The Guardian Eyewitness - FREE app

Here is an app you may find useful. I use it to target inferencing skills and also, it's a great way to get your students talking. You may use it to target pragmatic skills and pretty much anything. Best of all, it's FREE!!!!.

Download it from the app store.

Description

The Guardian Eyewitness app for iPad showcases the world’s most striking and beautiful photographs, providing a daily, visual reflection of global events.

The OFF-THE-WALL, BIZARRE, ABSURD, CRITICAL THINKING game

I found myself working a lot on critical thinking, especially with the upper elementary grades. I came a across some good probing questions from a variety of sources, but my challenge was making critical thinking tasks FUN!

In this game, players choose a "Red Riding Hood" card and answer questions about a story.

Upon answering a question, players choose a "Wolf" card and carry out a wacky command. You will need tokens for this game.

 
The question cards can be applied to any book that you're reading with your students. The "Wolf" cards can be used for a variety of other activities. Here are the rules...

Download your copy at my TPT store. I always appreciate your comments, so go ahead and leave me one!

Pragmatic Skills

I guess I have a bit of a type A personality, which is why I need everything to be super organized. I have started to organize all areas of language development into a hierarchy. This helps me track progress better and also helps my students with achieving their goals.

In this download, you will find 8-steps to helping students achieve pragmatic appropriateness. You also get sample activities for each pragmatic skill targeted, as well as conversation starter strips and fun facts for kids.

Visit my TPT store for this and other activities.

Thanks to innovativeconnections.blogspot.com for her bright borders and the clipart is from http://teachersclipart.blogspot.com

My bulletin board!

There are 4 bulletin boards in my speech room and one outside my room. I had to think of something that I could keep up for more than a few months. So... I had my students create their "t-errific" shirts with their goals and I don't plan on redecorating any time soon.

I downloaded the blank shirts from superduper a while back. E-mail if you want a copy.

Homework that is "short-n-sweet"

My students BEG for me to give them homework because they earn prizes for completing 10 assignments and exhibiting good behavior. Since I don't always have time to plan ahead, I often find myself having to come up with a homework task on the spot. And so I created "short-n-sweet" questions which target almost all aspects of speech and language development. All you have to do is make copies, cut, and distribute. I was inspired by various pinterest posts and used clip art from cindy park at TPT.

I hope you find this download helpful. You can find the download at my TPT store. As always, your comments and reviews are appreciated.

Writing Intervention

The majority of my students struggle with writing and whenever they are asked to provide a written sample, they cringe, they cry, and they throw tantrums.

I have developed a 13-step writing intervention program. I use these steps to improve my students' writing and I have found that it really makes a big difference. Some of the steps are from "Prevention and Intervention of Writing Difficulties for Students with Learning Disabilities," a research article by Steve Graham, Karen R. Harris, and Lynn Larsen. Some of the steps are originals, which I felt were important enough to include. Students are motivated throughout the process because the intervention is broken down into 13 simple and MANAGEABLE steps. I really think your students will benefit from this as much as mine have.

You can download the FREE image at my TPT store. And as always, I appreciate your comments!

The frame in this print-out is from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Dina-Migadaki

Following complex directions

Many of my students' goals this year are to improve comprehension for following complex directions. I decided to make my own activity. I hope you find it useful too.

In this activity you will find multi-step directions which include prepositions, temporal concepts, quantitative concepts, and conditional "if."

You can download your FREE copy at my TPT store. I would like to know what you think, your comments and reviews are greatly appreciated.

Clip art is by  Chuck E.

Irregular Past Tense Verbs

Here is a FREE printable activity to practice using and writing irregular past tense verbs in sentences. First, print and laminate the pencils. I then place the pencils in a cup and have students draw a sentence one at a time. The students must then correct the sentence by using the proper verb. I have students write out the correct sentences to practice their writing.

You can download your FREE copy here at TPT. Your comments are appreciated.



The clip art is from Educational Insights Today at TPT.

Word Family Hand Prints

Here's a way to have a little fun with phonology. You can be creative and attach the hand prints onto popsicle sticks, or have the students give the hand prints a "high five" once they've read all the words in the family.

Grab your FREE copy here at TPT and don't forget to leave a comment.

Graphics are from the pond http://frompond.blogspot.com

Site Word Pick-Up

Here's a freebee card game for targeting site words. Enjoy!

Download the activity at TPT. Your comments are appreciated :)

Another classic

Great BINGO game for the younger ones. I use it to target vocabulary, colors (of course), turn-taking, matching, "WH" questions (e.g., Where can you find a tractor?) and object function (e.g., "What is a shovel used for?").

Meet Tic-Tac-Tony

I've had this game for a while now and it never disappoints. It is similar to Connect Four, but children get to put the red or blue circle on Tony's tail, push down, and as they let go, the shape jumps into an empty space. I use this will all ages, even with some of my higher functioning EI toddlers. It is a great motivator and I also sneak in some spatial prepositions while playing (e.g., top/bottom, next to, etc.). Also targets turn-taking.

For those of you who have not yet received tenure, here is a questionnaire for parents to help you build your porfolio

Grab the Free questionnaire here: TPT.

Helpful handout for parents and therapists on dealing with difficult behaviors

Anger Management

This activity addresses 1) anger management 2) inferencing 3) comparing/contrasting. Students color a picture of a boy or a girl, then tear up the picture into several pieces. Explain to the students that each tear represents hurtful words (have a group discussion on teasing/bullying in school). Then, have the students try and put the pieces back together, like a puzzle.

Most of the students are not able to make the picture whole again, but even if they succeed, the picture will not look the same. It will have "scars."

Each time that students say hurtful things to one another, they are creating scars which may never fully heal.

Discuss similarities and differences between the before and after pictures. What can they conclude for this activity? What can they infer about bullying? Great for older groups.

Grab your boy/girl images here: dltk boy/girl

Welcome speechies!

Punch-A-Prize

Instead of having students choose a prize from a prize box (which is quite time consuming as my students are very indecisive), they will now get to "Punch-A-Prize." This was originally created by: tekyteach.blogspot.com. My version is a bit smaller and I hope to use it throughout the school year.

To make your own Punch-A-Prize, you will need a poster board, styrofoam bowls, tissue paper, and duck tape. Simply put a prize in a bowl, cover it with tissue paper and attach to the board. Voyila!