Wild About Books Wednesday Linky Party

There's not many things better than a good book! Don't you just love to curl up on a cold day with a book and a hot chocolate?! We both have a great love of books and hopefully, we are passing this love on to our students. Over the years, children's books have been a significant part of our therapy and we have developed many lessons targeting various skills in the books. One of our favorite books this time of year is Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. This sweet story demonstrates the love between a parent and a child.

 

Because this book has been so popular with our students, we developed a language and literacy lesson to go along with it.  This lesson contains activities for group/partner talk, listening comprehension questions, vocabulary extension, segmenting & blending, basic concepts, sentence completion, and illustration.  Click the picture below to go to our TpT store if you'd like to take a better look at this lesson.

 

 

Thanks to Scarlett at Speech is Sweet for hosting this Linky Party :)

 

Mardi Gras Fun

We started doing a Mardi Gras unit several years ago with our students. Being from a small, rural town in Georgia, not many of our students had ever heard of Mardi Gras so this unit was a great opportunity to teach the kids new vocabulary in a fun context. This year Mardi Gras falls on February 17th so while we were getting our plans together for it, we thought we'd share a freebie with you.  Our Mardi Gras Higher Order Vocabulary Graphic Organizers target higher order thinking skills and Mardi Gras vocabulary. Each graphic organizer is divided into four sections: 1) Word 2) Illustration 3) Definition and 4) Sentence. Rather than giving the student the vocabulary word each time, various sections of the graphic organizer are filled in requiring the student to inference, make connections and use visual imagery. Click the link below to go to our TpT store and download this Mardi Gras activity for FREE!

While you are at our store, check out our Mardi Gras Mini Unit.  This fun unit contains a short story that can be opened in iBooks or Adobe Reader on your iPad or opened as a PDF on your computer. This unit also comes with a printable flip book which can be illustrated by each student, a partner talk idea, a list of comprehension questions, a listening comprehension game, vocabulary cards, vocabulary extension, a basic concept activity, a fun reinforcement game, a drawing activity, and a homework sheet.  The link below will take you to this unit.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!!

 

Flash Freebie!

Happy 2015! We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break! We are back at work and are busy, busy, busy. Whew! We hardly have a spare minute and this cold weather seems to only make things worse! We are wishing for some warmer weather and looking ahead to spring. With this thought in mind, here's a Flash Freebie for you to download and save. Our Hooray for Spring Language & Literacy Pack includes a short story which can be printed or opened in iBooks or Adobe Reader on your iPad or opened as a PDF on your computer. It comes with a language and literacy lesson which addresses listening comprehension, vocabulary, phonological awareness, sequencing, and a fun Find the Sticker game. Included are picture and story cards for reinforcement, sequencing, and story-telling. This lesson can be used as a classroom center or with a small group or whole class. This is a fun lesson for Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st grade, or Special Education classes. Our students enjoy reading stories on the iPad so they stay engaged in the lesson AND you can save your ink because you don't have to print the story out. It's a win-win situation!

Click the link below to head over to our TpT store and download your copy of this lesson for free!  That's a savings of $5! This offer is good until today at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time. Positive feedback is much appreciated if you like this lesson! Thanks!

 

 



 

Merry & Bright Freebie

Our kids did such adorable activities this week, we wanted to share them with you. Not only did they turn out super cute, they were so easy to prepare and the kids thought they were really fun, too! We hope you will enjoy our Merry and Bright: Print and Go Christmas Activities. This Freebie includes activities for listening comprehension, following directions, and critical thinking, a present drawing activity, and two open ended activities to target any skill.
 

Here is the sheet before the scrapbook paper was added.


 

And here is the finished product! So darn cute!



The kids had a blast making these colorful Christmas lights with paint markers.

 



Click this link to go to our TpT Store and download this FREEBIE!

