Happy Fall!

I got to work extra early this morning to get my fall & Pinterest inspired classroom door done. I think it came out pretty cute :) This week we are reading Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss. So far, it's been going great! I'll have lots of activities to post once this week is over :)

Halloween Recap!

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I have been very busy over the past two weeks, so this has been the first chance I've been able to sit down and blog! Two weeks ago, we read The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano. I bought the iPad app when it was on sale for $.99, and it was well worth it! You can choose to have it read to you, read it yourself, or even record your voice reading it for the kiddos. I chose to have it read to us, and the kids LOVED touching the pumpkins, scarecrow, farmer, and all of the other interactive pictures. As we read, we learned new vocabulary words, shapes, and how being different is so special!

Spookley is a square pumpkin that gets teased by all of the round pumpkins in the beginning, but goes on to save them all during a terrible storm. After this, the round pumpkins learn that being square might not be so bad after all. At the end of the story, the farmer plants "special" seeds like Spookley's and grows a variety of pumpkins on his farm. This has to be my favorite Halloween story because of its amazing message! It is all about being different, tolerance, and acceptance.

This gave me a wonderful idea for our Spookley craft! I cut out different colors and shapes for our pumpkins. I let each child choose their color and shape to decorate. I then attached a craft stick with the child's name on it to put in our pumpkin patch! The kids were engaged through this entire activity (from reading the book to making their own Spookleys)! This craft also gives you a wonderful opportunity to ask wh- questions and use descriptions.

 

 

Spookley was such a hit, the kids were asking to read it again last week! Instead, we read Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley. 

Before we started the story, we went over shapes, colors, descriptive words (squiggly, scraggly, etc.), and body parts. The first time I read the story, I didn't let the kids see the pictures. While I read, I had them draw the BGM's face just by listening to the color, size, and body part. Then, I read the story again. This time I let them see the pictures, but they didn't draw anything. Finally, I read it a third time, and again didn't let them see the pictures. All of my students who did this used the right colors each time! I was very impressed :)

During our second session, we made our own BGMs. I cut out each body part (which took forever!) from a template I found here! I asked the kids to build their monsters as we read the story. Then, we glued our monsters on a sheet of black construction paper with this freebie I found at Dream Big Kinders!

 

The kiddos were very excited when they walked in my room and saw this guy on the board!

 

 This is one of our completed projects!

 

In speech, we were busy making spooky speech webs! I made a sheet with Halloween graphics from MyCuteGraphics.com for the students to find their speech words in. Then they cut them out and glued them onto their web. The students worked on these while I went around with the iPad to do some drills. It worked perfectly, and the students stayed engaged throughout the sessions!

Happy Halloween!

Over the past few weeks we have met a Little Baby Mummy, a square pumpkin named Spookley, and a Big Green Monster! I plan on posting about our activities tomorrow after school, but wanted to quickly post a picture of the homemade costumes my boyfriend and I wore this year...

 

 

 

and wish everyone a very happy Halloween! 

The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin

Spookley is visiting my speech room all week! We have been having lots of fun with the interactive app, learning vocabulary, and saying our speech words to color pumpkins. I will give a Halloween update next week :)

 



 





All Wrapped Up In Speech!



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We were feeling very festive this week in speech! We read Where's My Mummy? by Carolyn Crimi. This book is one of my favorites! It is an adorable story about Little Baby Mummy, who wants to play one last game of Hide & Shriek with Big Mama Mummy before going to bed. He then goes on an adventure where he meets a few spooky characters, and one not so spooky character before being reunited with his "mummy." This book is perfect for Halloween, discussing family, making text-to-self connections, sequencing, and playing up puns!

 

 

After we read the book, we made our own mummies! I pre-cut black circles for the eyes, cut white construction paper into strips for the bandages, and used a paper plate as the face. I asked my language groups comprehension questions about the story, and for each question they answered, they earned a bandage. I did this with my speech groups, as well, but they had to say target words for their bandages! Here's a picture of our mummies outside of my room:

 

 

As the students glued their bandages, I asked them about a time they were scared and what their mummy did to make them feel better. For my PK & kindergarten kiddos, I wrote their answers on a printed prompt for them that said:

 

"Today we read Where's My Mummy? and made text-to-self connections!

When I'm scared, my mummy...."

