Love my Dollar Store

Who doesn't love the dollar store? I was giving an inservice class recently, with a colleague of mine. We decided that we would go to the dollar store, purchase a ton of items, and use them throughout our class. One afternoon my phone rang.

"I hit the mother-load", she shouted. She found the most amazing store. A TRUE dollar store. It seems like there are more five dollar stores out there. Have any of you found a great dollar store near you? Want to share?

Some of the best things I have found at the $$ store are 24 piece puzzles. I found great Dora The Explorer and Angry Birds puzzles. I use them as reinforcement for many of my lessons. I created a pre-made template, the size of the finished puzzle, and I place it on the table. Each student is given two sets of pieces.  The first set consists of the corners and straight sides. The second set has the inside pieces. I've noticed that so many children have no idea how to put a puzzle together. This is a good opportunity to teach them some strategies. After each child takes a turn answering whatever questions you have planned for them, they get a chance to put a puzzle piece down on the table. After they complete the entire frame, then you can hand out the inside pieces. It is motivating, and easy to implement with any group. Enjoy!

 I used the Angry Birds puzzle today. Each child was working on the /r/ sound in phrases. There were 2 words per phrase. They had to say 5 phrases correctly, before they were able to place a piece of the puzzle on the table. So, since it was a 24 piece puzzle and each child got 12 puzzle pieces, they had the opportunity to practice their /r/ sound 120 times!!        
                                                                       Not bad!















For this lesson, I gave the puzzle pieces out as reinforcement for correct answers. We used the Problem Solving worksheets from Therasimplicity.com (another awesome website). Each child had to state whether or not they thought there was a problem in the picture. If there was a problem, they had to state the problem, then give 1 possible cause for the problem. The next student had to state another possible cause. Then, they were asked to explain why it was a problem and tell what they could have done to avoid the problem in the first place. After each student received at least 1 puzzle piece, they were able to put it on the table. 

So meaningful~ so motivating~ so much fun. 

CCSS

Common Core WHAT?

Common Core State Standards, Common Core State Standards- if you haven't heard of them, I'd be very surprised. Where do we fit it in? As SLPs, I know that we already have to generate dozens and dozens of IEP goals for our students. Now, we need to think about CCSS? It seemed overwhelming at first, but if you read them carefully, you'll notice that we are already working on many of them already. We just have to readjust our thinking. I always think that if we take a little time and match up the standards with our existing goals, it won't be as overwhelming as originally thought. There are a ton of websites out there that can help us become more familiar and comfortable with the new CCSS. Check out TpT and type "common core" into the search box.

Have you downloaded the CCSS app? It's a great reference for students, parents, and teachers to easily read and understand the Common Core standards. These apps includes Language Arts and Math  standards K-12.

In my school, we are all responsible for setting up a bulletin board. My wonderful colleague came up with this idea. Not only is it good for a permanent board, but it helps remind us of how nicely our speech-language goals mesh with the CCSS.

I present to you:

Speech and Language Shares a Clear, Common Vision with the Common Core

TpT

If you haven't already heard of Teachers Pay Teachers, you don't know what you are missing! It is a website by teachers, for teachers. You can download dozens of free material, as well as purchasing many great lessons for a very inexpensive price. There are so many amazingly creative teachers out there. There is also a nice representation of Speech-Language Pathologists on this site. Please check out TpT and support your colleagues. 

I am very excited that I finally got up the courage to add some of my own lessons to the site! I've gotten some great feedback so far! Please check it out. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Melissa-Roeder

Here's a sample of one of just one my TpT products:

I have always loved cooking with my students and giving them a great language experience. There are so many skills to be taught when you cook with your students.

One of the things I always like to do with my products is to add some of the possible Common Core standards, as well as some IEP goals that you can use with each lesson.

There are lists of nouns, verbs and adjectives that your students can sort and match to the photographs that are included.

The students will have to follow oral directions using the pictures from the 

cooking activity.

Unscrambling sentences is such an important skill when teaching how to 

formulate sentences.

For your older students, I've included 2 Venn diagrams.

 Can they use the terms similar, dissimilar,  and unlike?

Check it out!

The Beauty of Beanies

I am so glad I never threw out my daughter's old Beanie Babies! I keep a big garbage bag filled these adorable stuffed animals under my computer table. You'd really be amazed how many language concepts you can teach while using these:

• vocabulary ( receptive & expressive)
• sort by color
• sort by body parts (4 legs, 2 legs, wings, a beak, etc)
• categorize & classify
• compare and contrast
• verbs (kangaroo hops, turtle crawls, bear lumbers, bird swoops, etc.)
• following oral directions
• temporal concepts

                                                                                 

Prepositions

PREPOSITIONS 

I can't think of 1 colleague who does not have at least 1 student who does not need to work on improving their understanding and use of basic concepts. I know I do! I LOVE my iPad. I love the camera feature. I use it all the time. After completing a lesson where I used objects from around the speech room, I grabbed my iPad and snapped these pictures. The next session, I reviewed all of the concepts. The session after that, my student requested "iPad", as soon as she walked into speech! As we learn more concepts, we will add more 

photos.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year Craft and Activity

As with all students, it's important to  learn about and celebrate everyone's culture. This year, I have a Chinese student who goes into New York City every year with his family, to watch the Chinese New Year parade. He has been so excited, and is looking forward to sharing the  information with all of his friends in his speech group. I found this activity online at http://spoonful.com/crafts/festive-ribbon-dragon.  Not only can I use the individual cut out pieces that they provide, to make a fun craft, but I can turn this into a great following directions activity, as well. 

I also found great activities and easy readers at: http://www.enchantedlearning.com, and http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/chinese-new-year/kids-crafts/ .

My first post!

Hello Friends!! Thanks for finding me. I am so excited to start blogging. After 30 years in the field of Speech and Language, and after listening to my family telling me it's time to start sharing all of my ideas... I present to you: Creative Speech Teach!! Stay tuned for materials, activities, organizational strategies, for both you and your students, photos, videos and lesson demonstrations. Hope you enjoy!!