 

While you're at our store check out a few of our other Christmas activities. The Ugly Christmas Sweater Reinforcement Game has been a hit with our students this season! The game is designed for up to 4 players. Each player picks one of the 4 ugly Christmas sweater cards. The remaining cards are shuffled and placed in a pile facedown. After taking a speech turn, the student takes a card from the stack. If the card contains an item needed to make the player's sweater, he keeps the card. If not, the card is placed back in the bottom of the stack. Play continues until one students collects all the items needed to make his sweater. So Much Fun!!!!

 

Make one of these ugly Christmas Sweaters using our Ugly Christmas Sweater Reinforcement Game

 

Another great Christmas item available is Vocabulary Higher Order Graphic Organizers: Christmas.  This low-prep, low-ink activity includes graphic organizers targeting higher order thinking skills and Christmas vocabulary. Each graphic organizer is divided into four sections: 1) Word 2) Illustration 3) Definition and 4) Sentence. Rather than giving the student the vocabulary word each time, various sections of the graphic organizer are filled in requiring the student to inference, make connections, and use visual imagery. There are also free Christmas Vocabulary Cards available for your students who may need a color visual.

 

Thanks for looking! Merry Christmas!!!

 

 

 

Holiday Fun!

Christmas is the MOST wonderful time of the year! There are so many fun and creative ideas to do with your students during therapy. We especially love reading books and doing activities related to the books with our kiddos. One of our favorite books this time of year is Olive the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seifold & Vivian Walsh. This story is about a little dog named Olive who thinks she is a reindeer. She heads out to the North Pole to help Santa and has a grand adventure. Because our students always want us to read this book to them, we developed a language and literacy lesson to go along with it. This lesson includes listening comprehension questions, a targeted vocabulary word, a phonological awareness activity sheet targeting beginning sounds in words, a language activity with flash cards for practicing comparatives & superlatives, and a fun Guide the Sleigh Roll & Color Game that can be used to reinforce any skill.  Head on over to our TpT store by clicking the link below and take a look at this lesson.

While you're at our store, if you have a SmartBoard, download our Ho!Ho!Ho! Santa Knows! Game for FREE! This Smartboard interactive whiteboard file includes a Santa Claus game that can be used as a reinforcer for various lessons and subjects, including sight words, math facts, vocabulary, speech sounds, etc. Students take turns choosing a Santa to reveal whether they are on the naughty or nice list. We reward those on the nice list with a sticker. This is a quick and easy way to make any lesson fun.

Christmas Freebies!

Today we are linking up with Speechie Freebies to offer you our What's in the Stocking? An Adapted Interactive Picture Book. Adapted, interactive books are tremendous therapy tools and have many uses, such as expanding vocabulary, recalling details, increasing mean length of utterance, and increasing attention. Not only do these books promote literacy, they actively engage the student kinesthetically in the reading process by increasing tactile access to the book.

Suggestions for using this book are provided below:

• Use the picture cards to preteach Christmas vocabulary before reading.
• Read through the story first for clarity & fluency.
• When using vocabulary pictures, begin with only two picture card choices and increase the number of choices as appropriate.
• If using in a small group, pass out vocabulary picture cards and as you read have the students match the cards to the story.
• While reading the story, allow the students to fill in the missing word (target vocabulary word) verbally or by adding the picture card.
• Use the picture vocabulary cards to retell the story.
• Use the vocabulary cards to have students answer questions about the story.
• Define or describe vocabulary and have students label or identify picture cards.

Click the link below to go to our TpT store and download this book for free!

 

 

 

 

Happy Friday! We hope you enjoy this FreeBEE!

 

What's In My Cart Linky Party

Good Morning! We just found this linky party with some great links to sale items on TpT for the Cyber Monday sale.

Follow the link below to take a look at our How the Grinch Stole Christmas Companion: Language & Literacy Lesson. This lesson includes listening comprehension, vocabulary extension, phonological awareness, a targeted language skill, and a summarizing activity. This lesson is only $2.00 during the sale :)

 

Here's what's in our cart:

 

The Speech Peach has some super No Prep Print and Go Language Sheets on sale today. These sheets are Christmas themed and perfect for the holiday season! Click the link below to take a look at this great product!