Happy 2nd Birthday Sale!!

Oh my goodness today is the  day!! As of 8:28am, my little Kenzie Lee is officially a 2 year old!! We are going to be celebrating all weekend over here so why not celebrate on the blog?! What's a better way to celebrate than with a SALE?

I have added quite a few new products to the store in the last few weeks so make sure you don't miss anything!

   

You can check out everything that is on sale in my store here!

Have a very happy weekend!!

Friday Rewind {Highlights From This Week!}

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. 

Yay! It's Friday!! We made it through another week. I am super excited about this weekend because tomorrow my little munchkin turns...2!! Since she will be turning 2, we are appropriately having a "TuTu" party! I will definitely post pictures after this weekend. I haven't done a Friday Rewind post in a while... things have been pretty busy here. I thought I would do some catching up with this post and share some speech and non-speech related events this week. We have been busy bees over here trying to update and work on our new home. So far, we have done a lot of work to our master bedroom and bathroom. Here are some before and after pictures. 

In between working, birthday party planning, and fixing up our house, I have been busy hosting online Jamberry parties and creating new TpT products! 

Here is a picture of my latest Jamicure ;)

And here are a few new products I have added to the store. 

A zoo thematic unit is coming up... can you tell?

Whew... now on to what happened in the speech room! This week the kiddos and I went camping! I am going camping with my family next week so I thought, why not turn my upcoming vacation into a thematic unit this week?! We read the story Curious George Goes Camping

We also had fun playing with some camping themed activities!

I hope you all had a wonderful week, too! What are some themes you have planned for the rest of the school year?

Vocabulary Books For Your Little Ones!

Happy Thursday!! We are so close to the weekend I can feel it. This weekend by baby turns 2!! I cannot believe how fast these past two years have gone. It feels like it was just last week that I was writing a blog post telling you all that we were having a girl. Now two years later, here we are! I wanted to share a birthday gift Kenzie received that would make a great therapy tool!! 

Ever since I can remember, Kenzie has loved looking at pictures. Our wedding album, photo books, photo albums, yearbooks... you name it. She would turn the pages and point out "mommy!" "dada!" "pop pop!" Absolutely adorable. But unfortunately 2 year olds don't always know the meaning of the word gentle. As much as she loved looking at these precious memories, I was always nervous that she would end up tearing pages out. 

Last month my Aunt Debbie was visiting from AZ. She saw how much Kenzie loved looking at pictures, too. It was then that she had the brilliant idea of ordering Kenzie a board book of pictures that she could look at and not destroy! 

The book turned out adorable and Kenzie loves it!!

Pictures of mommy & daddy, Aunt Katie, and other family members are in the book.

Seeing Kenzie point out pictures and play mini photo hunt games with us made me realize that this could be an amazing therapy tool for our younger students and non-verbal children. No, you don't have to order a board book for each student... go pick up a little photo album at the dollar store. Have mom or dad fill it with family photos and bring it to therapy. Another idea is taking pictures of common objects, emotions, actions, or items that go with a thematic unit and making your own album!

You could use these albums for anything you would like to target and their children feel like it's their own! 

Kenzie's board book came from https://pinholepress.com

We're Going to the Zoo!

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links for your convenience.

It's that time of year where most of my younger kids are taking field trips to the zoo. They are super pumped about it, so why not tie in some zoo life into your therapy sessions?

A few months ago, we took our daughter to the zoo. It was so much fun seeing her expressions as she got to see and touch (with a lot of hand sanitizer) so many animals! 

A trip to the zoo can really bring out some major language opportunities. For example, before you go, have the kids predict what they will see. Show them a map and maybe google image some picture of animals that live at the zoo. While you're there, ask them what they see, hear, and smell- although that can be a loaded question if you are anywhere near the elephants! Days following your trip, have them recall what they saw, who they were with, and what their favorite part was. 

Every time I am given the opportunity to jump on a classroom's thematic unit train, I do it. Kids learn the best when they see the material in multiple settings and with many exposures, so why not bring it into the therapy room too? The zoo unit may be one of my favorites. A few weeks before the field trip, I like to bring out some zoo themed books. There are so many great zoo books out there but these are a few of my favorites:

My Heart Is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Curious George Goes to the Zoo

Since I was spending so much time teaching about the zoo, of course I created a thematic unit of speech and language activities to go with it! This packet is full of activities that target: vocabulary, patterns, comparing & contrasting, articulation, and writing... just to name a few! There are also some open-ended activities included that you can use to target any goal desired!

