Grab Your Students' Attention with Button Nail Art

I first heard of Button Art from my ABA SLP friend Rose Griffin. After I ordered this play set from Amazon, I was thrilled with the bright colors and motivating pictures. After using it a few times with my preschoolers, I wanted to share this engaging activity kit with you as well as highlight a few speech therapy goals that you can target with your young learners.(Amazon affiliate link). Toddlers and preschoolers will be highly motivated by the Allas Button Nail Art Play Set.  This product has 46 chunky plastic buttons, 10 pictures and a storage tray. I'ts appropriate for ages 2 years and up and requires supervision for toddlers who still put small toys in their mouths since the buttons could be a choking hazard. I love the variety of picture cards. The set includes common objects (umbrella, tree, house), animals (ladybug, frog, dinosaur, bird), and transportation (boat, underwater submarine, truck). The bright colored mushroom-shaped buttons are the perfect size for little hands to grip and snap into place. The cards and buttons fit inside a storage tray and can be easily stored with or without the box.

10 Speech and Language Goals for "In the Tall, Tall Grass"

 

In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming is a colorful fun read aloud written from a caterpillar's point of view. With rhyme, rich language and simple text this is a wonderful book to share with students this Spring.

So let's spring forward with 10 different goals you can target using "In the Tall, Tall Grass" for your speech and language therapy groups this Spring.

Speech and Language Targets:

Vocabulary Development "In the Tall, Tall Grass" is written in primarily Tier 1 vocabulary but does include several Tier 2 concepts that provides opportunities to expand on language as well as  allow for explicit instruction. You can target concepts such as: dart, sip, strum, hum, flap, glide, scurry, flop, lug, glow, swoop, and loop. 

See You at TSHA 2018

Do you live in Texas? TSHA 2018 is coming to Houston, Texas. I hope to see you there! Several SLPs from the Texas Panhandle are  attending. I'll be driving about 10 hours from Amarillo to Houston and looking forward to meeting the other Texas SLPs.  This is my first state conference to attend and I am thrilled to be presenting on the topic "Supporting Literacy and Language Skills in the PPCD Classroom." 

Get Funded with Donor's Choose

Funding for speech therapy materials is scarce for public school speech-language pathologists. Limited funding and a large caseload often means purchasing only a handful of new materials each year. In addition, public school speech-language pathologists frequently buy their own materials in order to meet students' needs and address target goals properly.

DonorsChoose.org is a United States 501 non-profit organization that connects local donors with educators to fund public school classroom projects. Since it's founding in 2000 by a high school teacher, DonorsChoose.org has funded over 1,000,000 classroom projects.  When I discovered DonorsChoose.org, I did a little research and then started the process of creating a project of my own.

Quick and Easy Activity to Teach Inference Skills

Do you need a quick hook to grab the attention of your students? Are you introducing a new theme, topic, or skill? Mystery Bags are a fun way to elicit student engagement. Mystery Bags are a common use in elementary classrooms as a form of show-and-tell. This activity is so versatile and can be used to address many different goals. So whether your students are in elementary or middle school, this activity will address their goals. 

In this post, I want to share with you some new ways to use Mystery Bags in your speech therapy lessons.

Try Doodle Buddy App in Speech Therapy for FREE

Do you search iTunes and Google for FREE apps to use in your speech therapy sessions? Are you wondering how to incorporate technology into your therapy session but aren't sure where to start? Doodle Buddy is a free app for your phone or tablet that is versatile for all ages. You can draw, color, paint, and create just about anything on Doodle Buddy. 

In this post, I want to show you 5 different ways you can start using Doodle Buddy today.

How to Create a Winter Sensory Bin

Children of all ages enjoy sensory play, and winter is the perfect season to explore learning opportunities through the 5 senses. By using taste, touch, sight, smell, and sound, children develop their cognitive, language, social, emotional and motor skills. Sensory play can also help children calm down and focus for other learning activities that require sustained attention, such as story time. 


So what do you think of when you think of winter? I think of snow, snowmen, penguins, polar bears, ice crystals, snowball fights, snow angels, and even hot chocolate. Brainstorming from these possible themes can lead to the creation of some exceptional sensory bins to supplement any book unit or play opportunity.

In this post, I want to share with you my winter sensory bin and give you a few ideas on sensory bins you can create around your winter themes. 

Announcing My Speech Tools is Now on YouTube

2017 held several new beginnings for me. I started my business in February and my blog in April. I had a drive to share my passion with you and it has been an amazing experience. Now in 2018, I am excited to share my new adventure with you. I have created a YouTube channel Speech Therapy Tips with Lisa Erwin, SLP.

10 Fun Speech Therapy Activities with "Sneezy the Snowman"

If you are not familiar with "Sneezy the Snowman," you are missing out on a winter engaging and entertaining read aloud for your students. Sneezy the Snowman is terribly cold and wants to warm up. He drink hot cocoa, sits in a hot tub and stands by a fire. Each time, he melts. The children know just what do to and rebuild him each time while offering a piece of their winter clothing instead. This is an excellent book for mixed speech and language groups in early elementary (PreK - 2nd grade), but can be expanded through 3rd grade while working on higher level critical thinking skills and character traits. 

In this post, I want to give you 10 different ways you can use "Sneezy the Snowman" in your speech and language therapy this winter. 

Top 10 Gifts for Young Children

The holidays are just around the corner and we made it through the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in one piece. But for many of us, there is still a list to check and shopping to finish.  As a speech-language pathologist, I am always looking for toys that stimulate language and literacy development in young children. Young children learn through play. Play stimulates speech and language, social-emotional, cognitive, and motor development. Since play primarily revolves around toys and a child's imagination, I wanted to share with you my top 10 gift recommendations for the holidays.