.  It must be something to do with all of the cutesie nails that seemingly always pop up on my Pinterest feed.  Which is why I'm having a JAMBERRY Nail Party!  Wooo hooo!

If you follow me on instagram, you might have seen these posts of my nails:

I've been having so much fun playing with Jamberry wraps that when Carrie over at Carrie's Speech Corner asked me to host a Facebook party, I jumped at the chance!

These nail wraps are heat-adhesive and stay on longer than any nail polish or stickers that I've used...plus, they don't damage your nails.  If you're interested in ordering some of your own, you can go to THIS LINK.  Be sure to click "Lauren's party" at check out if you order!

If you'd like to attend my FB party, you can go HERE.  You can click "join" so you can earn entries for the door prize!  The party ends on Friday.  :)


Now for the second thing.  I'm linking up with Nicole from Speech Peeps for her monthly S-peachy Feedback linky party!

My feedback winner today comes from the username Hales427.  Here's what she had to say about my Fluency Tools Treatment Pack:

Thanks so mich Hales427!  Email me at busybeespeech@gmail.com and let me know what item you'd like from my TPT store for free!  

Thanks everyone!  Keep leaving awesome feedback!  It means more than you know! :)

Secret Santa Gift Exchange

Christmas break always flies by way too fast.  As I enjoy my last day before I go back, I think about all of the fun and sweet memories with family and friends.  One of my very favorite parts of break this year was exchanging Secret Santa gifts with several of my close SLP blogging friends!

 

So fun right?  When Kristin from Simply Speech came up with the idea, I jumped right on board!  And amazingly enough, Kristin ended up being my Secret Santa!  Check out what I got:

I was SO excited the day this cute green package came in the mail.

It was from Florida, so I knew it could only be one of 3 people lol.  When I opened it, this is what I found.

So cute!  I opened the card to find Kristin's cute family Christmas card.  The other packages included:

A super nice and personalized clipboard that matches PERFECTLY with my speech room!  :)

Aaaaand an adorable red and green lanyard (sorry the pic is a little blurry).  Love love love them both!

This was SO much fun!  A big THANKS to Kristin for her awesome gifts.  Be sure and check out her blog and TPT store!  

I got to play Santa to...wait for it...Katie from Playing With Words 365!  I kind of went crazy with her gifts because I kept finding cute things I wanted to give her!  Lol  Be sure and keep an eye out for her post to see what I gave.  :)

Edublog Finalists!

Last week, something super cool happened.  The edublog nominations were short-listed and the finalists were announced.  And guess what?!  Lots of SLP blogs made the cut!  It's so exciting to know that our profession and blogs are recognized as playing an important part of the education community.  :)

Danielle over at Sublime Speech even nominated my blog for the Most Influential Blog Post of the Year category for this post!  So honored!  Check it out!

Here's the thing...the winners are chosen by majority vote.  Soooo, if you want to help support the speechies, please consider heading on over to the Edublog site and voting for your friends!  You can vote for however many people you'd like.

Here is a list of all the speechie finalists:

1.  Best Individual Blog
-PrAACtical AAC
-Chapel Hill Snippets
-If Only I Had Super Powers
-Speech Adventures
-Speech Peeps
-Playing With Words 365

2.  Best Group Blog
-Speechie Freebies!!  (I'm a collaborator on this one!)
-ASHAsphere

3.  Best New Blog
-Speechy Musings
-Rock Chalk Speech Talk
-SLPs For Change

4.  Best Resource Sharing Blog
-SpeechTechie
-Speechy Musings
-PrAACtical AAC

5.  Most Influential Blog Post of the Year
-Busy Bee Speech (ME!!)

6.  Lifetime Achievement
-Caroline Bowlin
-Crazy Speech World

7.  Best Teacher Blog
-SpeechTechie

8.  Best Twitter Hashtag
-#SLPeeps

9.  Best Use of Educational Wiki
-Communicate PA

10.  Best Mobile App for Education
-ATEval2Go

I'm so privileged to be a part of this list!  Thanks so much for voting!  Yay speechies!!

TPT Product Giveaway Pack #2!

Happy hump day!  It's time for another blogiversary giveaway!  A special thanks to ALL of my SLP bloggy friends for donating some amazing products!

