A Slice of Speech (Lesson Plans for August 31, 2015)

It's Sunday and that means another evening of lesson planning! My first full week back was absolutely exhausting! Seriously, I took a three hour nap yesterday and I'm still sleep deprived. haha

If you're new to my blog, each Sunday during the school year I share my visual lesson plans. You can download them and click the pictures to find the resources I'll be using! Many of my favorite teacher bloggers share their visual lesson plans each Sunday and I thought it was such a neat idea!
My students absolutely adored The Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books by Lucille Colandro last week! I was hoping to use one of my new book companions I bought during the BTS sale this coming week, but didn't have any time to prep this weekend! Oh well... there's always next week! Between napping and working on some new products, my weekend went by so fast! So, I'm definitely all about the NO PREP this coming week.
I'll be busting out the EET and bingo daubers this week! We will be using my "dab and describe" pages, dabbing pronouns, and using the compare/contrast sheets from September: A Dab of Speech and Language! September, already?! I'll be tackling receptive language with some of my favorite Super Duper products - WH Bingo and their Magnetalk Barrier game! We will be focusing on following directions and answering questions!

My speech kids will be "spinning" all week with Back to School Spin-Go! I bought a brand new case of colorful paperclips to prepare! (My speech room was totally out of paperclips due to the popularity of my "spin and dab" pages last school year. I always let my students take paperclips with them so they can use them at home. It's crazy how fast your paperclips disappear when you do that! haha). Just a little bit about these games. Basically, a student spins the spinner and practices the word that they land on and then colors the word. They repeat the process and once they color five in a row they get Spin-Go! Well, I liked the game so much and I knew how much my students loved spinner games last year so I made a Back to School version... and then a farm version.. and then a zoo version. haha I decided to just post a growing bundle, because when I find a resource I like I want it for all seasons/occasions. Kinda of like shoes.. why do I want them in every color? #hoarder If interested, just click the link to view a preview and get more details. It's currently 50% off.

If you would like to snag my visual lesson plans, just click HERE. I hope these lesson plans will be useful! I hope you have a marvelous week. Thanks for visiting!



Back To School Lesson Plans

"A Slice of Speech" is back! It's a whole new year, which means a whole new batch of lesson plans! Each Sunday, I will be sharing what I have planned for the upcoming week and my visual lesson plans. If interested, you can download my plans and just click on the pictures to be sent to the resource. They're super convenient! I got this idea from some of my favorite teacher bloggers, I love technology! :)
My paperwork is in order, I have my schedule figured out (until someone inevitably throws a monkey wrench my way haha), and I'm ready to start a whole new year of therapy! I've been spending the summer creating new resources and collecting new toys. To say I'm excited about a  new year is an understatement! I'm rip-roaring and ready to go!

This is one of the most critical weeks of the school year! While IEP goals will be at the forefront, I'll be spending a great deal of time establishing routines, procedures, and expectations for my room. One of my favorite activities for establishing routines in my articulation groups are color, cut, and glue activities. I've mentioned this before, but I cannot handle students sitting around waiting for their turn. My students have to be engaged at all times.. the last thing I want is a bored student who is off-task and distracting others. My articulation groups will be learning the routines of coloring, cutting, and gluing using my Back to School Articulation packet. This routine is super important, as it's also the same routine for many crafts that we will do this year. I have one student with apraxia and some phono kids, they'll be using my August Apraxia On the Go cut and paste activities!

My language students will be introduced to The Old Lady! We will read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books by Lucille Colandro and tackling our language goals! We'll be working at lot of sequencing, temporal directions, and more! I'll also be busting out Braidy the Storybraid for the first time ever this week too! During our second session with the old lady, I'll introduce Braidy as a story retelling tool! So excited! This is a new tool for me and I'll definitely share my experiences with the kit later on. I still can't believe I was approved to make such a large purchase. I'm definitely lucky!

You can download my visual lesson plans by clicking HERE.

By the way, my book companion for There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books will be a flash freebie all week long! If you snag it, please leave some feedback love! I hope it will help you with back to school planning - enjoy!

