Turkey Claus

Welcome to the last Wild About Books Wednesday of the year! I hope you don't mind that this little blog series will be taking a break to observe the holidays. But, never fear! It will return January 7, 2015 with a BANG! And by bang, I mean a freebie. haha.. If you're new around here, each Wednesday I discuss a specific book and share ideas on how to use it in speech/language therapy. I also invite my fellow bloggers to link up to share their own ideas! If you would like to link up, just use the picture at the bottom of this post to link back to me. Without further ado...

Turkey is baaacck! I just love Wendi Silvano's Turkey books! There's just something about a turkey, as my man Benjamin Franklin said when comparing a turkey to a bald eagle, "a turkey is a much more respectable bird."

This time around, Turkey must escape Christmas dinner! Being a bird of gumption, he hails a taxi and journeys to the North Pole. Of course, getting a Christmas wish from Santa is the only logical solution to his problem. Except.. it's Christmas Eve and Santa is too busy to take guests. Well, Turkey tries a variety of disguises to sneak into Santa's house. Ultimately, a present turns out to be the best disguise (if you ever find yourself in the North Pole desperately seeking Santa). Santa grants him his wish and gives him the best disguise of all - a Santa costume! He returns to the farm with pizza and he lives to see another day!

I put a little Christmas spin on my previous Turkey freebie! This freebie is perfect for students who are working on comprehension, sequencing, retelling, and more! Students simply sequence the story by drawing on each disguise that the turkey tried. First, they'll draw a Christmas tree costume, a reindeer costume, etc.

If you would like this freebie, just click HERE.

Additional Ideas:
1) Problem Solving - ask students, "what would you do if you were Turkey?" and discuss other costumes that would be appropriate at the North Pole.
2) Compare/Contrast - Compare this book to Turkey Trouble. These two books are perfect for building text-to-text connections. You can also compare Santa and Turkey!
3) Executive Function - Have students plan a Christmas dinner or pizza party!

Have you used this book before? Please comment and share some ideas! Have a wonderful Wild About Books Wednesday!

P.S. Have you signed up for my newsletter? It's coming in February with some sweet freebies! You can sign up HERE.

An InLinkz Link-up

A Slice of Speech (December 15th, 2014)

Welcome to the last A Slice of Speech before winter break - this little series will be returning on January 4th! I'm sniffling, sneezing, and my head is pounding... but I am determined to make it until break. Just. Five. More. Days. Hopefully, these visual lesson plans can provide a little inspiration for the last week of therapy! Just download and click the pictures to find out where to locate the resources.

What better way to kick off winter break than with the Old Lady?! ALL of my language groups will be working with the book, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell by Lucille Colandro. I adore book companions, because they incorporate my favorite therapy tools and they contain activities that can be used to address a wide variety of goals!

You can download these visual lesson plans by clicking HERE.

We will be retelling the story with complete sentences by feeding granny story cards! We will also use an interactive story map to practice sequencing and more retelling! Another expressive goal I will be touching on is irregular plurals and we will play a print n' go memory game! I will also give students plastic baggies so they can take their memory games home for more practice! Receptively, we will work on answering WH questions, temporal directions, and prepositions!

My articulation groups are due for another fun challenge by The Peachie Speechie! These activities make kill and drill interactive and fun! Students will say their target words 100 times while coloring 100 lightbulbs! I may even bust out the magic markers! haha.. Nothing brings my students more joy than using markers! And... nothing makes my table messier!

Have a wonderful week!

Stick Man (Plus Freebie!)

Happy Wild About Books Wednesday! Each Wednesday, I choose a book and discuss ways in which it can be used in speech/language therapy. Books can truly bring a therapy session to life! I use them often to tackle a wide array of goals. I also invite other bloggers to share their ideas! If you would like to join in, link up at the bottom and link back to me in your post using the picture below:

Today, I'm talking about another book by Julia Donaldson, Stick Man. Remember The Gruffalo? Stick Man is a wonderful book to use in therapy during the Christmas season. It's about a not-so-lucky stick who gets separated from his family. He goes on his morning jog and ends up being used in a game of fetch! He is then passed along from one person to the next and used for all sorts of silly things. Eventually he ends up in a fireplace and wakes up to find a strange man stuck in the chimney! He rescues Santa and gets a first-class ride back home on a sleigh! I love this book, because students will have no idea it's about Christmas until the end!

 I have a million ideas for this book! Here are a few:
1) /s/ blends - this is the perfect book for auditory bombardment and practicing /s/ blends at the reading level. Seriously, the word "stick" appears in this book no less than 5 million times. haha
2) Sequencing: This is another gem that can be used with sequencing and/or retelling goals! There's a very clear-cut sequence, making it perfect for all students!
3) Stick craft - I'm no craftologist, but you could give students strips of brown construction paper and they could make their own stick man to aid in story retelling!
4) Problem/Solution - Discuss Stick Man's problem and how he solved it! Here is a freebie for you! Students can write and/or draw pictures to discuss problem/solution.

You can download this little freebie by clicking HERE.

Have you used this book in your speech room? Please comment and share your ideas! If you're a blogger, please consider linking up below!

Pardon me for going off-topic, but I wanted to share a few things!

There are some exciting things around the corner for Speech Is Sweet! Tomorrow, I will kick off 12 days of Giveaways on my Facebook page to celebrate the holidays! I would love if you would stop by and participate! You can like and follow my page HERE. Unfortunately, it's not enough to just "like" a page anymore, so please also click "follow" so you won't miss any of the giveaways!

