Have Games Will Travel

October 12, 2019

Do you serve more than one building? Do you serve more than one district? Do you ever feel like no matter how much time you take planning that you always get to the next spot with not quite everything you needed? For me, it's "Yes", "Yes", and "on a daily basis". 

I go through phases where I am all about data collection, or all about embedding skills into activities,  or interactive notebooks, or novel things to keep the kid's attention. We are almost 9 weeks into this school year and I'm really trying to get more practice repetitions in with less "stuff". I don't want the kids to fall out of their chairs of boredom as we drill practice a target sound, but I also need them to get as many practice opportunities in as possible. I, too, don't want to fall out of my chair in boredom. I need variety and efficiency but with less stuff. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Games-to-Play-with-ANY-Articulation-Deck-of-Cards-4935846

I decided to put together my favorite generic games that I've played through the years in one set of mats that kids can choose from and no matter what I know that they will get a lot of practice opportunities in. Once you laminate the set of game boards, you really only need a single die, a dry erase marker and 2 colors of dry erase markers and you're set. 

This product contains 9 different game board games that you can play with any deck of articulation cards. It also contains 4 more general games ideas that you can play with any artic deck. Your students won't even realize they are practicing the same set of articulation words to get in the maximum number of practice repetitions. Games include; tug of war, the dice game, connect 4 blackout and more.

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Sometimes simple is just what you need.

Sometimes simple is just what you need. And at this point in my workday, this is what I need. I have a new para that I've been training and a large number of referrals that I need to start on. Game boards are always a good way to guide practice in a fun way that can also yield a high number of productions.

It's also my favorite time of year with all the seasonal/holiday-themed activities. Students may be working on the same thing, but with a new theme in the background, it appears new to them. Win-win!

I added each theme separately to my TPT store in case someone wants to try out just one theme, but I also combined them into a Holiday Bundle as Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas is fast approaching.

Here's a link to my new addition. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Holiday-Articulation-Game-Boards-4917899

Coming soon is a set of different games that can be played with any set of artic cards. Can you tell I have A LOT of kids with articulation goals this year?

BTW: A challenge always motivates me!!! I love them! Thank you to Jennifer at Sell on TPT for all of the information and fun challenges!

Fast...Faster....Fastest!!!

I cannot get enough of wind up toys. There are so many ways to use them and there are lots of posts with lists of how to use them in various ways during speech therapy. This isn't one of them though. This is just my excitement that I've been getting to use them along with a recent product addition of mine. Click here for the link.

Today we went through practicing these words in a structured manner and then toward the end of the session we got out the wind-up toys and were able to practice these patterns as we compared two describing which one was faster or slower. Then we were able to pick out 3 wind up toys and begin describing which one was fast, faster and the fastest. We could also order them in the opposite direction for slow, slower and slowest. Having races between different sets of wind up toys never gets old. There's always a new variable to throw in and compare. Kids are practicing this language structure and they don't even realize it though all the laughter. Join in! It's a great time!

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Interactive Articulation Notebook and Articulation Homework Practice Pages- What is the difference?

Every year is a little bit different. It all depends on student needs, SLP needs and most importantly, SLP ideas to help cover all the bases. For the last 5 years or so, I've utilized student spirals to keep all of their student work in that we practice during our speech sessions. It started out as a way for my para and me to see what the other had worked on, plus it was a built-in way to review what was worked on the previous session. The bonus to all of this was that I was able to send the spiral home at the end of the school year and that was what the student could practice and review over the summer. Win-Win!

Two years ago I discovered Interactive Language Notebooks. I know, I was late to the game, but none the less, I was so excited to use them. We would put language and articulation practice pages into the same notebook. Each student's spiral was individualized. The language resources were easy to change and modify to be able to target all kinds of language skills. That summer I decided I wanted to jump into a more structured way to target articulation in the same interactive way. That's how the Interactive Articulation Notebook resource came about. I wanted to be able to practice a target sound in a specific position of the word multiple ways. Having the child participate and keeping their hands busy at the same time seemed like a good fit. With the Interactive Articulation Notebook, there is the opportunity for cutting, gluing, sorting and coloring along with the speech sound production practice.  I used this all of the last school year! I have it divided up into early developing sounds, later developing sounds or a complete bundle!


As I was thinking about this school year and setting goals for myself, I decided that I wanted to try to implement home practice again. We've been short-staffed for so long that an organized home practice program fell to the bottom of the list of things to get done. It's definitely not something that students are penalized for if they do not do it, but they are rewarded if they do it. I needed something that they could quickly practice at home and something that I could quickly grab and modify to their level. I didn't want them to have to spend time coloring for decoration, cutting or gluing. I figured if they saw it as something they could quickly do and be done with they'd be more apt to practice at home. I knew I had a couple of pages in the Interactive Articulation Notebook, but I wanted to build upon those pages. That brought me to developing the Articulation Homework Practice Pages. This resource has 8 different ways to practice a small set of target words for each target pattern. It may be that they are check-marking a box to show that they practiced, it may be filling in a circle, drawing a line with different colors each time they practice or filling in a different color of the rainbow each time they practiced. I use a 3 prong folder for homework practice, so this resource is definitely print, hole punch and go! I purposefully designed it to be at the word level, so you could use it as designed, add a carrier phrase, use it in a structured sentence, have the child generate a sentence using the word, or have the child make a story using each of the words on the page. I have the resource divided into early developing sounds, later developing sounds or a complete bundle!

