One Week Down...

I don't know about other SLPs who have returned to work but y'all, I am suffering from what I like to call End of Summer Depression (ESD for short).  This first week back has struggle central in the speech room, mainly because the first week back is full of paperwork, scheduling, and PD presentations that don't apply to speech A.K.A my least favorite aspects of being a school based SLP.  I know that when my kiddos return on Monday I will be singing a different tune but this week almost did me in.  My room is finally starting to look like a room again and the first draft of my weekly schedule is slowly coming together.  I will say that it is 10,000 times easier this time around compared to my first year, where the name of the game was just keeping my head above water.  And now without further adieu here is a photo tour of speech room

Just like I left it in May

Attempting to make the room look less jail cell-esque 

Games, Activities, and Artic Cards

Under the calendar are our theme of the week, speech rules, and no way words posters

This blank wall will house our projects and artwork from the week's theme (please excuse the disaster that my desk is already becoming)

I have finally found a way to store my TpT creations/downloads! These crates are from Walmart but I have seen similar ones at Target in their back to school section.

This year I am making sure my kiddos know what they are working towards each time they come into the speech room.  I made 6 of these cards that each kiddo will fill out before we start our session.

And there you have it folks!  It's small and claustrophobic but it's all mine.  I am excited to see my speech babies this week and learn all about their fun filled summers using this Summer Synopsis packet.  

To those SLPs who have returned, welcome back and to those of you who are still enjoying summer... enjoy it while it lasts.

It's That Time Again

It's hard to believe the summer is quickly coming to an end (teachers in our district head back on MONDAY!).  It seem like just yesterday I was packing up and cleaning my speech room for the summer.  This summer has been a blessing with many adventures and visitors but I am ready to get back to my speech room and see my kiddos.  I am feeling 10,000 times more prepared for this year than I did last year, it's amazing what one learns in one year as a school based SLP.  I have been slowly organizing the materials I have at home, developing some new classroom management tools, and creating some fun new ice breaking activities to get my kids back in speech mode.  To all the new CFs out there who are just trying to keep their heads above water, let me tell you... it does get better/easier/less stressful!  

This year I am doing a complete overhaul of the way I approach speech and language therapy... last year I was in survival mode which means that many times my kids were just playing games and practicing their speech and language goals.  This year I am having themed weeks and will be in charge of picking the activity 95% of the time.  I'm sure it will take some adjusting for both myself and my kiddos but in the long run I think everyone will be happier/get more out of our time together in the speech room. 

taking advantage of Walmart's 10% cash back on school supplies 

The back to school stack continues to grow 

This summer I finally got around to organizing all my TpT materials into thematic groups. 

Finally got my back to school ice breaking activity up on TpT!  It includes three different graphic organizers (varying skill level) that students can use to summarize their summers. Also included are 12 wh- ice breaking questions about summer and the start of the school year. I plan to use these activities as an ice breaker, to collect informal baseline data, and target various speech and language goals.  It's 20% off for the next 24 hours!  You can find it here

SLP Natalie

Just Imagine How Much Cooler I'll Be In Summer

We have one week of school left and let me just tell you how excited this SLP is!  99.9% of my IEPs are done, reports cards are in the process of being completed, my room is getting cleaned up, and my kiddos have officially checked out.

This last week in speech has been all about keeping my kiddos engaged and learning while keeping it fun and light.  This week in speech....

We made speech sandcastles... Thanks Crazy Speech World for this fantastic idea!

We worked on synonyms, pronouns, verbs, and much more with this summer themed language packet

We started working on our speech yearbooks created by Crazy Speech World.

As the school year comes to an end it is crazy to think that it has been a year since I graduated from UW-Eau Claire ready to hit the ground running.  This year has been a roller coaster of ups and downs but I would not have it any other way.  

Woohoo!

I don't know about y'all but right around the end of the school year I am struggling to come up with a way to keep my speechies motivated while keeping my material making to a minimum (IEP meetings anyone?).  Just in case you were not aware/are living under a rock Teachers Pay Teachers is having a sale for the next 36ish hours.  In addition to the TpT sale a lot of the stores (including mine) are having an additional sale.  Go fill up your shopping carts with some end of the year goodies! I know I did :)  

SLP Natalie

Egg-cellent Week in Speech

I don't know about y'all but this past week was a struggle.  Because of all our snow days (15 in total!) we lost all of our spring break and the kids (and teachers!) desperately needed a break!  This week was more a "how can I stretch a small out amount of therapy materials to make them last all week long". This speech therapist was in desperate need of a break!

This week in speech we enjoyed many Easter themed activities...

We searched for eggs with our speech sounds inside... which sometimes ended up as just playing with the grass... lesson learned

We worked on our location words as well as following directions by 

hiding eggs in our Where's the Egg? books

We played Easter Bingo (freebie can be found here)

We worked on irregular plurals with these fun eggs (freebie can be found here)

All in all it was a pretty good week, made even better by the fact that we did not have school on Good Friday or Easter Monday... that means a long weekend back in Minnesota for this SLP.  

Next week we will be celebrating Earth Day and learning all about the 3 Rs.

I hope y'all have a wonderful and blessed Easter. 

Spring Time in the Speech Room

I don't know about y'all but it's finally starting to feel like spring around here.  Last week we averaged mid 70s all week and you will hear no complaining from this SLP.  I think this warmer weather is God's way of saying hey sorry you didn't get a spring break last week so I will give you beautiful weather.  The kids knew we were supposed to be on Spring Break last week so they were all a little stir crazy which makes Miss K. a little crazy but we made it through. 

This week we celebrated all things spring including making umbrellas, feeding caterpillars, counting raindrop syllables, and working on our language goals.  

Counting syllables in multisyllabic words in our Rain Shower Syllables Activity 

We made umbrellas with our target sounds written on raindrops and worked on Synonyms, Irregular plurals, and irregular past tense verbs with the Spring Time Language Packet

We worked on requesting, following directions, and sequencing while feeding a Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Even though we did not get a spring break it was fun to celebrate the arrival (finally!) of spring. 45 days until Summer break... not that I'm counting or anything :) 

St. Patrick's Day Snow Day

We have now entered into snow day number 15... last night it iced/winter mixed so what started out as a two hour delay has since morphed into snow day number 15.  So Crazy!  All the teachers at school keep saying "This is not a normal winter" "We never get weather like this".  I am bummed because I had some awesome bright green Toms that I was finally going to bust out in celebration.  I am glad I have a full week of St. Patrick's Day activities planned so we can still celebrate in the speech room even after the day has passed. I decided to use this snow day to trial run a craft I had planned with my kiddos to make sure it was something my kinders could be successful at.  

This week (whenever we get back to school) we are going to make speech rainbows!

This is a super easy craft that I think 99.9% of my kiddos will enjoy.  All you need are paper plates, crayons, cotton balls, yellow construction paper, and glue.  

Cut the paper plates in half and have students color them like rainbows... I chose to cut mine to make it  more of an arch but I will probably have the kiddos just leave their plates in half... glue cotton balls on one end and then glue yellow construction paper circles on the other end for the gold at the end of the rainbow.  For this example I put target /k/ words on my gold pieces but you can modify it to fit your students needs.... and voila!  A quick and easy St. Patrick's day craft 

The infamous green Toms... I'll just need to wait for warmer weather 

to bust these bad boys out again 

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind always be at your back. 

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

and rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

SLP Natalie