End of the year “round up”….

It’s close to the end of my school year so I thought I would dust off my boots and end it with a wild west theme. I have made theme boxes with materials that I have collected over my many years in this rodeo we call speech therapy. The cowboy box is one of many. So mosey on over to my ranch (aka speech room) and I’ll show ya’ a few things that I am using.

My door– images taken from google, stickers and a picture of me with friends on our horses (a fun trip we took to Wyoming and Montana last summer). My table– shower curtain (Kohls for 3.00), stuffed horse, books from the media center and a stable of horses. My white board– hats from the dollar store (held up by magnets). My cabinets outside of my room- books from the media center, horse head from a thrift shop and fake barbwire from (Hobby Lobby). My file cabinet– horseshoe magnets (dollar store) hats and boots.

I scrounged thrift stores and found an inexpensive cowboy shirt and leather vest. The kids loved dressing up and wearing these along with a hat and a bandana. It’s a lot more fun being dressed like a cowboy or cowgirl when you are practicing your skills. Oh and don’t underestimate the power of a dollar store mustache!

I found several web sites that would create wanted posters. This site was the one that printed the pictures the best. Create a wanted poster   I tried several free apps but there were too many advertising pop ups.

How did I use this with IEP goals? Well how could you not!

1. Problem solving What is a nickname? What nickname can you use for your wanted poster? Here are a few of the nick names we came up with- Wild Woman, Sparkles, Smiley, Grumpy, Slim, Red, Picker, Curly, Sweetie, Muzzle Loader, Bella, Flash, Crusher Here are some we found via Google:  The Kid, Itchy Trigger, Snake-eyes, Cotton Mouth, Deadeye, Texas, Arkansas, Dusty, Loco, Lefty, Lucky, etc. You can find some more here:Nicknames  and this site will create a cowboy/girl name and a crime for you Cowboy Name Generator (note these may not always be kid friendly).
2. What is a crime and what crimes would a cowboy/girl commit?  Here are a few that we used: bank robbin’, varmit shootin’, train robbin’, cattle rustlin’,  jaywalkin’, speedin’, horse stealin’, etc.
3. Following directions- it takes a lot of language and listening skills to decide what to wear for your wanted poster picture
4. Sequencing- what goes on first hat, mustache, bandana, shirt/vest and why?
5. Emotions/ feelings- What kind of wanted person are you? What are you feeling or thinking? Can you show that in your picture?
6. Our whole school uses the Zones of Regulation  so we can talk about what zone the culprit would be in when they were robbin’, chased by the sheriff or just ridin’ their horse, etc.This also works well for discussing the size of the problem.

Here are a few of the wanted posters that we created.

We worked a lot on the same skills but added a western twist. Other cowboy and cowgirl activities we did included:

1. Lots of cowboy/cowgirl books- a fun way to work on vocabulary, sequencing, listening skills, finding words with your speech sound, making inferences, etc.
2. Put a picture/object under a cowboy hat and give clues
3. Barrier games:  use cowboy stickers and a western scene (I used images I found by googling western backgrounds or you could create your own)
4. I  made a cowboy/cowgirl bingo game with vocabulary and pictures. I’d love to share it but I created it a long time ago and used pictures from google. Here are a few resources for vocabulary:Cowboy Vocabulary , American West/Cowboy Vocabulary/Slang, ABC Teach Cowboy Rodeo Theme

A few resources:( Apps- there are a lot of shooting apps which I did not use)

1. Cowboy Set 5.99
2. Pecos Bill app – 2.99
3. Cowboy Toddler– free app- shapes, letters, colors, etc.
4. Cowboy Alphabet – free app
5. Simoo- simon says app with cows – free app
6. Tizzy Cowboys and Cowgirls– 2.99-  or Lite version-free app
7. Mystery Word Town – Sight Word Spelling – 2.99 app
8. Old Western Movies – free app

Well partner it’s time for me to mosey on out and feed them horses. Here’s to you adding a your own twists to this theme.

Cindy “Countin’ The Days” Meester

 It was hat day at school- my cowboy theme was lucky timing! I even had on my speech lips sweater!

 

 

Helping Paws

I try not to use this blog for personal items but this is one exception. I do volunteer work for Helping Paws. I have trained a service dog, worked at many events and dog sit  for dogs in training. This is an organization that trains service dogs for people with physical disabilities and veterans.

The next event I will working at is the Wag Walk and Run. I know most can’t join us but you can support this worthy cause with a donation.
Please use the link below to help me raise funds for a great organization.

Donation Link

Thank you!
Cindy
PS. It’s ok to share this with others too.

Not a Stick…

 

Last posting I showed how I used the Not a Box book. This time I used Not a Stick for our creative and imagination adventures.

This book follows the same format as Not a Box. It has one sentence on a page along with cute line drawings of pig and his/her imagination. This time pigs finds a stick and let’s his/her pretend play turn it into a artist’s brush, sword and other imaginative objects.

First we read the book and made guesses of what the pig had imagined his/her stick to be. The book is set up to show pig standing with the stick and the next page shows what it becomes. It was a interesting to see what guesses my students made.

