The Carrot Seed

 I love the short and simple storyline of the book The Carrot Seed.  It is a great book to use with students who are just starting to learn to retell stories.  The plot is very simple and details are minimal, so it makes it easy for students to focus on the main events and putting them in sequential order, rather than worry about the frills and fluff of the story.

I have a created a "mini" companion pack for this story.  It focuses on retell, answering questions, turn taking, past tense (with verbs corresponding to the story), and also includes a general reinforcement board.

Although I mainly use this book for beginning retell skills, it also works great for very simple wh-questions and yes/no question.  

Another great activity to go along with the carrot seed is to act it out as you go along. I keep a large tub of pinto beans at my school for sensory purposes.  For this story, we use this as our "garden."  I have students "plant a seed" (usually just use small ball or pebble) and I have already put a toy food carrot in the beans.  The students use a watering can to "sprinkle" the water on the seed.  At the end, I have them dig around in the beans to dig up the carrot.   It's a great way to keep the book interactive and to keep the kids engaged.  But be warned, don't use with over oral kids.  They will put the beans in their mouth.

Check out this mini companion pack at my TPT store here!

On a completely unrelated note, four days until summer break!

Happy Speeching!

-Courtney

clip art credit to: the3amteacher, mycutegraphics, scrappindoodles, graphicsfactory

The Grouchy Ladybug

Happy Friday!  Next week's preschool theme for speech is...The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle!  I am a huge fan of Eric Carle and was so excited to create an expressive and receptive language unit around this book.  Oh, the possibilities!

The unit I created targets many different language skills, such as: vocabulary, sequencing, writing/grammar, turn taking, categorizing, following directions, and answering questions.

Here is just a small preview of what is included in the unit:

 

My favorite activity in this unit is the ladybug snack.  "Cooking" is something I did a lot with my clients as a grad student since it is such a great real life application that can target sequencing, following directions, and even expressive language if you have the child tell how they made it, but I haven't done much of it since I've been in the working word..  Not to mention fun activities like cooking can get a LOT of language out of some of the quieter kids.  Cooking in a group is also a great opportunity to work on requesting (have the child request materials) and turn taking.  You can throw in some problem solving skills by purposely forgetting a step or ingredient to have your kids correct you.

Check out this unit at my TeachersPayTeachers store here!

-Courtney

Articulation Folders

This year I started creating articulation folders for all my students who are working on speech sounds.  They were a little time consuming to put together at first, but have saved me so much time in the long run.  Here is how I organize them:

The first page is a form I got from mommyspeechtherapy (which is a GREAT site by the way!).  It helps me keep track of what target speech sounds we are working on and at what level they have mastered them.  However, with many of my mild-moderate speech delayed kiddos, I am moving to the complexity theory to target speech sounds and am not necessarily using the traditional hierarchy of speech sound acquisition, which makes this form a little obsolete for their purposes.  But, it is appropriate for some my kids and I still find it very helpful! 

The next several pages are my data logs.  Everyone has their own way of keeping logs and data and this is just what I usually find helpful for some of my kids (I use different forms for language vs. speech).  I usually take data (tally marks for accuracy) on a small white board, then transcribe the percent into the log.  I hated looking back on notes and seeing a bunch of tally marks!  It drove me crazy!

 

At the back of the folders, I insert practice words of all sounds in all word positions.  I usually use my articulation apps or Superduper cards for practice (among other things), but if I'm running late or forget materials between schools, the practice words come in very handy!  They are also great when working with groups of kids since they all have their own folder and words.  I used sticky tabs for easy access.  The folder pockets work great for homework sheets as well!

There are definitely things I would want to change or add for next year.  Specifically, I would like to add a page to keep track of all my probe data so it is all in one spot.  Right now I have separate binders for each school that contain student information, parent contact log, IEP minute logs, and other such various forms.  Ideally, for next year, I would like to have all student data and information to be in one place.  I'm only in my second year, so I am still figuring out what type of system I like.  

How do you organize student information and data?

-Courtney

July and August Home Programs (Articulation)

Keeping it short & sweet!  Below you will find links to the FREE July and August Home Programs for Articulation.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  For the parent letter and June calendars, click here!

 

Grab your FREE copy of the July calendars here and the August calendars here!

-Courtney

Summer Articulation Home Program FREEBIE!

I've got such wonderful feedback regarding the language home programs I have posted, that I decided to create home programs for articulation!  The home program is in the same format as the language home program.  Similar to the language home programs, I encourage you to supplement these calendars with activities and words lists that directly relate to your students target sounds.  

Get your FREE copy of the articulation home program letter here and a copy of the June home program for articulation here!  Keep your eyes open for the July and August Articulation home programs!

-Courtney