Loving the Christmas Season!!!

What is is about the Christmas Season that motivates me to make and have fun seasonal activities? It's the craziest time of year for students. At my base school, students have the opportunity for a week to shop at "giftland" for gifts for their families. Preparation for the Christmas vocal program amps up, so practices are longer and happen more often and at different times then they are typically scheduled. Some classes are going on field trips to plays and symphonies. All are having class parties and the overall excitement of the season is overflowing. Lights and decorations are donned and often the regular lights are shut off and hallways are only aglow with the Christmas lights. This is actually a very calming addition and I love it!

Even though it is crazy busy and only usually about 3 weeks long, I have THE MOST seasonally-themed activities for this time of year. But there's always room for more. It's just so fun!!!!  I talked recently about the new set of file folder activities that target synonyms, antonyms, irregular past tense verbs, and irregular plurals. There are simpler levels where a single word is given and the student needs to find the one that is the match to the target pattern, but many of my students have chosen to try the activity with the most variation and information to sort through. I love how the little presents turned out. We had run out of cardstock so we printed them on regular paper and laminated them twice. My base school uses the thicker lamination anyway, so by laminating them twice they really turned out nice a sturdy. 

Get your Christmas Activity Pack Here. 

Or check out my other resources at my TPT store Stacey Parks, SLP.

Have fun and enjoy this festive time of year!

Stacey

Home Practice

I may or may not have mentioned that this year has been particularly busy. Ok, I've mentioned it a lot. 😄 Time fills up very quickly with screenings, evaluations, therapy, paperwork, IEP writing, billing, progress reports, training paras, meetings,  and ideally more time in therapy. If I could change one thing about my job, it would be that I'd have more time to lesson plan. For me, it would be having the time right after a therapy session to write down the exact path I want to take during the next therapy session that I have with that child. The time in therapy is so dynamic and critical. We make so many decisions in the moment based on how the child is responding to therapy. Combine that with the high energy needed to keep a young child's attention means there is a lot happening in a short amount of time. I wish there was a way that I could write down everything that I think of and all the ideas of what I want to try to next time. Unfortunately, by the next session, I have forgotten all of those great ideas. I'm sure there's a google app somewhere that would keep notes for me if I yelled them out in the middle of therapy, but that would be distracting for the child. I need an app that can write down notes from my thoughts. Google, can you work on that for me? 

Sigh....I digress. 

I should also mention I am very very fortunate to work with a lot of great families. When I work with preschool age children that are not enrolled in preschool yet, I get to work much closer with families because they bring them in for services. Recently, I've been asked for some ideas on fun ways to practice target words at home. I used to have a blank calendar with general ideas, but I cannot find it anymore. So, I decided to put together a few ideas that I can print and have with me to hand out to parents. It's not a complete list, but if gives parents the idea of what types of activities to try. Many of them have gross motor movement paired with them. Keeping kids moving yet still focused on the task can be a skill, but with a little practice, it's much more fun for everyone involved.  

The best part is that it's FREE!!!!!

Ideas for Home Practice with Preschoolers

Click on the link above to take you to my Teachers Pay Teachers store where you can download the handout to use with parents that you work with. 

Remember...The more fun you have, the more fun they will have!

Check out my TPT store for other resources as well. 

Stacey-Parks-Slp

Holiday Fun

I say it every time, but how quickly time passes never ceases to amaze me. I won't dwell on that though, because I absolutely love this time of year. There's a natural movement of themes every 3-4 weeks. It keeps things new and fun for the students and for us! In the past, I have loved using the seasonal sets of synonym and antonyms. It offers a colorful and creative way to target the same set of synonyms and antonyms.


Seasonal Synonym and Antonym Activities

More recently I've needed a way to target and review these sets in ways that students could more independently practice them. This kit offers multiple file folder activities that target synonyms, level 1 & 2 antonyms, irregular past tense verbs and irregular plurals. Students scan find anonyms pairs listed on presents and put them under a Christmas tree, add the whipped cream to the hot chocolate with the correct change in grammatical structure, add a star to a tree and place cookies on a plate.


 Christmas Language Activities

Once the sets are made or file folders are assembled, they are great "grab and go" activities to pull out through the holiday season for repeated practice. Especially since I've been averaging 3 IEPs a week for the past 9 weeks. Other ways to get through these weeks without an overload of stress will be coming soon. Until then, enjoy this time!!
Stacey