Happy October, y’all!!
September was ROUGH and I’m really glad it’s behind me.
TODAY is glorious fall break! Whoop! This is what I’m doing this morning….
I have a HORRIBLE habit of mixing up my nights and days during school breaks so I’m really trying NOT to do that this time. I mean, it really makes returning to school (and my 5:45 alarm) harder than it needs to be.
Solution: continue to wake up at dawn even though I’m on break
So here I am up early and actually back on my blog!
Sooooo since we’re both here, wanna know what I have planned for therapy this month?
So far this month I have been using a few of my favorite games in therapy. I’ve used Acrobats and Monster Mash in artic therapy and also in language therapy with the EET.
My kids who are new to using the EET are needing lots of practice so we’ve been reading about and describing bats. The acrobat game was perfect for reinforcement while describing (green group, blue do, etc). We’ve also used the “monster spinner” in Monster Mash to describe the silly monsters. I got this pair of games for 10 bucks in the 90s and now they’re considered rare gems. Go figure!
I’m also partial to a few games I’ve made 🙂
If you’re looking for something like this, you can find the owl themed board in my Halloween Trivia and Games product and the game board on bottom in my Open-Ended Game boards for August thru December.
Some kids just can’t sit. You have any of those
HA! of course you do!!
For them, we have been using this inflatable spider ring toss game (that I snagged at Oriental Trading).
One of my little guys with autism is very motivated to communicate to throw the rings and my active artic and language boys are alllll about the competition of it.
It will also be a friendly competition at our end of the month “Halloween party.”
{You can read about last year’s Halloween party here}
Of course we are doing plenty of quick artic drill, too. Can you tell I love Halloween?
If you don’t quick drill, you might want to try it. It’s strangely addictive!
I just posted this new one this morning. It just makes me happy.
For my language students, we are also using EET for writing.
I like to use these pages that give visual reminders for the EET categories (and lines to write on) and then have my kiddos use the information to form a well developed paragraph (hopefully!)
We’ve already written all about FALL…
Here is some fall paragraphs proudly posted on my board!
Do you work on writing? I resisted it for years, but then realized that my students’ major problem with writing was that they didn’t realize that what they need to write is just EXACTLY what they said aloud.
So many of my kids who have come so far in language therapy (and can orally SAY the answers) don’t WRITE THEM DOWN the same way the said it.
They haven’t made the connection that they should write exactly what they said.
SOOOO I’ve begun audio taping them and having them listen back and write exactly what they said. It’s helped them make that connection. Writing has become a big part of my speechie life.
My pet peeve? Fragments and run-ons?? Do you feel my pain. I have a FREEBIE to tackle that issue. Check it out HERE. Unfortunately, our curriculum moved away from emphasizing grammar for many years, but it has come full circle, and GRAMMAR IS MAKING A COMEBACK. Whoop! I plan on using that freebie this inclusion next week!
Another freebie I’ll be using this month is my Halloween Stamp-a-Story. Grab that one, too!!
I use it for artic AND language groups! You can read about how I use my stamp-a-stories HERE and HERE
Last year we did lots of pumpkin dot art and we may do that, also, if we have time. I blogged about it HERE.
For my little bitties, I’m going to be using these pumpkin patch sticker scenes that I scored from Oriental Trading (again). I LOVE their sticker scenes. They’re easy enough for my 3 and 4 year olds and keep them talking and engaged.
My older hard-to-please crowd will be making Magic Potions in the next couple of weeks. It’s an open ended activity so I can use it for all of my groups
{mixed groups, too!)
I was planning on using roll and cover activities from my Halloween Fun Pack, but a couple of my sped teachers have temporarily stolen them from my room to use in math with their kids who need practice with counting. I should be annoyed, but I love when they use speechie materials in their special ed. classrooms!
Of course there has been lots of speech homework- and there will be all month long- because I’m tough like that. LOL
My kids get our PBIS bucks (called Colts Cash) when they are responsible enough to return their Halloween homework signed 🙂
This little dude is no artist, but I don’t care as long as he practices his words!
…and here’s something fun….
I was completely ecstatic and shocked and touched to find a Cariboo game on my doorstep Saturday morning! A parent of one of my former students who moved to Alabama years ago saw on Facebook that I was looking for a Cariboo game. She passed through Louisiana to see family this weekend and left their copy of Cariboo on my doorstep!! WHAT!!?? How amazing is that!? I can’t thank her enough for going out of her way to do that. What a beautiful surprise!!
On my day off today, I hope to whip up something Halloween themed to use with my new Cariboo game!
I hope your speech room is full of fun and learning this October!
What do YOU have planned!? I really want to hear about it!
If you’d like to hear and see more from me, I’d love it if you’d follow me…everywhere:)
I feel like my therapy materials for the month are planned thanks to you! I have purchased so many of your materials and my students love them. Do you a data collection sheet or lesson planning sheet you use and could share? Thanks for this great post. I am so glad you shared your ideas before Halloween and not after. 🙂
Thanks Jenni! I do have a data sheet (that I also write my activities on) but I made it with a program that not many people use so no one can open it- that's why I have bothered sharing it. (I am not a fan of microsoft word or PPT, etc.) Yes, I'm glad I got this posted BEFORE Halloween- I'm so bad about waiting until after. I finally got my act together and did before 🙂 I will try doing this for each holiday! I'm so glad it was helpful.