Mother's Day Packet on sale! And an Etsy link for cloth masks!

I'm dusting off the blog here for a brief public service announcement.

First of all, Mother's Day is coming up.  I've marked down a popular Mother's Day Bundle to half off. for two weeks until May 14th.  This is a special token of appreciation for all you are doing during this difficult time, both you SLPs and moms.

Find Mother's Day Bundle on sale on TPT here.  

 Second, if you want a well made mask (not medical grade), my daughter, who has lost her bird-banding job due to Covid-19, has started a little business on Etsy.  You can select the fabric you want, and she is quick to make as many as you need.   Check out the pictures below, and then hop on over to her listing HERE.    She actually makes free masks for people who are in need (e.g. volunteers), but to make free ones, she also needs to sell some to purchase fabric and supplies.    Please think about supporting her.

Link to her shop:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/793263931/custom-100-quilters-cotton-cloth-tie?ref=shop_home_active_1&crt=1&fbclid=IwAR2oa4cmQn0bpf_kN0eKR4LcmOe3ji_RY1rOtEefA29Oc6HzS8mLGF0G2l0


We will get through this!

"Bears Like....." (Revision of previous book) Free Printable Interactive Book

Can you believe it----SEVEN years ago, I posted an interactive book on this blog---"Bears Like.....".
A few thousand of you have enjoyed it, and some of you may have even printed it.  It's a great book for early readers or for early communicators.  It fits nicely with a unit about bears and I hope someone actually used it in their work with children.  I've completely revised it, so the old links don't work.

Since original publication, the image rights in the original book have changed, and I've been switching from using Boardmaker symbols to Smarty Symbols.  I love Boardmaker, but no longer have it, but do have a commercial license for Smarty Symbols.  All of the pictures in this current version of  "Bears Like..." are either Pixabay (public domain) or Photos for Class.

Here are a sampling of pages from this book. Icons for matching in this interactive book are at the end, as well as sentence frames.

You can download the current version of the book here.  

I hope that the end of this January finds you in an uplifting place in your life.
My daughter has taught herself how to knit and crochet.  She made this lovely shawl from silk yarn she found at a thrift store.  I'm in awe of her creativity!

Verbs of Winter-- Printable Interactive Book (Repost)

Update:  My sister lives in Erie, PA, where the temperature is going down to 3 degrees this coming Monday with 25 MPH winds. Thinking of those very cold people up north,  I took a look at this book (that I had posted in 2014) and changed it to a pdf file, and used a different font.  Otherwise, it still looks appropriate for the kids and season.  It's great for many targets.

Enjoy (again!)  No snow here in NC, and the temps on Monday will go down to a balmy 19 degrees.
I won't need to trudge off to school, though.  #retired

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2014 blog below

Happy Winter, Everyone!    I hope this post finds all of my school SLP buddies well-rested, and searching for materials to start off the new year!

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I've made a new interactive book---Verbs of Winter.  This is posted (by me) on Tarheel Reader, and downloaded to Google Drive, with some icons added to make it a bit interactive.  This is a nice book for Verbs, Pronouns, Simple Sentences, and Literacy.

See for yourself and download for your class.

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 Kids can use the icons to select the correct pronoun, and then use the pronoun and verb icons as a simple cue to produce a sentence to describe the pictures.  Each picture features a different verb.


The ending is a surprise, and will help to be a springboard for a discussion about seasons, bears, and hibernation.

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Happy winter everyone!

Click here to download the book.
Print, laminate, velcro if you wish.



If you want more winter materials, go HERE

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Valentine Animals---Free Printable Interactive Book

Nothing in life is free---unless you visit Chapel Hill Snippets!

I love Valentine's Day in school, even if I personally don't make a big deal over it at home. For language therapy purposes, the day lends itself to communication, and creative materials can be used to have fun and learn.

Here's a book ("The Valentine Animals") I made using 'Photos for Class' (public domain), 'Pixabay' (public domain), and Smarty Symbols (I have and paid for a professional license).  The theme is animals, and each page has a simple repetitive sentence.
Pictures are cute, and the kids can match icons to photos.  I put some comments in there, because not all the animals look particularly happy about posing!  I'd like to know what that pony thinks! Read the book to see the pony, ha ha.

   There is a sentence frame at the end.  Use it for all pages but the last.

I think that both the kids and adults will enjoy the pictures.    You can laminate it (or not), cut out the pictures and have the kids match and read.


DOWNLOAD THIS PRINTABLE HERE FREE

You can also find other Valentine products (both free and $$) here.

