Winter Inferences

Check out our new product, Winter Inferences, on TpT! This packet includes four activities to reinforce lessons on inferencing. Your students will learn more about inferences through drawing, word associations, acting out situations, and determining if an inference is correct or incorrect.  It is 20 pages long and includes:

-          3 reproducible ‘Draw It’ worksheets

-          4 reproducible Word Association worksheets

-          27 Act It out cards (print, cut and laminate for reuse)

-          24 Scenario and inference cards (print, cut and laminate for reuse), one thumbs up/ thumbs down mat

 

Draw It: Have students draw a picture to answer the inference question. Then discuss the picture.

 

 

Word Association:  Have students write four words they associate with the picture. Then discuss the words they chose.

 

Act It Out: Students draw a card and act out the given situation. Other students guess what is being acted out. My students always love any excuse to get up and move around!

 

 

 

Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down: Each student has a thumbs up/ thumbs down mat.

 Draw a card and read the scenario and inference. Student determines if the inference is correct or incorrect and then places it on the appropriate mat.

I know my students need lots of reinforcement no matter what concept is being taught. I created this packet to give my students more opportunities to practice the skills they have learned! This is appropriate for 2^nd through 4^th grade.

Top Apps of 2012

Santa brought me an iPad this time last year! What a wonderful gift! I have loved using it in my classroom and I have been very pleased with how the kids have responded to new technology!

So today I decided to sit down and pick my Top Apps for 2012! These aren’t apps that were necessarily new to the market this year, just apps that I have enjoyed using this year.

Articulation

·         Articulation Station

·         Artik Pix

·         Articulation Games

·         Multiple Choice Articulation

 

 

Language

·         Conversation Builder

·         Bag Game

·         Tense Builder

·         Pocket Lexi

 



Fluency

·         Bad Speaker

 

Games

·         Where’s my water

·         Angry Birds

·         Frisbee Forever

·         Fireworks

 

What are some of your favorite apps?

To ring in the New Year, The Speech Ladies are participating in the New Year, New Materials TpT sale! Be sure to stop by our store in the next few days to make your wish list, and then on January 2^nd- 3^rd all our products will be 20% off! Many other SLPs are joining in as well so you can stock up on new materials for your classroom! A BIG thanks to Kristin at Simply Speech for this great idea and badge!

 

Also, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for special giveaways!

 

 

 

Fables Reading Comprehension App

Lately, I have been using the app Reading Comprehension Fables Edition. So I wanted to share it with y’all! And it is only .99 cents! (This is not a review. No one asked me to write about this app. I just really like it and wanted to share!)

I use this app to target reading comprehension, auditory comprehension and articulation carryover. I have students read the story out loud and take data on their speech sounds, I have students read the story and then take the quiz if they are working on reading comprehension. I also have one student read the story to another student and then answer questions if they are working on auditory comprehension.

I have the Book One Collection which includes 10 stories. At the end of each story there is a 10 question quiz. You can purchase 2 more books as well.

My kids enjoy reading the stories and they even have fun taking the quiz. Most of my students are very competitive, so I sometimes have one student write down their quiz answers on a separate sheet of paper and the other student answers on the iPad. They love to keep up with who has the most correct answers. It is an awesome feeling to watch them want to succeed on a quiz!  

I love finding apps that are not necessarily “speech” apps but still finding ways to plug them into therapy!

What non-speech apps have you adapted to therapy?

Gift Ideas

This year we have secret sisters at one of my schools. It has been a lot of fun to sneak little gifts to my sister! All year I have been racking my brain for cute little treats to send her way. Below are some fun ideas I have used or plan to use! Also, these would make great teacher/ SLP gifts!

You are a POP-ULAR teacher/ SLP/ Secret Sister! Fill a popcorn bucket with popcorn and treats!

http://marcicoombs.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=13

I am SODA-lighted you are my secret sister (or teacher)! Attach note to bottles of soda.

http://www.tammymitchellphotography.com/2012/04/27/make-this-free-printable-teacher-appreciation-week-creative-gift-idea-soda-lighted-youre-my-teacher/

Thanks a LATTE for all you do! Gift certificate to Starbucks (or local coffee shop).

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2011/04/14/printable-thanks-a-latte-gift-card-holder-teacher-appreciaiton/

According to my calculations, it’s going to be a great year! Wrap up a calculator with this note.

http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/08/for-their-teacher.html

Hope your Christmas is Merry and SPRITE! Attach note to a Sprite bottle! Can’t wait to uses this one next week!

http://livingpractically.blogspot.com/2011/12/sprit-christmas-gift.html

You are a Lifesaver! Wrap up a box of Lifesavers!

http://www.nothingbutcountry.com/2011/04/being-a-lifesaver-teacher-appreciation-2011/

Hope your Holidays/ week/ year is SMOOTH! Give a bottle of lotion.

http://one16ten.blogspot.com/2011/08/little-teacher-gift.html

 

Skip To My Lou also has a ton of fabulous ideas!