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




Back to School Boost: TPT Shining Stars Linky Party!

I'm super relieved that Teachers Pay Teachers has decided to do a one-day Back to School Boost Sale on August 19th! There's still so many things that I need for the school year! I'm linking up with Jen over at The SLPrunner to share some items that I believe are shining stars!

One of my favorite items is also my best-seller! Back to Speech: NO PREP Activities is a comprehensive packet that is designed for the first month of school.
It's no surprise, I adore NO PREP activities! I just counted and I have 103 NO PREP listings in my store (including bundles)! What can I say? I love to print n' go! haha.. Over the summer I added to my collection with two new series: Fluency In a Snap and Apraxia On the Go! These are both growing bundles (new packets will be added each month) so they are marked down by 50% until I add in the October packets. These are new, but already two of my favorites! The boost sale is the last time they'll be at their absolute lowest price.

Apraxia On the Go for the YEAR
Use the TPT code: MORE15 and you'll receive an additional 28% off of this already discounted item. That comes out to only $2.16 a month.

Fluency In a Snap for the YEAR
These packets are going to be all about stuttering. I'm super excited about all the things I have planned for this series. Scoop it up during the boost sale for the best possible savings! It averages out to just $1.20 per packet, so it will be a great opportunity to add to your stuttering collection.

Here are some more shining stars that I recommend!

Articulation Word Wall by Nicole Allison
I have a giant white wall that needs some color! This word wall will be perfect and I love her line of functional decor!

Dotting Silly Sentences by Speech Therapy with Courtney Gragg
I'm a huge fan of Courtney's therapy materials, so I know this will be a shining star!

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World: Book Companion by Lindsey Karol
I was lucky enough to review this companion over the summer! I fell in love with the book and Lindsey's companion!

Enjoy the Back to School Boost on August 19th! My entire store will be 28% off when you use the TPT Code: MORE15. I'll also be extending my sale on August 20th!

Thank you for visiting my blog! Have a wonderful day and don't forget to browse through Jen's linky to discover some more shining stars to brighten your school year! :)



S...Peachy Feedback! (August 2015)

Today, I'm linking up with Nicole over at Speech Peeps for her S..Peachy Feedback linky party! After each major Teachers Pay Teachers sale, Nicole hosts a linky to celebrate all of the awesome feedback that is received!
Truly, I cannot adequately describe how thankful I am for all the support my little Teachers Pay Teachers store has received in the last year and a half. I am ever grateful and my heart is so full. The kind words I received this week have made me smile and count all of my blessings.  I want you to know that I appreciate each and every person who has stopped by my store and it was so hard to choose a winner! You're all winners, but for the purpose of this linky I selected a very kind and detailed piece of feedback from Tammie G.!
Thank you, Tammie! I am so happy that this packet is going to make your life easier! Please email me at speechissweet@gmail.com and tell me which single item you would like to have from my store!

Fluency In a Snap can be found HERE.

Please make sure you read through the linky party. You might be a winner! Thank you for visiting my blog! Have a wonderful day!


Speech is Sweet

The Kissing Hand

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn is one of my favorite back to school books! It is a precious story about a little raccoon named Chester who is nervous about his first day at school. His mother shares with him a family tradition - the kissing hand. She explains that whenever he misses home, he can touch his hand to his cheek to feel comfort!

For today's Wild About Books Wednesday, I want to share an easy-peasy craft and language ideas!
Crafts must be selected carefully for speech/language therapy. Crafts that require little to no instructions are best! I always make sure they're low prep and compliment the therapy session! I found the perfect craft for this book on Pinterest - a kissing hand. I simplified the cute craft that I found, which you can see by clicking HERE.

Students just trace their hand, cut it out, and glue a heart in the middle! Easy. Peasy.
There are many ways you can use The Kissing Hand to enhance speech/language:
1) Use excerpts from the book to practice /ch/. You can even make a carrier phrase with Chester, such as.... "Chester sees a _____." Also, instead of gluing one big heart onto the hand, your articulation kids can glue lots of tiny hearts on the hand that contain their target words!
2) Inferencing - Why is Chester going to school at night? I love the accuracy of this book! Help students figure out that raccoons are nocturnal! 
3) Compare/Contrast - Students can compare/contrast themselves with Chester!