One lucky winner will receive a big bundle of the following products:

• Articulation Game Show by Simply Speech

• Football Pursuit by Home Sweet Speech Room

• Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow Verbs by Carrie's Speech Corner

• Fall Describing Fun by Speech Time Fun

• Open-Ended Gameboards Aug-Dec. by Putting Words in Your Mouth

• Flying Broomsticks by The Dabbling Speechie

• Where Do We Belong? by Speechy Musings

You can win this big bundle of products by entering in the rafflecopter below!  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

TPT Product Giveaway Pack #1!

Welcome to Day 1 of blogiversary fun!  Today several of my sweet bloggy friends are donating some of their fabulous products for a big bundled giveaway!

Here are the awesome products that you can win in this bundle:

• Articulation Homework Packet {s, s-blends, sh} by Speak Listen Play

• Build a Burger Social Skills by The Speech Bubble

• October Homework Pack by Natalie Snyders

• My PlayHome Companion Pack by Teach Speech 365

• Pronouns by Kristin Minden

• Fall Into Speech & Language by The Dabbling Speechie

The winner will receive all of these great products to add to their speech repertoire.  Just enter in the rafflecopter below!  

Also, everything in my TPT store is 15% off today and tomorrow!  Be sure and grab what you need while it's on sale.  :)  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Throwback Thursday: Before They Were SLPs...

Ohhhh Baby!

Do you like games?  Are you obsessed with speechie blogs?  How about Erin Condren products?

If so, I'm thinking you are going to LOVE this fun new giveaway game!

Several of us speech bloggers teamed up and submitted a childhood photo.  Your job is to match the blogger to their baby pic!  Shouldn't be too hard, right?  Well, you have over 20 of us to sort through!

{{The first person to get all of the matches correct OR whoever has the most matches by Sunday, October 6 at midnight will be the winner of a $50 gift card to Erin Condren!!}}  I adore her products and wish I could enter this one.  ;)

I think we've come to the consensus that cute baby photos are one of the requirements of being an SLP.  Haha.  Check us out!

To enter, just submit your entries to Kristin over at [simply speech] by emailing her your guesses at kcummingsslp@yahoo.com.

Here's a list of all of the participating bloggers!

A little tip for guessing: you might want to go look at blogger and TPT profile pics to get a better look at the bloggers.  I also have several pics under my "about" tab at the top of my blog.  :)

Good luck!  Here are the links to the blogs, for your convenience.

Jenn @ Crazy Speech World
Rachel @ Let's Talk Speech Therapy
Shannon @ Speechy Musings
Nicole @ Speech Peeps
Amy @ Major Speech Pathology Fun
Kristin @ Simply Speech
Natalie @ Natalie Snyders on TpT
CC @ If Only I Had Super Powers
Carissa @ Home Sweet Speech Room
Kristine @ Speak Listen Play
Whitney @ Let's Talk
Carrie @ Carrie's Speech Corner
Jenna @ Speech Room News
Maureen @ The Speech Bubble
Felice @ The Dabbling Speechie
Krysta @ Speak Listen Play
Danielle @ Sublime Speech
Lauren @ Busy Bee Speech
Kristine @ Live Love Speech
Jessica @ Constantly Speaking
Courtney @ PSST! Let's Talk

SLPs Care for OK! How YOU can help!

If you didn't already know, our SLP community is amazing.  Not kidding, each and every one of the people I've come to get to know throughout my bloggy adventure has been incredible.  I am privileged to be a part of a new AMAZING project to help out a few of our fellow SLPs, who lost so much during the OK tornadoes.

Here is a great way that YOU can help support your fellow SLPs.  There are 2 bundles of awesome products available for purchase at a special SLPsCareforOK TPT store.  By purchasing one or both of these items valued at over $140 each (!!) for only $15, you'll be helping raise money for the therapists in Moore, OK.  All profits will go to a special paypal account specifically for Moore SLPs.

The above adorable stamp logo was created by Mia over at Putting Words in Your Mouth!  Click on it to head over to the TPT store and check out the bundles.  You'll even see my Fluency Tools Treatment Pack as part of Bundle #1.  :)

One fellow blogger, Amy Minor, from Major Speech Pathology Fun by a Minor Girl currently lives in OK and is a part of the district that has been directly affected by the tornadoes.  If you're interested in finding out more, check out this blog post about what happened on May 20 and this blog post for more details about this project.

Our SLPsCare group also has a FB page that you can find HERE.  Be sure to check it out!

I am SO excited about this collaborative project and how it gives an awesome way for us to help!  Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out for the OK community, especially since these storms seem to be ongoing.  

This deal will only be available from June 1-June 30, so hurry and go grab those bundles! :)