Peace Corps!!!!

A while back, I wrote about my wonderful talented daughter, Andorra, and her application to the Peace Corps.  She has now received a formal invitation, and she'll be going to Indonesia!!!!  I'm so proud of her. 

Feast for 10--- with printable icons!

This is such a great book for Thanksgiving on so many levels---it's happy, there's great food, it features an African American family, the language is simple, there's terrific vocabulary, it's descriptive.  I could go on and on.  This book works for every kid!

I've made some Boardmaker printables to go with it which are very simple and straightforward. This is a counting book---it goes up to 10, and goes up to 10 again!  You can print the icons out in Boardmaker, or in pdf.  If you have Boardmaker, you can edit, change the size, change the pictures.  In pdf, you pretty much have to accept what I made.  

I want to have my Thanksgiving meal with this family!!!!

Download icons in pdf

Download icons in Boardmaker 

book icons

I have since discovered from the Budget SLP that
Florida WIC program has a complete lesson plan
with large visuals to go with this book. Go here
to look at the plan, download the visuals, and get
more ideas!

My favorite page!

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The Little Old Lady who was not Afraid of Anything

This book, The Little Old Lady who was not Afraid of Anything, is one I read with my kids every year!   It works especially well in small groups--generally it's our first play.  Each child has a part---either a hat, shoes, pants, shoes, gloves, or pumpkin head.  Each child has a line (e.g. 'clomp, clomp', 'wiggle wiggle'.....).  I'm amazed at how hard the line is for some of them to remember!
   I even read this with some artic kids---there are a lot of 'L' words in the book!  Every time I point at the child, he needs to say 'little old lady' correctly!      

The video below is one I found on YouTube.  I have no idea who these kids are, but the teacher here did what I did with my kids last week---she brought in real articles of clothing and each child had a part to play along with an piece of clothing to hold.  She paired kids up, while I paired my kids with whatever adults were in the room.  It was all fun! Exactly how you structure this depends on the levels of your children.

I also quickly made some visuals.  I used them during the group activity to assist in comprehension and to cue the kids as to when to say their line.

Click here to get the visuals in Boardmaker

Click here to get the visuals in pdf
    I am in the process of switching all pdf visuals to Smarty Symbols. Since I pay for this subscription, this product is on Teachers Pay Teachers.  If you have Boardmaker, click above and it's free.

Have fun with this book.  I did!     I also want to say that when reading this to the kids, you have the freedom to paraphrase.  Some of the pages are slightly wordy--but I managed to hone in on the action words quickly with an abbreviated reading.

Happy Halloween!






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10 Apples up on Top --printables

School starting for us is a week away, so I wanted to share one of my favorite September books--- 10 Apples up on Top by Dr. Seuss.  I've used this for years and have created a few manipulatives to go with it from Boardmaker apples and scanned in images from the book.

screenshot of character pictures

Merely do a search on Pinterest to come up with more things to do.  This is a great book for counting to 10, determining 'more', 'less', and 'same', determining character feelings, and doing a story retell.  I plan on making a simple Smartboard activity for this book in the near future, so keep checking back with me if you use a Smartboard in your class!

This would work great on flannel board, but I didn't have this at home (can you believe it's Friday night and I'm at home blogging about Dr. Seuss?)  I don't have any cute kid pictures with this either since the kids don't come home with me, and they are still on vacation anyway!

  Velcro each piece with the prickly stuff, and use the flannel board background.  Kids love putting the apples on to match the book.    Work on early math concepts along with literacy!  Take it into a classroom and lead a math center.  Possibilities abound!

Click here to get the characters in Boardmaker
Click here to get the apples in Boardmaker

Click here to get the characters in pdf
Click here to get the apples in pdf

Give them a nutritious apple snack at the end.
You will be very popular.




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Back to School--Printable Book with icons

This is my last weekend of relative freedom----I'm watching our hometown boy, Nick McCrory, doing the Olympics 10 meter platform dive (so far he's advanced to the semi-finals).  All I can say is "Wow!"  He actually went to the school where I work; his mom and I hung out at the local pool where our kids had fun (mine, however, did not evolve into Olympic stars).  I guess that's my claim to fame for today.  Good luck to him!   He has worked incredibly hard for this!