 

I got some pretty good answers! I then glued the response onto black construction paper where I taped on the mummy face. Here's a picture of my favorite response of the day:

 

 

 

Trash or Treasure?!

While I was sitting in a wonderful training over the summer, our speaker introduced a game she had made to play with one of her students called "Sentence Jail." She created nonsense sentences that were placed in "jail." In order to set these sentences "free," the student had to decide if they made sense or not. If not, he would fix them and turn them into real sentences. We were able to watch a pretty lengthy video of her playing this game, and her student was very engaged, which got me thinking....

 

 

and Trash or Treasure? was born! I picked up a table top trash can from Target (where I buy everything I don't order from Amazon, eBay, or Etsy!). I create sentences related to my student loaded with incorrect pronoun use, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization & crinkle them up. They then become "trash" that my student has to turn into "treasure" by correcting all of the mistakes. So far, I only use this with one student who has language goals that target her writing skills, and she loves it! You could easily adapt this game to target articulation goals, too!

 



Frankenstein Makes A Visit & There Was An Old Lady...

Frankenstein made a visit to speech this week! I was finally able to decorate my door for Halloween on Friday afternoon! Here is my Pinterest inspired masterpiece....

I also must apologize for not posting in almost a month! I let life get the best of me, but I promise to be posting more and more :) Last week we read There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro in my speech room!

 

First, I read the book aloud while asking comprehension questions throughout the story as I read. Then, I read the book again, but this time I had the kids feed the old lady as I read. I inherited this snazzy old lady from Mrs. Kristin Cummings over at Simply Speech! The kids had a blast feeding her! I used the (free!) printables from 3 Dinosaurs mentioned on Simply Speech. I laminated one set of the printables in color for the kids to feed the old lady, so that I can keep them for next year. Here is where you can find them!

After we fed her, each student made their own old lady. I used Jenn Alcorn's Feed the Granny activity from her There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books Language Unit that I purchased from her TpT store. You can download it here. I cut out the granny's face and taped a plastic bag to the back. As we retold the story, the kids labeled the back of each picture and fed their own old lady (sequencing)!

 

This week my language groups are reading Where's My Mummy? by Carolyn Crimi. I absolutely love it! It is an adorable story to share with the little ones near Halloween! If you don't have a copy, I would definitely grab one! My speech groups are doing some activities that I will be using in my speech centers next week. I'll be sure to give an update at the end of the week :)

 

Arrrgh, me hearties!

I was going to wait to do a pirate themed post until the end of this week, but I decorated my door this morning, and I wanted to post a picture!

 

Hopefully this will give you some inspiration to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day and the fun festivities that go along with it!

First Month of School + TpT Freebie!

The first month of school was over in the blink of an eye, and I am absolutely loving my job :) I have already held an IEP meeting, met with quite a few of my parents, and began screenings on several students. I love that I have been able to jump right into things! My biggest fear was making my schedule, but that turned out to be way less of a headache than anticipated. All of the teachers have been great and accommodating, which I really appreciate. Parents and students have been wonderful, too, so I am looking forward to a great school year!

The past few weeks have been crazy busy for me, but last Friday was a teacher work day, so I was able to sit down and get lots of things crossed off of my to do list. After receiving requests for my alphabet wall cards, I thought that they would be perfect to post as my first TpT freebie! You can download them here.

 

September 19th, which is this upcoming Thursday, is National Talk Like A Pirate Day! We are going to celebrate all week long in speech! Look for another post this week to see what my little mateys were up to!

 

 





Welcome to The Speech Beach!

Welcome to my new blog! I am so excited to jump into the world of blogging! I am a first year school-based speech-language pathologist working in Pinellas County, Florida. I work with children from pre-k through second grade. I graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor's degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. I will be applying to grad school at USF this upcoming year. Here's a quick peek into Ms. Christine's Speech Room...

I thought that starting The Speech Beach would be the perfect way to share my therapy and organizational ideas, get inspired by all of yours, share some of my money saving secrets, and (fingers crossed) document my progress through grad school for any aspiring SLPs out there :)
 
Luckily for me, I worked at my school last year, so the kiddos and staff are all familiar faces to me. I am three weeks into our school year, and I could not be loving it more! I have been gathering materials since I graduated last December, so I am very excited to be putting them to use and working with the kiddos!