Also, I'm starting a newsletter in 2015! I'm super excited about this project. It will be a monthly newsletter that contains newsletter-exclusive freebies, articles, blog posts, and much more! You can sign up to receive the newsletter by clicking HERE. The first issue will arrive in February with lots of sweet gifts for you!

Did you know that my blog is a finalist for the Edublogs Best New Blog Award?! I am so grateful and honored. You can vote HERE. 

Thank you for visiting my blog! Have a wonderful Wednesday!

An InLinkz Link-up

A Slice of Speech (December 8th, 2014)

It's time for another edition of A Slice of Speech! Each Sunday, I share my visual lesson plans for the upcoming week. You can download the visual lesson plans and click on each of the pictures to find all the resources I'll be using. Hopefully, you'll find some inspiration for your therapy room!

My students ADORED Snowmen at Christmas last week. We had so much fun examining the beautiful illustrations and using the book companion! This week we will continue celebrating the upcoming holidays with my Christmas Receptive and Expressive Language Packets!

You can download this baby by clicking HERE. My language packets contain enough activities to last the rest of the month! This week we will dabble in a little bit of everything! So many goals, so little time! Expressively, we will practice comparing, using irregular plurals, describing, and reviewing antonyms! Receptively, we will continue our ongoing study of WH ?s, practice following directions, and work on basic concepts!

My articulation groups will be doing a gingerbread craft! Seriously, they love gluing their words on cute die-cut shapes! The rest of the week, we will be completing color, cut, and glue activities. They never get old! My fluency group will also complete a gingerbread man while we review types of stuttering.

Also, I'm excited to announce that today is the SLP Monthly Must-Have Sale! It occurs on the 7th of every month during the school year. You can scoop up my Color By Pronouns: Christmas Edition packet for 50% off! I love sending these darling sheets home with my little ones.

Have a wonderful week! Two more weeks until break!

EDIT (12/12/14):  I'm linking up with Old School Speech for her weekly review linky to share my lessons from the past week! Please check out the linky to see what others did in their speech rooms!

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell (Plus Freebies!)

Welcome back to Wild About Books Wednesday! I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving - I definitely gobbled until I wobbled! haha.. If you're new around here (welcome!), each Wednesday I discuss how to use a specific book in therapy. I also invite other bloggers to link up with a new or recent post to share their own ideas! I've never mentioned this before, but you can definitely link up with a Facebook note if you don't have a blog! The more ideas, the better! All you have to do is link back to me using the picture at the end of this post!

This week marks the return of my favorite pica-having, happy-go-lucky old lady! I'm sharing some ideas, a freebie, AND a book companion for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell by Lucille Colandro. The Wild About Books Wednesday trifecta! haha!

It's no secret that I love this book series! Its repetitive nature makes it a wonderful tool to use in therapy. Book series are also great for building background knowledge and supporting students as they make text-to-text connections!

Here are a few ideas on how you can use this book in therapy:
1) Compare/Contrast - The old lady swallows tons of Christmas themed items! This is the perfect opportunity to talk about the similarities and differences of each object.
2) Cause/Effect - This book provides a variety of opportunities to discuss cause/effect.
3) Why ?s - There is a reason why she swallowed each object (except the bell!).. This book will help provide lots of guided repetitions for answering why ?s.

 Are you ready for some FREEBIES?! After all, this is the season of giving! :)

I created three pages that are designed to spark discussions about the book! The first is a writing prompt about what the old lady should swallow next. This will assess a student's ability to make inferences!

 Next, students can draw their favorite part of the story! Sharpen your colored pencils! 

Lastly, students can make a list of all the things that the Old Lady swallowed! Lists are such functional writing tasks! I love them! They're not as intimidating as most writing assignments, making them a great way to ease a reluctant writer into writing.

You can scoop these freebies up by clicking HERE.

Lastly, I created a book companion! If interested, you can find it in my TPT store by clicking HERE. Here's a peek:

This packet contains a variety of prep and no prep materials!

If you're a blogger please link up with your own ideas! I love learning about new books!

Since this is the holiday season, I plan on featuring freebies EVERY Wild About Books Wednesday this month! Please subscribe to my blog by email so you'll never miss a post or blog-exclusive freebie! You can sign up on the right-hand side of my blog!

I'm also linking up with my friends over at Speechie Freebies to celebrate FreeBEE Friday! Please make sure you stop by to check out the linky party!

 Have a wonderful day! Thanks for visiting!
 

An InLinkz Link-up

Color By Pronouns: Christmas Edition

When I saw all the creative spins on the Color By Number activities, such as Color By Sight Word, I just had to find a way to join in on all the fun. After some brainstorming, I came up with Color By Pronouns! I loved the Summer and Halloween Editions so much that I had to continue the series. I'm super excited to introduce the Christmas Edition!

You can find this resource in my TPT store by clicking HERE.

I work in a primary school, so pronouns are super relevant and crayons are king! I have quite a few students who struggle with pronouns and they definitely inspired me. Although, this packet was created with my own students in mind, these activities are also perfect for the regular classroom. These activities serve to teach, reinforce, and review pronouns. They can be used in language centers, used as "desserts" for early finishers, sent home for homework, or even used in language therapy.

The pronouns addressed are: he, she,  they, we, and it. Students simply use the color code provided. They look at the nouns and then determine which colors to use (ex. he - red, she - green). These activities will spark a very meaningful conversation about nouns/pronouns! Check out some examples:

Super cute!

Rudolph has never looked better! haha!

This little packet is currently on sale in my store and is 28% off when you use the TPT Code: TPTCYBER!

Have a wonderful day! Thank you for visiting my blog! If you haven't already...subscribe by email so you'll never miss a post! You can subscribe on the left hand side!