Announcements, Articulation, Holiday Theme, Language, Resources, Therapy Tools

SPOOK-TACULAR SALE

Did you hear?? I am throwing a SALE on all of my Halloween resources! Thank you to those who inquired and inspired me to do this. Get an extra 15% off any of my Halloween-themed speech-language therapy activities! Sale runs until 11:59 PM on Halloween night! Check out everything here; just click the image below!

Holiday Theme, Language, Resources

Five Little Pumpkins

Halloween would NOT be complete without this favorite nursery rhyme — Five Little Pumpkins! I thought I would share the little set I made for my younger clients. This set includes all the story characters and elements to share the story, as well as coloring pages for students to cut and/or color to re-create the scene. Click the image below for previews. One of my favorites to share!! ENJOY!!

Holiday Theme, Language, Resources, Therapy Tools

NO PREP! Halloween Receptive and Expressive Language Activity Set

I’ve been having SO much fun creating more seasonal resources! With time to create, I’ve been dreaming up big and little ideas, which I am always happy to share. Here is a quick, little idea I had that I have actually been using in my own therapy room. I work with children of all ages and ranges of ability, so the variety keeps me thinking. I am seeing more children now who present with subtle language difficulties — they are verbal, articulate, and at first glance seem to be on track with their peers. But when you get to know them, you quickly realize that they need organizational language support and practice with both comprehension and expression. So I created this Halloween-themed activity set to provide scaffolded supports and practice with understanding and describing seasonal vocabulary. In this 7-page NO PREP set, I’ve included:

  • Formulating Descriptions Visual/Graphic Organizer
  • 24 unique picture stimulus cards to:
    • elicit verbal descriptions of attributes
    • elicit formulated sentences
    • target wh question comprehension and formulation of responses
    • you can also print doubles of the cards to use as a matching/memory game! Always fun practice and extension opportunities.
  • 10 WH question prompts to support verbal descriptions
  • 24 WH questions to be used as stimuli for targeting of wh question comprehension and formulation of responses.

I’ve been having very good success with this set and with variations I’ve created over the years. The visual stimuli, graphic organizer, and structured wh questions appear to be a magic combo! Feel free to check it out if you want:

Articulation, Holiday Theme, Resources, Therapy Tools

Nifty Fifty Motivation!

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I’d share another fun resource I created – these Halloween-themed motivation sheets! Use these motivation sheets to elicit repeated trials in your therapy session — perfect for articulation and phonology goals or for building momentum in any given skill. My students are always more motivated to complete lots and lots and LOTS of trials when I pair the task with a fun visual and make it a game. These visual incentive sheets will keep your students on track and help to build metacognitive awareness of their progress as they strive to mark off all 50 items on the page (hence the name NIFTY 50!). These motivation sheets can be used with dot markers, highlighters, crayons, colored pencils, or whatever tool you choose! You can also color these yourself and laminate, and then use the pages as visual token boards with bingo markers or magnetic coins. Side note: My students all love using a magnetic wand to pick up the coins after their trials! I got mine from Super Duper Inc but you can find them other places as well.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this resource. More Nifty Fifty sets to come in the not-so-distant future!

Thoughts and Inspirations

Halloween Matching/Memory Game

Here’s another fun resource, from my therapy room to yours! Your students will love this activity that feels like a party game — Halloween Matching/Memory! Use these picture cards to target a variety of speech-language and academic skills as you play this game — simply pair the cards with any task that students complete as they take their turn. I’ve also used these hidden around the room for a Halloween Treasure Hunt game. Print extras to send home with students as a Halloween vocabulary review (my parents have loved playing this game at home with their kids as well). This activity set include 8 pages (title page plus seven pages of picture cards) with 21 picture pairs. Just print, cut, and go!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-MatchingMemory-Game-7358649
Thoughts and Inspirations

Halloween Pragmatic Language Bundle!

Can I just say…I LOVE offering bundles for discounts?! Here is another bundle including one of my most popular Halloween activities — Halloween Pragmatic Question Cards! These cards are the perfect way to target pragmatic/social skills and Halloween safety, in addition to receptive/expressive language, critical thinking, and even articulation. Just pair these cards with any game board, or have students pull questions out of a jack-o-lantern for Halloween fun that is practical and interactive. These would also be a super activity for teletherapy sessions! Questions are designed to target inferential thinking, making predictions, problem-solving, managing conflict, and pragmatic language/social skills. Group discussions and brainstorming possible scenarios/solutions can be put to use through discussions about real-life issues. This bundle includes my originial sets 1 and 2 for a discounted price! PLUS a BONUS Fall game board for your therapy room or classroom! My students think this activity is just a fun game, but it really targets a variety of valuable skills. SO….Trick or Treat, take a peek!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-Pragmatic-Question-Cards-Bundle-7358247
Holiday Theme, Language, Resources

Spooks and Chills, Halloween Thrills!

