Are you looking for an easy way to send home activities for your speech and language students to practice their skills?  I have been using these calendars for years now, and have had great responses from my students and their parents!  I have a set of articulation calendars and a set of language calendars.  Both sets are updated every calendar year as well as at back to school time.  There are color versions of the calendars as well as black and white for a low ink option.  If you have access to color printing at your school, I suggest using the color versions- they are bright and fun!  The black and white versions are fun too, and students can color the pages themselves. ARTICULATION In the articulation calendars, students are asked to find a variety words that start with their sound and use their sound in connected speech in a variety of activities.  Here are some examples of daily activities included on the articulation calendars: Each day on the calendar ...

Now that you are all settled into your new speech and language room, you'll have to find out who you are supposed to be seeing with all of those well-organized materials . The first thing you'll need to do is either print off a caseload list from whatever your caseload manager/IEP program is on your computer or maybe your special services department will print one for you.  Either way, you need to get your hands on this information.  Once you have your list, you are ready to go! Here are the steps for organizing those students: 1.   Find their files.  The previous SLP should have left you all of the files for your students.  This should contain at least the latest IEP.  It may contain previous testing and testing protocols as well as notes on the student.  I like to organize these files using recycled pieces of paper from the teacher workroom.  I fold the paper in half so that the white side is facing out.  Then, I place the reports/IEPs/other information into that folde...

I love working on describing with my language students.  It is a great way to help organize their language.  My go-to for working on describing is the Expanding Expression Tool (EET) .  It is an awesome visual representation to use with my students.  One of the parts of this tool that my students always get stuck on though is composition- what is it made of.  This just doesn't seem to be something that is in their prior knowledge.  I wanted to make a little activity to help my students with this, and came up with a sorting and describing activity. This packet contains 8 different materials mats with 24 clipart items and 24 real photograph items to sort.   8 different material mats Clipart items Real photograph items  One thing that my students who are working on describing have is formulating a complete sentence to describe items.  I created a sentence starter mat to help formulate these sentences.  You can use the item cards from the mats to create the s...

I am always looking for fun auditory activities for my students.  I love it when a theme can be fit into it too.  Halloween is a perfect theme to target auditory activities!  My students love anything Halloween related. I created this packet well over two years ago but never wrote about it.  I want to share more about it with you now.  This has been a hit with my language students and I hope yours will love the activities too! There are five activities included in this packet: Auditory Memory for Sentences :  In this activity, students are asked to repeat a sentence exactly as it is read to them.  Sentences are 10-14 syllables long.  If the students get the sentence correct, they can move a game piece on the game board provided. Haunted House Riddles: In this activity, you read the clues out loud, and the students guess what the Halloween item is.  If they get it correct, they can put their card in their "haunted house."  My students love guessing the items a...

So, now you have found your new room at your new school.  It may look like this: Ok, so maybe you won't have 20 boxes of items sitting around, but you may have 20 boxes of things to go through in your cupboards! Depending on who was in your room before you, there may be a treasure trove of items to find. I inherited my first speech room from an SLP who was there for over 30 years.  At the same school. 30 years! Needless to say, she had a LOT of materials that she didn't take with her when she retired. Some of these items were great, while some left something to be desired. I didn't really need a set of dittos (you know, the purple looking mimeographed papers) from 1975. I'm not saying that something from that time frame might not be useable, but the pictures are sometimes really hard to decipher for my students, and sometimes inappropriate too. So, what do you do? 1) Sort materials.  Go through your cabinets, bookshelves, boxes, etc. and make piles of items...

Are you starting as an SLP at a new school? You may be a seasoned SLP or a brand new grad, either way, you are embarking on a new journey.  At least it feels like that!  I have left the comfort of a school that I was a part of for ten years and moved on to other schools and assignments in my same district. With this change comes some anxiety.  You have to meet new staff and get to know all new students. You also have to figure out the culture of the school.  But first, you have to find your room! This is the first of a series that chronicles how to navigate a new school and caseload.  This will be helpful for new grads venturing into their first job and seasoned veterans who may be switching things up a bit. So, what are the steps you need to take first?  Here is a list of things to do before you even see your new room. 1.  Make Contact- The first thing you can do is contact your new principal to introduce yourself by email.  You can leave your cell phone number in the email...

Looking for a cheap, easy to use therapy material?  How about paper bags?  I love using paper bags for a variety of activities.  Here are some simple ways I have incorporated paper bags into my therapy sessions. 1.   Puppets My students love to use puppets to "eat" their articulation cards or other target cards.  They also love to use them to tell stories.  Making puppets from paper bags is a great, inexpensive way to engage your students in a variety of activities!  You can easily make a puppet to match any book or story that you are using.  Be creative- your kids will love it! I made these monster puppets with my son this week.  They were so easy to make!  We used a little paint, glue, and card stock with our paper bags. I found the idea for these cute monsters from this pin: Paper Bag Monster Puppets 2. Describe It To Me This activity is also super easy.  I throw a bunch of items into a bag.  My students reach in and grab something (no peeking!) to...

I was approached to review The Social Detective Intermediate app which was created by Social Skill Builder in collaboration with Pamela Crooke and Michelle Garcia Winner. This app is a follow up to the Social Detective: Beginner app, and is geared toward ages 7+.  It is meant to be a companion to the You are a Social Detective book by Michelle Garcia Winner and Pamela Crooke.  The creators describe the app by stating that it "focuses on decoding the thoughts and emotions of people students interact with day to day.  Using this information, students will make smart guesses to predict what those people might do or say next."     I had two students who were working on better understanding and reading of others thoughts and emotions, so it was perfect timing!   This app begins with choosing an avatar for your student.  Then, the app guides you to a page with "detective equipment."   The notebook allows students to practice being a social decoder using vi...