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?

Therapy Fun Find of the Week

As a therapist I feel like I have to think outside the box A LOT.  I guess it's because each child or client is different, and though two might have the same goals, the way they reach them are never the same.  You have to take into account what motivates them, their abilities, their limitations, their age, etc.  It seems to go on and on.

I'm always looking around for new things or ideas to try, whether it be a game, new toy, helpful article, video, craft, etc.  I thought I'd share with you some fun things I find from time to time...just in case you're in the same boat as me.  :)  

This fun find is for your little ones or your low functioning friends.  Youtube is actually great for therapy finds.  I found this channel called PelicanTalk that has cute preschool themed videos for speech!  I think it's supposed to be promotional clips for their other products, but they have several uploaded on their channel.

Check out this cute oral awareness video.

This is actually perfect for my preschoolers that just have no awareness of their mouths or faces.  Mirrors can only go so far, so clips like this make it a little more fun and interesting for them.  I don't really do a lot of specific oral motor activities with my kids, but I do like doing activities to increase oral awareness when they have deficits in that area.

PelicanTalk has about 6 videos for teaching prepositions, vocabulary, or other concepts.  It's definitely worth checking out if you work with preschoolers.  Plus, they have cute Australian accents in all of the clips.  ;)

What do you think?  Any interesting finds you'd like to share?

2013 Favorites!

Oooh the last day of my break!  Why do holidays off school always seem so short?  Leading up to it they feel like they'll never get here, but when the holidays finally arrive, they always fly by.  Oh well, maybe a few freebies will help ease the transition!  

Last year was a great year!  I posted several freebies throughout the year, so in case you missed a few of them, here were my top 10 in no particular order!

1.  Love Bug Preschool Articulation

2.  Giant Game Board 

3.  Mardi Gras Mambo Freebie

4.  Lots of Biscuit Freebies!  Click on the pics to take you to each one!

5.  Easter Treat Speech

6.  Fluency Pinwheels

7.  BHSM Bookmarks

8.  Data Sheets

9.  Fluency Enhancing Behaviors Freebie

10.  Preschool Quick Probes 

Well, that's a few of MANY freebies that you can find throughout last year.  Hope you can use some of them!  Which ones were your favorites?  :)

Happy Thanksgiving, Biscuit {FREEBIE}

Only a few more working days and then it's Thanksgiving break!  And in my speech room, we are all about Thanksgiving-themed activities until then.  Luckily, lots of your SLP friends have made fun materials to help you this season.  So be sure and stay with me to the end of this post to see a list of Thanksgiving freebies that you can snag!

You might already know that I love using Biscuit books, so naturally we are whipping out Happy Thanksgiving, Biscuit this season!

I've also got a cute new mini-companion for you to go along with this book!  Check it out!

It comes with vocabulary from the story that I like to velcro to the pages.  *Side note:  Check out how I do this in my previous Biscuit posts...like this one or this one. 

The pack also includes WH question/comprehension cards...

Sequencing sheet focusing on beginning, middle, and end of the story...

And an open-ended worksheet that can be used with any target.  

You can grab this freebie HERE!  

I've also compiled a list of several Thanksgiving FREEBIES from all around blogland and TPT for your convenience!  Take a look at what your super-talented SLP friends have made for you!

-Free worksheet preview from this pack from Speech Therapy Games

-Thanksgiving Language Craftivity from the Speech Bubble

-Turkey Categories from Speech Room News

-Pilgrims and Indians from Speech Room News

-Pilgrim Possessive Pronouns from Speech Time Fun

-I'm Thankful for TH freebie from Teach Speech 365

-Super Turkey open-ended game from Crazy Speech World

-Fingerprint Turkeys from Putting Words in Your Mouth

-Smash and Smell Spices from All Y'all Need

-Print and Play Thanksgiving from Gold Country SLP

-Build a Turkey Syntax freebie from Speech2U

-Thanksgiving Token Boards from Tech 'n Talk SLPs

-Articulation Turkeys from Carrie Manchester

-Thanksgiving Themed Bingo from Carrie Manchester

-Thanksgiving Artic Mad Libs from Super Power Speech

-Thanksgiving Artic Word Search from Super Power Speech

-A Feast of Turkey Topics from Speech Snacks

-My Hungry Turkey from Expressly Speaking

-A Plate Full of Thanksgiving Craftivity from the Dabbling Speechie

-Fall Reinforcer from Miss Gator Speechie

Hope these help some of you finish out your week or 2 in speech before the Thanksgiving break!  If I missed any more freebies, feel free to leave a link in a comment below!!  