On a personal note, my husband and I are getting ready for a Cuban vacation. 

We can't wait!    Any words of advice?  I love retirement!

Collection of Valentine's Day materials, some free

I think North Carolina has dodged a snow bullet (I like snow, though), and it's just going to be a cold rain tonight.  Since it's so hard to go anywhere, I thought I would compile all my Valentine's Day materials---free and TPT--into one post.  Maybe I'll add a new free thing tomorrow!  We'll see!

As usual, if you are a CF, or are adversely affected by the government impasse, let me know if you want an item from TPT.   email speech40@gmail.com

Hearts Everywhere---free printable

Friendship Hearts---free printable recipe booklet

Love Bug (Smartboard and link to low tech activity) free
--to be honest, since I don't have access to Smartboards now (I'm retired), I don't know if the Smartboard program still works. The link in the page to the low tech activity does work still, though)

TPT -- 

Valentine Activity Pack- Book, Bingo, and recipe with communication board

I Love You printable book and symbols---free

Newest TPT product---

Interact

Valentine's Day Packet--Perfect for Speech/Special Ed collaboration

When I was working in the schools, Valentine's Day was one of my favorite times.  The day lends itself to fun, crafts, giving, thinking of friends, and hugs.

To help celebrate this time of year and keep the kids motivated, I've created a new 40 page packet.  It's perfect for speech and special education collaboration, consisting of two interactive books and a craftivity. Extension activities are provided, along with numerous visuals such as craft communication board, sequencing worksheet, and a core-36 board.  Photos are public domain from Pixabay.com, while clip art is from Smarty Symbols (copyrighted). 

Here is the complete description:

This is a literacy/activity pack to go with a “Valentine’s Day” theme. This pack meant for the more linguistically challenged students and is perfect for speech/special education collaboration. This is nice for integrating literacy and language activities.  Clip art is from Smarty Symbols, and is copyrighted. 

Enclosed are:

• “Verbs of Valentine’s Day” Interactive Book--pages 3-13

• Icons for the “Verbs of Valentine’s Day” book– page 14

• Extension suggestions for “Verbs of Valentine’s Day” -page 15

• “How Many Hearts” interactive book–pages 16-27

• Numbers for “How Many Hearts” –page 28

•Icon/word bank to use when describing hearts in “How Many Hearts?” -page 29

•“Make a Heart Man” craftivity pages 30-37

•Communication board for “Make a Heart Man” -page 38

•Sequencing worksheet for “Make a Heart Man” -page 39

•Yes/no and wh-questions for “Make a Heart Man” -page 40

•36 location core board to use with any appropriate activities -page 41

 I've been on a bit of a hiatus from creating materials lately, but an SLP party and 'yankee swap' prompted me to suddenly create this Valentine's Day packet.  I gave it out free to my Chapel Hill colleagues, and have posted it at a modest price on TPT.   If you are a starving CF, however, or are affected in a negative way by the unfortunate government shutdown (don't get me started on this, I'm a Democrat), email me at speech40@gmail.com, and the product is yours. No questions asked.

You can find this product here on TPT.


Here's a snippet from my own life.  My youngest granddaughter turned one yesterday. She's really growing fast, and we all adore her. 

Not quite walking--won't be long!

Orange Pumpkin Book---Revised; Get Ready for Halloween!

Back in 2012, I found an awesome Halloween book on Tarheel Reader, and after adding interactive icons, put it up on my blog.   It has been a huge hit, and when I was working in the schools, my students read it year after year.  Today, I decided to actually look at the book and my blog entry.  I still liked it, but when I took a look at the photo credits on Tarheel Reader, I found that some of the photographers had changed their usage rights, or had removed the photos.  In addition, back in 2012, I knew very little about copyright laws and image use.  The bottom line--I've revised the book using Photos for Class  or provided a link back to the photo website (provided the photographer allows use of the photo in the first place). I'll be taking down my original book.

The book is the same pattern, but some images are changed.  I also changed the font to make it more child friendly.

There are also the same icons as previously, both in Boardmaker and as a pdf.

For those of you who don't know about adapting books, I like to print out and laminate the pages including the icons.  The kids can match colors and item pictures to the book as it's read to them, or as they read it themselves. 

Links for downloading are below.  Happy reading! 

Click here to download the icons in pdf

Click here to download the icons in Boardmaker

Click here to download the revised Orange Pumpkin book in pdf


Off topic, does anyone else love Joan Baez?  Her farewell tour is coming to Durham NC this weekend.