Last year was my first year working in a school and there were so many sweet teachers who took a few minutes to help me, or explain new things to me. I was so grateful for their help and these ideas would be a perfect way to say THANK YOU! I know I love when others find a cute way to say thank you or show their appreciation! For more secret sister/ teacher gift ideas stop by our Teacher Gifts Pinterest Board!

The winner of the Multiple Choice Articulation App is Heidi Nowitzeke! Congrats! Check your e-mail for your promo code! (Winner was chosen by random generator.com)

Gingerbread Categories

I have had so much fun using this Gingerbread Category activity with my little pre-schoolers and even some of my Kindergarteners!

The concept is simple; just sort the gingerbread men to the correct house! There are 5 men for each house!

 

The categories include clothes, foods, toys, hot, things that go, animals, household items, cold, and things that are outside.

 

It is a great winter activity! You can download it in my TPTstore!
Also, don't forget to enter our Multiple Choice Articulation app giveaway on the post below! :)

Multiple Choice Articualiton App Review

The app is from Erik X. Raj, but the review is from me! (Scroll to bottom to enter the GIVEAWAY!)

Multiple Choice Articulation is a great new app for targeting the s, z, r, l, sh, ch, and th phonemes at the reading and conversation levels. I am alsways searching for new activities to target sounds at this level. I feel that the bigger varitey of sound specific activities my students are exposed to, the more generalization it promotes!

The player is able to choose a sound and the position (initial, medial, final) and then read fun ‘would you rather’ questions. My students had a lot of fun reading and answering these silly questions and it prompted a lot of discussion!  They also got really excited about hearing the answer that Erik recorded!

I was able to get a lot conversational samples from my kiddos. Yay!

Things I do like:

It offers another way to practice articulation at a higher level!

Things I do not like:

This app does not record data.

Things I would like to see in an update:

I would love to be able to record my student’s responses and play it back to them.

You can grab this app in the iTunes store for $9.99! OR you can enter our GIVEAWAY! Just comment below and leave you e-mail!

The Latest on Asperger's Syndrome

 

Have you read this article, Asperger’s syndrome dropped from American Psychiatric Association Manual, from CBS News? We are curious to know what y’all think about this news and how/if it will affect the world of speech language pathology. Comment with your thoughts and opinions!

Articulation Games (App Review)

Articulation Games by Virtual Speech Center Inc. App Review

For the past couple of weeks I have been playing around with the Articulation Games App from Virtual Speech Center Inc. You can read my review below! Don’t worry, they offered the app, but the opinions are all mine!

 

This app has 4 main components. It offers flashcards, a memory game, an artic wheel game, and the sweet spinner. And it keeps track of data. I really like that it offers more for my students than just the regular flashcards and memory game. I know my students get tired of those as the year goes on and yours probably do too! This app also uses real pictures and not drawings which was a nice change.  I have described each feature for you below.

Flashcards

This feature is very similar to other apps. You can choose multiple students at a time and the specific phonemes for each student. Then you can select word, phrase or sentence level and if the phoneme is in the initial, medial or final position. A therapist can easily go between the students in their group by tapping the name at the top and choosing the next student. Once you have finished the exercise the app has kept all the data for you!

Memory Game

The memory has a bit of a twist compared to other apps I have used. Once you select the student, phoneme and position you can begin to play. However, when a student taps a square, a window pops up and displays the picture and gives the therapist a chance to record the data. Once the student has said the target word you can close the window and return to the game. My kids were a little frustrated by this at first because they just wanted to play the game, but it was a good way to ensure that they said the target word and didn’t skip it!

 

Aritc Wheel

Again, you are able to select your students, phoneme and position to start. Then the student taps on the wheel to spin it. The picture and target word, phrase, or sentence pops up on the screen. My kids thought it was fun to ‘spin the wheel’ but sometimes the wheel was a little slow for me. Even though I would like to see it stop sooner, I was still able to get in a good number of trials.

 

Sweet Spinner

This may have been my favorite feature! I don’t know why but the spinner did not seem to take as long as the wheel to produce the target phoneme. Once you have adjusted your settings, you tap the red handle on the spinner and it generates a picture for you!

 Overall I loved that this app gave me different options for drilling my students on their sounds! And the kids liked playing new games to practice saying their words.

If you have used this app let us know what you think!

To learn more about it, check out this video!