So, on to speech blogging: I've created a very simple back-to-school book on Tarheel Reader.  For those of you who want to know, Tarheel Reader is a wonderful resource.  You can search the numerous books by keyword and download them, then edit as you wish. The pictures are real, and the language level is often appropriate for the kids I work with.  My book, "Things we do at School", is here.  I've also uploaded it to Google docs for you to download, and uploaded some icons to go with it.  Download, print, laminate, and velcro, and then have the kids match or request the icons during your sessions.  As an extension activity, let them think of other things they do at school, take pictures, and add to the book! 

screenshot

screenshot

icons to go with the pages---cut out, laminate, velcro

Click here to download the book "Things we do at School"

Click here to download the icons in pdf.

Click here to download the icons in Boardmaker






Have fun with this.  I haven't actually read this book with children yet.  It's hard to do speech therapy activities when the kids are still on vacation!    My joy starts in two weeks.



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China Boy

Andorra is in Asheville, but when the opportunity came up to submit a couple of photos to the Carrboro Arts Center Annual Photo Contest, we submitted this one that she took during her China trip two years ago.  It was a cool photo---the lighting was great, and the child looked pretty amazing. Surprise, surprise---this actually won first place for color photography!  Andorra couldn't attend the reception, but David and I did. 

wall of photos

reception

people studying the photo

proud mom and dad

another close scrutiny

I took a little video of the judging photographer, Bryce Lankard, discussing Andorra's photo.  The sound quality is not great, but it does get better as the video goes on.  I loved his comments, and now I look at her photo with a new lens.

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Common Core Teacher Rating Scales for your Language Evaluations

Let me start by saying that I work with a fabulous bright group of SLPs in the Chapel Hill--Carrboro City Schools.  At least once a month we get together from across the school district and do so many necessary tasks:

• case studies
• discuss Medicaid rules and guidelines
• peer review for student evaluations
• talk about business (lots of this!)
• problem-solve (yes, we do encounter problems)
• attend continuing education
• exchange information
• celebrate weddings, retirements, babies

I feel so fortunate to be on such a team which is led by lead SLP, Beth Burns.   Each year, she thinks of a few vital group projects for all of us to work on.  One year, it was to develop a systematic way to implement RtI.  Another year, it was to develop a system for a consistent peer review process to determine whether children who have been evaluated met North Carolina eligibility guidelines for speech/language services.

This year, our group project has been to develop teacher checklists that are aligned with the new Common Core.  These checklists are to be completed as part of a child's speech/language evaluation.

Why do we require teacher checklists in our school system?

       For a child to receive speech services in a school setting, there must be evidence of impact of the communication impairment in the classroom setting.  As part of an evaluation, I usually observe a child, and gather work samples, but as a group, we require teachers to fill out a checklist rating educational impact of the speech or language problems for each child undergoing an evaluation. With the new Common Core curriculum being implemented next year, we felt the checklists needed an overhaul for better alignment.  It was a collaborative project and I can't take credit for much, if any.  The resulting checklists looked great, though, and I can't wait to start using them.  So far, we have developed language checklists for grades K-1, and for grades 2-3.  The other grades are coming soon!   I also have links to our pragmatic checklists.  With all of these, there were a couple of minor formatting glitches after uploading to Google, mainly in the column headings--no big deal, in my opinion.

No need for you all to reinvent the wheel.  Our lead, Beth Burns, gave the go ahead to share.  Use with your kids in the evaluation process; but if you want to show the checklists in a conference or someplace where there is an audience, please give a shout out to the Chapel Hill--Carrboro speech pathologists! I'm humbled by my co-workers!
  When more checklists become available, I'll post them.

Click here for Teacher Checklist for Language k-1

Click here for Teacher Checklist for Language 2-3

Click here for Teacher Checklist for Language 4-12 (This was just added!)

Click here for Teacher Checklist for Pragmatic Language k-3

Click here for Teacher Checklist for Pragmatic Language 4-12

Kites Over Everything---Printable adapted book to download free

Title page and page one

I had a creative burst of energy last night and found time to write my own kite book.  This comes either as a pdf or Boardmaker file. If you try to print in Boardmaker, set your settings to 'portrait' and not 'landscape' so it will all line up right.  There is a separate page for the sentence strip and icons.  If you want to know why I like to take the kids kite flying, and where we do this, check out my blog entry where I explain it all here.

Two of the pages

Kites go on all the pages.  The lines are a carrier phrase with different last word.

