How?
Once you’ve scheduled your groups and identified your students’ goals, decide on a “building block” activity that you will work on each session.  This activity shouldn’t take much time, but will make a difference over the course of a year.  During each session, review the word, idiom, or skill that was introduced during the last session and then move on to the new one.

Examples of “building block” activities:
Vocabulary
Idioms:  Introduce one or two new idioms
Word meanings:  Introduce a couple of vocabulary words and their meanings
Affixes:  Introduce some prefixes, suffixes, or root words (e.g., tri=3, pre=before)

Grammar
Parts of speech:  Introduce and practice generating examples of nouns, prepositions, etc.
Fix-ups: Write sentences with errors on the board and have the students fix them and explain their corrections.

Speech
Goals:  Have students tell which goal(s) they are working on and describe strategies that help them.
Word of the week:  Give students a word or phrase to focus on producing correctly for the week.

 
For more information about starting off the school year right, check out a post from last year at
http://www.speechtherapyideas.com/2009/08/20/start-out-right/

Add a comment and tell us how you start out your school year or what activities you do consistently to build up skills.  We’d love to hear from you!

Becky Wanca

This is a great way to get to know things about the students that their files won’t tell you.  It also gives you a chance to hear them speak conversationally.  If you can, take notes on a card or page for each student that you can refer to later.

Here’s to a great school year!

Becky Wanca

I have recently come across a website that makes creating your own materials much faster and easier. You can make customized dice, crossword puzzles, game boards, dominoes, and more in just a few simple steps. Check it out!

http://www.toolsforeducators.com/

(The materials you make are only to be given to your students and cannot be sold or distributed.)

Becky Wanca

For a very limited time (July 4th through 11th), the new beach expansion set is on sale for $4.00! This is more than 45% off its regular price and the lowest price for an expansion set ever. Take advantage of this sale today and use the materials in your next session!

http://www.speechtherapyideas.com/products/

Becky Wanca

Also, make sure that we have an email address that will be active over the summer.  If our emails bounce too many times, your email address automatically gets unsubscribed.  We don’t want to lose contact with you, and you won’t want to miss the ideas and materials that we’ll be sending out this summer!  You can sign up a new email address at http://www.SpeechTherapyIdeas.com/free/

Becky Wanca

•    adaptable to any goal
•    fun for big and little kids
•    cheap
•    portable

What you’ll need:

•    pennies (or plastic chips or beans) – enough for each player to have 5-10
•    egg carton or ice cube tray with a number (1-3) written in the bottom of each “cup”

How to play:

The students earn pennies for correct answers or sound productions.  Once each student has had approximately 5-10 chances to earn pennies, it’s tossing time!

Set the carton on the floor against a wall and put down something to mark where the players stand.  Depending on the age of the players, have them stand anywhere from one-four feet away and take turns tossing their pennies into the carton.  A penny only counts if it stays in the carton!  After each player, add up the points earned and collect your pennies.  I can usually fit two to three tossing rounds into a session, depending on the group size and the goals we are addressing.  Reward the winner (with praise or an object) and then start again!

Becky Wanca

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

This craft reuses egg cartons, which makes it a great Earth Day activity. I love that it is perfect for spring, easy for little hands, and adaptable to go along with Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar book. It also makes sessions fun!

I did this craft with my younger students after I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and had them answer questions about the story. There are so many different skills you can target with this wonderful book, such as counting, sequencing, vocabulary building, question answering, and specific sound practice. You can print a copy of my questions now and look for more related ideas and printables in a Basic Set coming soon.  To get this set for free, make sure you are signed up on my email list before the end of the month.  You can sign up at: http://www.SpeechTherapyIdeas.com/free

Here are the directions for the egg carton caterpillar:

Materials:
egg carton (cut into a 3-cup strip)
pipe cleaner (cut in half)
scissors
marker
glue
googly eyes

Steps:
1. Gather materials.

2. Have the child draw a smile and nose, if desired, on one end of the egg carton.

3. Poke small holes where the antennae will be. From the bottom of the caterpillar, have the child put one end of the pipe cleaner in one hole and then the other end through the other hole. Curl the ends and bend them as desired.

4. Glue small googly eyes above the smile.

Here are the printable downloads for this post:

Pictures and directions for making an egg carton caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar questions

-Becky Wanca

• Use I Spy books or puzzles or put pictures of s cluster objects on the wall and play “I Spy” games.

• Use a puppet spider and have the child say “Ms. Spider” instead of “Mother May I” when asking to do something. For example, “Ms. Spider, may I take 2 steps forward?”.

• Use pictures of a stop sign, go sign, school, and a school bus attached to popsicle sticks and play a game. Stand far away from the child and have the child tell you when to go and stop. If the child says “top” instead of “stop”, keep going. Keep moving forward until you reach the school (child).

 
I have more ideas and printable materials available in my S Clusters Basic Set and S Clusters Expansion Set at: http://www.speechtherapyideas.com/products/
 

Becky Wanca
 

Materials:

• 2 paper plates per child
• black crayons for coloring the pot
• scissors tape or stapler
• paper coins – Here is a page of coins for you to print out or you can use a circle paper punch. You can use colored paper or color it yellow or gold yourself.

Preparation:

• Gather the materials.
• Cut a part off the top side of one paper plate to make it resemble an open pot.
• Cut out the coins and decide what the targets are going to be (i.e., sounds, antonyms, etc.).
• Attach the plates together if you want to have this done ahead of time.

Activity:

1. Have the child color the back of the cut plate and the top part of the other plate black. If working with a group, the children can color while waiting for their turns.
2. Tape or staple the plates together so that they create a pocket.
3. Spread the coins out on the table or put them in a bag or bowl for the children to pick from.
4. Have the child pick a coin, practice the targeted activity, and then put it in his pot.
5. If there is time, review the stimuli in the child’s pot.

Again, for a printable page of coins to use in this activity, click here.

Materials:
- a cardboard tube from a paper towel or toilet paper roll for you and each child (decorating is optional)
- stimulus cards or pictures

Use:
Word level – Have the child look through a tube at stimulus cards (or around the room to find objects with the target sound) and then say the word.

Sentence level – Depending on what level you are working on, the child could simply say, “I see a __.” or a more complex sentence such as “The __ is next to the window.”

Groups – Play the game “I Spy” with the tubes and have the children guess what the person has spotted. Be sure to let them know what sound is being targeted.

Extra ideas:
Use this activity in pirate, explorer, and astronomy themes.