I am currently using both for all of my articulation students. The Interactive Articulation Notebook during speech sessions and the Articulation Homework Practice Pages for their homework folders. So far it's been easy prep and has saved me a ton of time! I hope you enjoy it as well.

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Don't forget to subscribe to my blog and receive a free Seasonal Synonym and Antonym Bundle!!!

Beginning of the year - Set Your Goals!

The beginning of the school year is always so exciting. New beginnings, new school supplies, new ideas, new decorations, and new students. That excitement very quickly becomes a different emotion. More specifically, emotions.  These emotions quickly emerge, accelerate, stop, and change very similar to the twists and turns of an amusement park roller coaster.  Hold on tight because it will be Christmas before you know it. 

I am still in the middle of scheduling, verifying the proposed schedule, trial run of the schedule, and rolling with whatever changes need to be made. I've gotten to stay in the same position as last year serving the same schools as before, so although there is still a lot of "new", I am very lucky to have so many familiar things as well. Familiar students, familiar parents and familiar teachers can make for a smooth transition into the new year. Well, as smooth as can be expected. I don't want to make it sound terrible, but no matter what, new dilemmas always present themselves. Plus I always have a little higher expectations of myself then I had the previous year. All in all, though, it's been a great beginning to a new school year. 

In June, I began setting goals for myself, particularly for my TPT store. Goal setting has been a game-changer for me. It keeps me focused and I definitely need help staying focused. So tonight as I finished a project that I'd been trying to start for the last few months, I cannot help but think (and be proud), that I was able to stay the course and work my way to being closer to the goals I set in June. Stay focused, believe, and in time you will achieve. 

I hope you are making it through your first few weeks of school successfully. It's going to get easier soon. Set your goals, break them down into manageable steps and go for it!

The project that I finished was for a structured approach to teaching comparatives and superlatives. Get it here for the first 48 hours at 50% off. 




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Bring on the Vacation!

It's one last hoorah before school starts back up. VACATION! Now that I think about though, it's really the only hoorah. There really haven't been any others so far this summer. 😏 

I've worked throughout the summer. It's a blessing and a curse. I do much better when I stay busy. Schedules are my friend. They keep me efficient. Those are the blessings. But there comes a time when the mind, body, and soul need a break. They need to shut down and regenerate. I am to that point. Even though I am at that point, I'm also mindful to know that by shutting down, it allows new ideas to begin to form. That is so exciting! 

I hope that you are able to take some time for yourself as well before the new school year begins. If you're still in work mode or if you in preparation mode, don't forget that today and tomorrow is the TPT sale where everything in my store is on sale, plus you can get another 5% off (25% total) when you use the code BTS19! Grab up a couple of things that you've been thinking about, but keep putting off. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Stacey-Parks-Slp

There are many new bundles that will help save you money now and time during the school year!

The Interactive Articulation Notebook can be used for drill and practice during speech sessions and continued use for home practice!
                                             
Hope you have a great next few days and I'll check in again after vacation!!!

Beaver Lake, here we come!

Stacey

Wrapping up the summer

It's been a fast summer. It always is. I always think that I am going to have so much extra time to think about kids, evaluate and reevaluate by therapy "plan" or roadmap, analyze my approaches to working with children and overall try to learn as much as possible. I have absolutely conquered the last goal on my list. 

I've done more professional development this summer than I ever have before in one summer. Even the free options are happening more and more than I've ever seen before. Last week was the SLP Summit.  I haven't gotten to watch all of the presentations, but with the replays being available until August, I will be able to say I've watched all of them very soon. I've completed at least half and they've been outstanding! The "Making Confident Decisions When Treating Childhood Apraxia of Speech" with  Jennie Bjorem M.A. CCC-SLP was extremely informative. She mentioned there was even more FREE online training for the DTTC technique, so I went on the hunt for that training. WOWZA!!! It's FREE also. I know she said so, but Free?? You can find more information here. It's a 4.5 hour training and well worth the time! You can also access it at the link below. 

https://www.utdallas.edu/calliercenter/events/CAS/

In additions to that type of professional development, I've been trying to learn as much as possible about the world of Teachers Pay Teachers and sharing the resources that I feel have helped me the most. Jennifer Bradley at Speech Therapy Plans and Sell on TPT has been incredible with her different challenges through the summer and she is a wealth of information. My brain has been swimming with goals and plans and meeting those goals and plans all summer long. I'm not going to lie, at one point, I was overwhelmed, but I stuck with it and now I couldn't be more excited about the upcoming school year. 

So with that said, I'm excited to post a resource that I'm really looking forward to using in the upcoming school year. It is 10 seasonal monthly units of vocabulary for preschool and lower elementary students. I combined the summer months into one unit. It targets receptive identification (point to), expressive (naming), independent describing 5 attributes, and cards to help scaffold the student through describing in various ways with visual supports/prompts. PCS is a trademark of Tobii Dynavox LLC.  All rights reserved.  Used with permission



The best part of this is that for the first 48 hours, you can get this resource for 50% off!!! Click here to get to my store while it's still 50% off.

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