Re-sharing one of my most popular posts from this spooky-fun season! I’ve had a LOT of requests for these therapy resources. Let me know what you think, and if you’d like to see anything else! 

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year! Pumpkins, apple cider, costumes and crafts…there’s nothing like a little spooky fun to thrill students and engage them in their learning. Looking for ways to target a variety of academic and communication goals using a Halloween theme? Look no further! I have so many resources I’ve developed over the years that are tried and true winners. Check out my resources below, and follow the links over to my new TeachersPayTeachers site. Free downloads located at that site as well!

First, if you are looking for ways to target vocabulary, receptive and expressive language skills, turn-taking and visual discrimination, you will want to download my Halloween Bingo Set. Pair these colorful game boards with wh questions, verbal “mystery clue” descriptions, sentence formulation activities and more to target skills in a fun, creative way. Easily students’ activities to target IEP goals as you simultaneously work with a larger group — just vary the type of question or response that you are requesting as children take turns throughout the game. There a six different (recently updated) https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-Bingo-Game-Set-365240bingo boards in this set:demoHalloweenBingoGameSet365240

If you are looking for activities to target pragmatic language skills, try these Halloween Pragmatic Question Cards…definitely a hit with both students and other teachers! I always incorporate an activity like this into our pre-Halloween lessons and discussions — to target the social pragmatic skills that are often tested this busy time of year, but also to target Halloween safety. I have used this activity to do push-in lessons in the classroom setting, and all of the students in the class participate in very useful discussion generated by these questions. I have students draw the little cards out of a jack-o-lantern bucket, or hide them around the room for students to find while they get some opportunities for movement and kinesthetic learning in their day.

The next Halloween activity I have to share is Halloween Word World — an activity targeting /r/ in various positions of the word. This activity would also be great for students learning about /r/ controlled vowels, or for use as a simple seasonal activity. Have fun!

Activity for targeting /r/ in various positions

The next Halloween activity I have to share is Halloween Word World — an activity targeting /r/ in various positions of the word. This activity would also be great for students learning about /r/ controlled vowels, or for use as a simple seasonal activity. Have fun!

 

 

Here is a fun make-and-eat activity that my students (and graduate student interns) are STILL talking about, years later…making Spooky Spiders to eat! Target a variety of language skills including following directions, sequencing, sequential and ordinal vocabulary, basic math and literacy concepts and more. AND you get to eat these yummy little spiders!! I use the visual directions to also target comprehension and expression after the activity — summarizing the procedures, retelling the events in sequence using appropriate vocabulary, answering wh questions about the procedures…and then I send the recipe page home for students to make the spiders for their family…instant homework, generalization to the home setting, and very happy, proud little monsters.

  

You may be busy creating your own materials, resources or blog posts, and find yourself in need of some festive clipart. But if you are posting the clipart or distributing the images in any way, you need to make sure you are following the copyright laws. Not sure what to do? Not interested in paying the crazy retail prices for clipart packages or digital scrapbooking content? You may be interested in my latest endeavor — FREE self-made clipart images. I won’t even go into the hours I spent making these in Powerpoint…creating each little critter line by line and shape by shape. I’m obviously not a digital image pro, but I think these images turned out pretty cute. And the images are designated for personal, educational and even commercial use. Please link back to my site if you do use these images in any way. I’m quite proud of my little creatures — labors of love, for sure!

I hope that you are now in the spooky Halloween spirit! You may have noticed that many (if not most) of my materials are seasonal or holiday-themed. There’s a method to my madness!! If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past 20 years, it’s that children remember celebrations. Chilchood memories are often tied to holidays, vacations and school events. We are all wired to remember the extraordinary. So, why not make learning FUN and enjoyable? Even celebratory?? You can accomplish the same goals, cover the same material and reach the hearts and minds of children the same way — if not better- than with traditional classroom activities. Children remember celebrations…and they will likely remember YOU as well.

Thoughts and Inspirations

Fall – Halloween- Thanksgiving!

