So Thankful To Be an SLP… and So Much More!

Happy Thanksgiving!! How was your week? Were you off, enjoying this beautiful chilly weather? I was working, but working holiday weeks are always fun. The kids are in the festive mood, so needless to say, so were our therapy sessions. I wanted to take a minute to write a quick post and just share how thankful I am this year for so many things. 

First off, I am so thankful to be an SLP. I am beyond thankful to have a job that I love. I am thankful for the opportunity to meet and work with some amazing families. After working in their homes and being a part of their lives for many days and hours each week, they seem like family to me. I am thankful that I have a job where I can see children learn and grow on a daily basis. I love their sense of humor and innocent outlook on life. 

I am incredibly thankful for this group of women pictured here. These talented SLPs have made me a better, more creative, and inspired therapist. We have known each other for over two years, however, we all met (in person) for the first time last week at ASHA. You would have never believed it because it truly is like we are all the best of friends. I am so thankful for this blog and all the inspiration it has brought into my life. I can't put into words exactly how thankful I am for you, sitting here reading this post right now. Your kind words of support, comments, feedback, and emails mean so much to me and inspire me to continue to write and create!

Words cannot express how full of love my heart is. I am so thankful for my beautiful family. I have an incredibly supportive, kind, loving husband and the most spunky, sassy, sweetheart of a daughter. I am so blessed to have them. 

Last but not least, I am so thankful for my GROWING family! Yes, the Cummings will be blessed with another little one in June! Keeping this secret has been so hard, but today is the perfect day to share the news!

I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing, Thanksgiving holiday! Now go fill your tummies with lots of turkey!!

XOXOX

I Known an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie

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Thanksgiving is quickly approaching! I love the holiday season and how festive these few months are. The only thing that stinks about November is that there are only a few weeks between Halloween & Thanksgiving. That means that I only have a few short weeks to squeeze my favorite Thanksgiving books into therapy! So needless to say, as soon as Halloween was over, I quickly retrieved my Thanksgiving books out of storage and got them into my students' hands! First up on our list… 

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie!

I love using all of the old lady books in therapy because I can target so many goals with them. Of course it goes without saying that the kids adore these books, too. This story in particular always gets the best comments. The kids always comment on how this lady is "so rude!" and how "she needs to stop eating all that food!" If you're looking for a good laugh, ask your students what they would do or say to the lady if she came to their house on Thanksgiving and ate all their food!?

I created a story companion with 11 different activities to help target my students' speech & language goals. This packet targets vocabulary, sequencing, following directions, categories, plurals, compare/contrast, articulation, and more. There's also some open ended activities that you can use to target goals that may not be included in the packet. 

The kiddos and I had so much fun with the old lady last week that I want to give a copy of this packet away to one of you!

You can also download a copy of this activity from my Teachers Pay Teachers store here!

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Speech & Language Homework Folders!

Happy Monday!! I can't believe it has been almost a month since I have sat down and written a blog post. Life has been hectic and crazy… but in a totally good way. I can't wait to share more information with you in a few weeks! On another note, who is going to ASHA?! I am so excited and I hope to meet many of you! Ok, now on to the real reason I sat down to write this post… homework folders! Because of a blog post I wrote 2 years ago, I have received  many, many emails in regards to homework folders and how I set them up. You can check out that post here. As with all things, I have updated the way I do folders over the years and I wanted to share it with you, since there has been such a large interest in speech folders. 

First in the packet is a blank calendar. Fill in the month at the top, then add the dates into the boxes. I love using this calendar to communicate multiple things to families: when homework is given, when it is due, when therapy sessions are, when meetings are, re-evaluation due dates, etc. It's a great visual and a great reminder for parents. It also helps the kids practice calendar skills. Let the older students complete their own calendars and take some responsibility for their own folders. 

Next up, a 'My Day in Speech' wrap up sheet! This is something new that I added. It is a great way to quickly update parents on what you are working on in speech, communicate the child's behavior during  therapy, as well as communicate one more way if there is homework given. The best part, this form takes about 30 seconds to complete but gives mom and dad so much information.  

Last but not least, a communication log. I like to use this for open communication with parents. In this section, parents often leave me questions or notes about vacations or an upcoming doctor's appointment. It's very helpful for rescheduling therapy. It's also nice to keep the lines of communication open with parents and sometimes just say hi!

You can download a copy of these homework folder printables in my TpT store here!