Sentence strip with manipulative icons.

I used this today, and it was perfect for the children who need help formulating a sentence to describe a picture.  It's great for the concept of 'over', and you can fly the little kite icons over things in your room too!    ("Kites over the computer!"   "Kites over Jimmy!")








I can't wait to go actual kite flying!  Even if you can't actually take your kids out to fly kites, the book is still good!  Enjoy!

Click here to download the book in Boardmaker


Click here to download the book in pdf


Click here to download the sentence strip and icons in Boardmaker


Click here to download the sentence strip and icons in pdf

A Streamer Rainbow--printable directions and communication board

Let's get ready for spring!   In one week, the grass started growing, flowers began blooming, birds were gathering twigs for nests, and everyone dug out their spring wardrobes.  This is a great time of year to make "Streamer Rainbows" (I got the idea here from Mom's Crafty Space.)  Here are the visual directions developed on the iPad using Pictello.  Pictello is a great iPad app and if you are curious to how I've used it in the past, check this out.

This activity is great for following sequenced directions, requesting materials, and commenting.  I also showed a Rainbow Song YouTube video to start, and on a subsequent post will share a Rainbow book that I downloaded and created icons for.  Those of you who are therapists can share with teachers and parents! It doesn't hurt kids to have the same lesson presented by two different people.  They might learn the language more in depth.

iPad with Pictellow directions

Communication Board in Boardmaker

asking for cotton

Communication Board in pdf


Step by Step Photo and written directions for the Streamer Rainbow in pdf














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Shamrocks Everywhere---a printable book

After a brief lull here, I'm getting back up to speed. 

So here is my latest very simple activity perfect for St. Patrick's Day.  It's totally a spinoff from a very popular blog entry that I wrote earlier about Valentine's Day; I just substituted shamrocks. With this booklet, there are icons to go with every page, plus a patterned sentence calling for a fill-in.  This is great for early literacy, vocabulary, speaking in simple sentences, and for the concept of 'on'.  If you want to extend this to articulations---'SH' comes to mind!  Images were created with Smarty Symbols for which I have a commercial license.

For a modest price, you can purchase this along with other St. Patrick's Day materials on Teachers Pay Teachers.

 Go here to see for yourself!

  I'm a big believer in Joint Action Routines---once you establish a routine with a child, you can change the activity a little, and give the child a chance to learn new vocabulary, but with the same routine.  This book is an example of that---earlier it was Hearts Everywhere, now it's shamrocks!   Have fun!







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Self Regulation Scale

I have a confession---when I see something good, I take it and use it.  I don't like to recreate the wheel, and I'm really not all that creative.      I also work with people that are very hard-working and creative, so when I stepped into my co-worker's office (Heather Petrusa, SLP) and saw this homemade self-regulation scale, I grabbed it (with her permission) and told her that this was worth using and sharing with all of my blogging friends!    She said that our mutual friend, an autism itinerant teacher, Leah Wilson, was actually the one who created it, and she (Heather) just tweaked it.  I'm sure Leah won't mind sharing, so here it is!

Anyone who works with children with autism knows the difficulties in regulating emotions.  Within an hour, a child can go from 'sleepy' to 'boiling' and not have strategies to get to the 'green' area.

 I liked this scale that Heather and Leah developed because it integrated elements from the 'How does your engine run?' program with emotional states and specific strategies (worded with 1st person statements encouraging more independence with handling regulation in the classroom.)

A therapist and teacher can use this scale to first teach emotions, strategies, and self-reflection, and then teach the child to apply these in the classroom.  So---thanks Heather and Leah!    I'm so happy to work with you!  I'm sure your kids are too!

To download in Boardmaker, click here!
    (You can then edit to fit your child's particular needs)
To download in pdf, click here!



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Quick as a Cricket visuals to download

Child finds the ending, then reads the sentence.

 One of my favorite books is Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood.  It's all about self-confidence and parts of a child's personality.  Here's the review on Amazon---

"I'm as quick as a cricket, I'm as slow as a snail. I'm as small as an ant, I'm as large as a whale." Parents and teachers choose this big square book for the message of self-confidence. Toddlers love it for the singsong phrases and Don Wood's large, silly, endearing illustrations, which feature a boy mimicking different kinds of animals. At one point, he is pictured sipping tea formally with a fancy poodle ("I'm as tame as a poodle") and on the very next page he is swinging through trees ("I'm as wild as a chimp"). Whether brave or shy, strong or weak, in the end the young boy celebrates all different, apparently contradictory parts of himself. With a confident grin, he lifts his arms up and declares, "Put it all together and you've got ME!"