Preschool Quick Probes FREEBIE

Do you ever just need to gather some quick data?  Usually around progress report time or when I go to write a new IEP, I want to make sure and probe my kiddos to get the most current data on them.  

Soooo I developed these quick probes to help me with my little ones.  They have been a big help, especially since I have so many kindergarteners on my caseload this year!  Check out Preschool Quick Probes.

This packet comes with 6 slides that address functions, categories, basic concepts (levels 1 and 2), associations, and prepositions.

You can either use this by printing out the slides as cards or by pulling up the file on your iPad and using it that way.  :)

There are specific directions and how-to prompts for each task.  Since most of my little ones have similar goals, these were perfect!

Grab this pack at my TPT store for FREE!!  Yay!  I love feedback, so be sure and let me know what you think.  :)

Enjoy!

Biscuit Goes to School!

It's Freebie Week on the blog this week!  That means each day I'll have a different mini-freebie for you, so be sure and check back!  It all leads up to some super fun happenings on Friday, so you'll just have to wait and see! :)

Biscuit is back and he's trying to sneak off to school.  I love Biscuit books, as I'm sure you're aware.  This one is a little different than the others though.  It's an "I Can Read" book, so I'm able to use it with more than just my preschoolers.  My first and second graders can practice decoding and comprehending with this one.  Check out Biscuit Goes to School.

You can still add velcro and place the pictures inside the book to practice vocabulary.  You can check out some of my previous Biscuit posts to see how I do it.

I've got a little mini-companion pack for you to use with this book, in case you need something for that first or second week of school!  Of course, it comes with some cute vocab cards.

You can use them for simple describing or labeling or velcro them inside to make it more interactive.  It also comes with apple comprehension questions to help with both answering WH questions and story retell.

Students can also draw pictures to retell and sequence the events in the story using this chart.

Also included is an open-ended coloring sheet that can be used with any target...artic sounds, language concept, fluency, etc.

Several of my preschool and kindergarteners are working on prepositions, so the packet comes with a section to target just that.  Just cut out and have students place the puppy in different places in relation to the school house.  

Hope you can use these!  You can grab these freebies HERE!  Happy back to school for those of you just starting :)  Please leave a comment below if you download.  

Basic Concepts Skills Screener ~ App Review

So excited to show you one of the newest apps from Smarty Ears!  Lots of my little ones are working on basic concepts, and this app is perfect for finding out exactly what they need.  Check out Basic Concepts Skills Screener!

This is the home screen when you open the app.  The lefthand column holds the list of students and the righthand column shows their screening info.

The upper left tab is the info tab.  Tap it and click "tutorial" to watch an overview of how the app works.  There is also a test manual that opens in pdf format.

The settings tab allows you to choose whether you want to test in English or Portuguese.

To get started tap "add student" and enter the student's information.

You can then select if you want the student to complete a full screening of 79 questions or a quick screening of 30 questions.  The full screening is supposed to take about 15 minutes to administer and the quick screening about 5 minutes.

Both screenings are similar in format.  The test questions are receptive and multiple choice.

An audio voice gives the question prompt and the student selects the picture that correctly corresponds.  Click "next" to go to the next question.  The app also keeps track on which question you are on with the tally at the bottom left of the screen.

This screening assessments targets the following basic concepts and provides detailed data on each:

• Comparative
• Quantitative
• Spatial
• Temporal 

Tap "done" to stop the session in the middle if desired.  You can also add notes while you're testing!  Just tap the notes tab at the top left.

Once the screening is complete, you can access the results.  It comes complete with detailed analysis on each concept category and where they stand in respect to the age of mastery.

You also have the option to email this data to yourself or open it in Therapy Report Center by tapping the blue tap at the top right of the screen.

What I dig about this app:

• It's great to help in assessing pre and post therapy or interventions in basic concept skills.
• It's very user-friendly and straightforward - which is great for the little ones.
• The concepts targeted are appropriate and results are compared to what a child should be learning at his/her age.
• Results can be printed and attached to any other screening or report.
• Good price for an assessment app.

What could make it better:

• I wish I could stop and start the test again if we were interrupted.  
• In the future I'd like to see some sort of pass/fail instead of just a description of what the child could or could not do. 

Overall, I think this app will be very useful with my preschool and kinders!  

You can grab this app HERE on iTunes for $14.99!  What do you think?