Who else LOVES therapy and classroom activities with a seasonal flair?! Seasonal themes add such a fun, celebratory element to speech-language therapy. Festive games and activities appear to be my “specialty” — or so I have been told. Looking back, I have created a LOT of seasonal resources! And because I feel like celebrating, I decided to bundle some of my top Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving resources into a discounted mega-bundle! This mega-bundle of activities will last through the ENTIRE Fall Season. Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving activities galore to target receptive language, expressive language, pragmatics, articulation, and phonology as well as vocabulary and literacy!  In this bundle you get 137 pages of printable games, lessons, stimulus cards, crafts, recipes, and more. Tried and true fun for your students, from my therapy room to yours. Check it out if you love minimal prep, easy to differentiate, printable activities with a seasonal flair!

Announcements, Articulation, Free Downloads, Holiday Theme, Language, Resources

Only one more day for the Halloween Sale!

I’m so glad people are enjoying my resources and taking advantage of my new, lower prices  and the Pre-Halloween Sale. Being new to the TPT scene, it is hard to gauge what price is reasonable for the work behind the product, and the potential the product has in terms of its application in your classrooms/therapy rooms. Thank you for being patient while I made some initial adjustments! Keep looking for more resources — seasonal favorites as well as practice management/clinical tools. Also, don’t forget that my Pre-Halloween Sale ends TOMORROW!!! Don’t forget to take advantage of my FREE downloads, too. Thank you for your support!

Holiday Theme, Language, Resources

Spooks and Chills, Halloween Thrills!

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year! Pumpkins, apple cider, costumes and crafts…there’s nothing like a little spooky fun to thrill students and engage them in their learning. Looking for ways to target a variety of academic and communication goals using a Halloween theme? Look no further! I have so many resources I’ve developed over the years that are tried and true winners. Check out my resources below, and follow the links over to my new TeachersPayTeachers site. Free downloads located at that site as well!

First, if you are looking for ways to target vocabulary, receptive and expressive language skills, turn-taking and visual discrimination, you will want to download my Halloween Bingo Set. Pair these colorful game boards with wh questions, verbal “mystery clue” descriptions, sentence formulation activities and more to target skills in a fun, creative way. Easily students’ activities to target IEP goals as you simultaneously work with a larger group — just vary the type of question or response that you are requesting as children take turns throughout the game. There a six different bingo boards in this set:

If you are looking for activities to target pragmatic language skills, try these Halloween Pragmatic Question Cards…definitely a hit with both students and other teachers! I always incorporate an activity like this into our pre-Halloween lessons and discussions — to target the social pragmatic skills that are often tested this busy time of year, but also to target Halloween safety. I have used this activity to do push-in lessons in the classroom setting, and all of the students in the class participate in very useful discussion generated by these questions. I have students draw the little cards out of a jack-o-lantern bucket, or hide them around the room for students to find while they get some opportunities for movement and kinesthetic learning in their day.

The next Halloween activity I have to share is Halloween Word World — an activity targeting /r/ in various positions of the word. This activity would also be great for students learning about /r/ controlled vowels, or for use as a simple seasonal activity. Have fun!

Activity for targeting /r/ in various positions

Here is a fun make-and-eat activity that my students (and graduate student interns) are STILL talking about, years later…making Spooky Spiders to eat! Target a variety of language skills including following directions, sequencing, sequential and ordinal vocabulary, basic math and literacy concepts and more. AND you get to eat these yummy little spiders!! I use the visual directions to also target comprehension and expression after the activity — summarizing the procedures, retelling the events in sequence using appropriate vocabulary, answering wh questions about the procedures…and then I send the recipe page home for students to make the spiders for their family…instant homework, generalization to the home setting, and very happy, proud little monsters.

  

You may be busy creating your own materials, resources or blog posts, and find yourself in need of some festive clipart. But if you are posting the clipart or distributing the images in any way, you need to make sure you are following the copyright laws. Not sure what to do? Not interested in paying the crazy retail prices for clipart packages or digital scrapbooking content? You may be interested in my latest endeavor — self-made clipart images. I won’t even go into the hours I spent makingthese in Powerpoint…creating each little critter line by line and shape by shape. I’m obviously not a digital image pro, but I think these images turned out pretty cute. And the images are designated for personal, educational and even commercial use. Please link back to my site if you do use these images in any way. I’m quite proud of my little creatures — labors of love, for sure!

I hope that you are now in the spooky Halloween spirit! You may have noticed that many (if not most) of my materials are seasonal or holiday-themed. There’s a method to my madness!! If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past 20 years, it’s that children remember celebrations. Chilchood memories are often tied to holidays, vacations and school events. We are all wired to remember the extraordinary. So, why not make learning FUN and enjoyable? Even celebratory?? You can accomplish the same goals, cover the same material and reach the hearts and minds of children the same way — if not better- than with traditional classroom activities. Children remember celebrations…and they will likely remember YOU as well.