What's a thematic unit with out a matching homework packet? I've got you covered!

You can download these activities in my TpT store here, or enter to win a copy below!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In My APPinion: Preposition Remix

APPy Saturday! I hope you all had a great week and are ready for a great Easter weekend with your loved ones! Recently, the creative people from Smarty Ears contacted me about doing an app review on their app,  Preposition Remix. I seem to always have at least one student working on prepositions on my caseload so I was very excited about a new way to work on this skill. 

Smarty Ears did provide me with a free copy of the app, however, all opinions expressed in this review are mine. 

To get started, first add and/or choose a player! This app allows for one player to use the app at a time. 

You are also able to choose settings based on individual need for the student you are working with. If you are currently only targeting the prepositions: inside & outside, you can simply choose those two from the list. 

Once you are ready to start, hit Go! The student is shown a picture and given an auditory prepositional prompt. He/she is to touch the correct item described. 

"Touch the object to the right of the basket."

Once the students has completed the desired number of targets, you can view their report card. This report card can be shared and emailed to parents and/or teachers!

I love that this app allows you to choose individual settings for the student you are working with. In addition to choosing what prepositions you want to target, I like that you can choose how the app reacts to a wrong answer. If I am using this app as an informal assessment/ progress monitoring tool, I don't want the app to make a buzzing noise, just move on to the next prompt!

I also love that the app keeps track of the student's data and allows you to share report cards!

As a private therapist, the single player feature is perfect for me. However, this is not always the best option for a school based therapist that often works with more than once child at a time. 

Preposition Remix currently sells for $9.99. You can download a copy of this app in the iTunes store here.

Feeling lucky? The wonderful people from Smarty Ears kindly offered a second app code so I could share this app with one of you! Enter below for a chance to win a copy of Preposition Remix!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Spring & Easter Speech Craftivities!

I love craftivities in therapy just about as much as I love stories in therapy (and that is a lot!) It's amazing how much coloring, cutting, and glueing can spark up language in a child! In addition, these craftivities we make in therapy help connect parents with what we are learning about and provides great opportunity for carryover at home! I wanted to share a few of my go-to favorites for this time of year!

First up is an Easter Egg Speech Wreath! 

To make this, I used construction paper for the eggs and a paper plate with the middle cut out for the wreath (fancy schmancy!) I offered colorful paper eggs, but this student wanted to customize each egg! Then, we wrote target articulation words on each egg. Great decoration and even better speech homework!

The picture above is of easter eggs hiding in the grass! I did a similar activity to this when using the story In the Tall, Tall Grass last year. I recently saw Jenn from Crazy Speech World hid eggs in the grass instead of critters and decided this would be fun to make! To create this masterpiece I used construction paper and target words from Mommy Speech Therapy's worksheets. 

Speech-er-Pillar!

I should take stock out in construction paper. We created this little guy after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

Last but not least.... Speech Flowers!

I think this is my favorite spring craftivity. My speech room looked so colorful after I hung these up! I used paint chips from Home Depot and left over tissue paper squares that I had from another craft. The kids wrote their target words in the petals!

I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend with your loved ones!!

Simply Speech Easter Sale!!

We are only one week away from Easter! That means only 1 week left to get all your fun Easter themed activities squeezed into therapy! Need some help? No problem... I have some ideas.... and they are all on sale!! That's right. All of my Easter themed activities are 20% off today!!

First we have Speech With My Peeps! This is an open-ended game (with an adorable Easter theme) to use to target any speech and language goal! Print as many copies of the points/bonus cards as you wish. After your student(s) practice a target, have them choose a card from the pile. They either are awarded points, an extra turn, the game order is reversed, or they lose a turn. This is an great way to spice up "skill and drill" therapy!! Also included in this packet is a game board and blank bunny cards so you can create your own based on student need!

You can download a copy here!

Need some quick print and go homework sheets for this holiday season? This packet includes 10 adorable Spring and Easter themed homework coloring sheets. There are blanks provided for you or your students to write in their own targets to take home and practice. 

You can download a copy here!

My students love the old lady books so I could not resist making a companion for this one! This book companion includes a ton of speech and language activities: sequencing, vocabulary, spatial skills, articulation, compare and contrast, etc!

You can download a copy here!

And while you're there...don't forget to download my Old Lady Chick Homework FREEBIE!!

Hoppy Easter friends!!