 The repetitive line is great for my kids, but I always try to add visuals.  Some of the vocabulary is new, and good icons help with comprehension.  I've made some of my own boards in the past, but on Boardmaker Share, I found this great set, complete with a real Basset hound picture, and a poodle.   I rearranged the symbols a bit so that the child can manipulate the symbols to make a new sentence following the same pattern for every page.

Here's a link to download the Boardmaker verson--With this, you can change things even more!

Here's a link to download the pdf version---you can't change the board, but it's still good!


I do appreciate the person who put this up on Boardmaker Share to begin with.
Thanks, kind person!

The most fun part of this book is having the children identify their own personality traits and feelings. It's a bit of self reflection, and some can reflect better than others.  Basically, I print out a lot of feelings/character trait icons and allow the kids to each pick four.  Those that can, explain why they chose them.  I take a picture, print, assemble, and presto!  Here's an example of the result.  With this girl, if you look carefully, you can see where I penciled in her reasons for choosing the attribute on each icon. She said she was "fast in gym, pretty when I wear glasses, smart when I read, lazy when I watch TV, and nice to Ms. Kelley."  
  (This picture is actually about 8 years old--the girl is now in high school!)

So, that's my share of the day!    This is a great book and if you have additional thoughts or ideas about it, please share!

What can Dogs Do? A printable adapted book

A while back, I posted about a printable book--"What Can Cats Do?"    This has been very popular, but someone left a comment that they wished the book was about dogs.  I guess I take requests!  I looked on Tarheel Reader, and rewrote one of the dog books  so the sentences were present progressive, and I then added a question to each page.  I also included a page of Boardmaker icons for adapting this, and....... Presto!  That reader's wish has been granted!  I hope she reads this---it's my 'random act of kindness' for the week.

This book, like the cats book, is great for verbs, and the icons can be used to add different subjects---"dog swing", "boy swing".  The language is simple and patterned, and the pictures are great.  Sample activities--

• Act out each page with stuffed animals
• Print the book without the text--ask the kids to tell you what's happening
• Have the kids add a new page. They can draw (or act out with a stuffed animal) a different action.  Take a picture and add it!
• Compare and contrast the cat book with the dog book.  What's the same? What's different?
• Artic---lots of simple consonants here that repeat themselves!
• AAC---these words can all be programmed into a static cell AAC device along with some comments

I'm sure there's a lot more, but it's Friday night.  My brain is tired : /

I want this dog.

Title Page

Here is a link to a free download of this book and the icons from Google Docs. Google is miracle!


Have a nice weekend!  

P.S.  I now have a "Counting Horses" verb book here.

Hearts Everywhere (Download an interactive book for the kids)

I love Boardmaker Share, and there are always cute ideas for every event.  With Valentine's Day coming up, I found a very simple book---"Hearts Everywhere" ---which is perfect for children functioning at an early language level.  I downloaded it and fixed it up a bit ---aligned the symbols better, exchange a few icons for other better ones, and fixed a couple of glaring mistakes.  (With free stuff, there is always some fixing to do. I'm sure you will fix my free things.)

"Hearts Everywhere" is simple---hearts are on the table, on the wall, on the floor, on the mailbox, and so on.  Each page has hearts somewhere different---and there is rhyme to the book. I asked the kids to point to the wall, window, floor, and table in my room after reading the corresponding page.  The only preposition is "ON", and there is a simple sentence strip where the child can change out the object.  If you want, you can laminate the book, use velcro, and make things more permanent.  I didn't want to use up my laminating supplies, so paper sufficed for me this time. 

Once the kids read this, you can play a game with hearts in your classroom or home, and have them put a paper heart somewhere and then tell where it is.  ("Heart on Mommy!")   Take pictures and the kids can make their own book!

Click Here for the Boardmaker version of Hearts Everywhere
  Lucky for you--you can add pages, change out prepositions, or fix any little mistakes I made.


Click Here for the pdf version of Hearts Everywhere
    You are stuck with it--no changes possible.  Oh well!   Happy Valentine's Day!




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