Have you used this book in therapy? Please comment and share your ideas! 

Also, if you're a blogger feel free to link up with a blog post about how you use a specific book in therapy! Just link up using the picture below: 
Thank you for visiting my blog! Have a wonderful day! 



Speech is Sweet

Fluency In A Snap!

Confession. My stuttering materials are extremely outdated! I've been in dire need of fresh new stuttering materials for years now. My fluency caseload is like a roller coaster! My first year I had five students who stuttered and ever since I usually have between 1-3 fluency students. Although, they represent a small portion of my caseload, I want my fluency students to have fun and cute activities that are designed just for them! I spent a great deal of time this summer developing a new series just for NO PREP fluency materials and I'm super excited about it! It's called Fluency In a Snap!

Fluency In a Snap {A Growing Bundle}
This series is going to span across 12 months! Currently, the growing bundle only contains the August and September packet so it is 50% off. As this bundle grows, the price will increase. If you're not familiar with a "growing bundle" it works just like a subscription! On the 25th of each month, a new packet will be added to this bundle! If you purchase this growing bundle, you'll always have a new month at least five days before the month begins to ensure ample preparation time (ex. October will be released on September 25th or sooner). These are print n' go, so preparation will be easy-peasy.

Here's a small peek at the materials included:
The main strategies that are addressed are light contacts, easy onsets, and slow rate/flexible rate. I also have some pages labeled as pacing, that can be used for pausing & pacing or teaching students how to keep a steady pace while talking.

There are so many different types of activities! Each month, there will be a number of pages dedicated to each type of strategy and also activities that allow students to choose which strategies they want to use (such as.. "spin a strategy" or "roll a strategy"). Over time, students will learn that easy onsets are great for words that start with vowels or /h/ and light contacts are great for words that begin with consonants...but ultimately, they'll use the strategy they like the most. You'll find memory games, mazes, puzzles, spinner games, board games, and so much more!


As you can see, these activities are not merely worksheets! They are engaging, interactive, and fun! The above activity is a puzzle or "Pieces of Fluency." Excuse, my corniness. haha.. There's also pages entitled "Colors of Fluency." :)

Here's a peek at some pacing sticks! Just have students color them and point to each picture to pace themselves. Students can also cut these sticks out and can grow a collection over the course of the school year! You could even laminate them for your students and use a little pencil case to house their collection.

I also want to note that I was very cognizant about the word choices I selected for each strategy. For instance, I stuck with words that begin with vowels or /h/ on the easy onset pages, because I feel those are the best types of words to demonstrate how to do an easy onset. For light contacts, I selected words that were easy to demonstrate how to lightly touch you articulators together!

August Fluency In a Snap
The August packet contains a back to school theme while the September packet has an autumn theme!

September Fluency In a Snap

One thing I'm super excited about is that each month students can work with a new nursery rhyme to practice their slow rate/flexible rate.

Nursery rhymes are very singsongy (is that really a word, a red underline did not appear? haha), which naturally promote fluency. Each month, you will receive pacing sticks that go along with the nursery rhyme, board games, and more! In August, you'll see Mary Had a Little Lamb and September contains my favorite - Humpty Dumpy!

Stuttering Education is also super important. I'll never forget, a couple years ago I had a student who stuttered. His kindergarten teacher emailed me and told me about how excited the student was when they returned to class - the student was soooo proud to learn that there were 65 million people who stuttered in the world and that our vice president was a personal who stuttered! Too cute.

Each month.. I'll definitely include an age appropriate activity to tackle those pesky myths! Comb through the top secret files and figure out which ones are myths and which ones are facts!

We will also tackle types of stuttering and there will also be pages for feelings/emotions in case you have students who need them.

This series will be very comprehensive! I have a little notebook full of future ideas!

Thank you for stopping by my little blog! I hope you enjoyed peeking into my new series! Have a wonderful day!