I gave each student a blank card stock paper and a bag of sticks. What will their imagination turn the stick into? I tried to steer them to new ideas and not just ones from the book. It wasn’t too hard to do. Once they had their idea I hot glued a stick to their paper and they drew their object.

I did not have them draw themselves. I took their pictures and printed them to add to their creations. See below for some of the finished results!

I even had a crown for the princess.

I can’t wait to see what my other students create!

Now for the twist. What app can pair up with this book you ask? Here are a few suggestions:

Draw a Stickman – free

Draw a stickman– this one is done on your computer

Draw a Stickman: Epic 2 – 1.99

Draw a Stickman: Epic HD -2.99

Draw a Stickman Epic- free – free

Doddlecast by Sago – 2.99

Now it’s time to add your own twists… Let me know by leaving a comment or two.

Cindy

 

 

Not a Box…

I took a book idea that my friend Sean Sweeney (Speech Techie) shared at the ASHA convention in November. He had many great ideas on pairing apps with literacy (books). Of course I added my own twists.

1. I chose the book Not a Box by Antoinette Portis.

2. I read it to some of my K-2nd grade students. We worked on making predictions, using our imaginations and thinking outside as well a inside of the box- I couldn’t resist. 

3. Then I added a twist by giving each student a sheet of paper that I had drawn a “box” on it.

4. They were asked to turn their box into something from their own imagination.

5. Per Sean’s suggested pairing we used the Toca Boca Robot Lab  and Moonbeeps-Gizmo apps once their creations were completed. This was a fun way to work on turn taking, compromising and requesting. The other app suggestion (from Sean)  is Doddle Buddy.

6. I displayed their creations along with the book and of course a cardboard “not a box” on the cabinets outside my room.

Here are the final results:

 

A rocketship, a spaceship, a house, a pool, another house, a treehouse boat

 

A house, a monstersaurus, a car, a zombie, a treehouse, a TV

Bonus: To add another twist I plan on gathering a plethora of different kinds and sizes of boxes to make creations that are not a box! Think of all the language skills we can build on in this activity- vocabulary, sequencing, requesting, comparing, contrasting, etc. Three apps I plan to use with this activity are :Adobe Voice, Go Sequencing and Making Sequences . I can take pictures of each step and create a sequencing activity within these apps.

What twists have you added to a book or app?

Cindy

A door to Spring…

I have lots of posts started but have yet to get motivated to complete them. In the meantime since I shared my Halloween door (see below) I thought I’d share my next door creation.

I kept the big googly eyes and created a snowman. I used items from a kit I had purchased at craft fair (the nose, hat and scarf) then used magnets for the mouth and buttons. But since it is now close to Groundhog’s Day I added a little more. The snowman states “Will the groundhog see his shadow?”  I used a picture of a groundhog and my students are voting if it will he will see his shadow or not under the sun and clouds I drew. It has brought a lot of fun conversations, vocabulary and more.  The black material on my door is new and part of a blog post still to be written but I love that I can the dry erase crayons to write on it. Stay tuned!

So what are your twists for groundhog’s day?

Cindy

 

Giving Fall a hand…..

We did a fun easy craft in our OT/Speech group this week. It was all about working on fine motor skills, following directions and vocabulary. I can see doing this for articulation and writing target words on the branches, pumpkins or paper leaves.

Here is what we used:

1. construction paper – we used white but the choice is endless
2. crayons – you could use colored pencils or markers
3. confetti leaves and silk leaves – this is what we had picked up from the dollar store but any leaves would work- if you use paper leaves you could add even more words
4. your hand – to trace around (now do you get the blog post title?!)

First trace your hand and arm to create branches and trunk. We wrote the word FALL on the trunk and thought of fall words to write on the branches. All our students choose to trace their own arm.

We drew pumpkins along the bottom. Tall ones, round ones, small ones, fat ones, etc.

We glued the leaves- on the tree, under, next to, etc.

Ta da! The final project.

Now it’s your turn to twist this into your own therapy activity!

Cindy

Mum’s the word….

Here is what I added to my speech room door.

I used Streamer Paper Crepe from Party City. The big google eyes were from Target’s Dollar Spot but I have found them in craft stores. The pumpkins were printed from Word clip art.

I used talking bubbles in Word and typed in the jokes. The “jokes” were found on this site: Mummy Jokes

The therapy twist –

Most students were asked to answer the “joke” before looking at the answer.

My older students discussed the double meaning of the jokes.

My little ones labeled what was on my door.

Now add your own Twists!

Cindy

The calm before the scheduling storm…

So my summer is over and school will begin after Labor Day. I survived the 5 days of professional development and got my speech room set up. This year I took “before” pictures to remind me that once upon a time everything was organized. So take a peek before it gets all “twisted!”

 

Now on Tuesday this space will morph into a blizzard of class lists, teacher schedules, post it notes and pulled out hair. Yes it will be time to once again reinvent the wheel also known as scheduling. But as I have found in the past 38 years this can be accomplished with many tweaks along the way AND throughout the school year. I’ll see you once I shovel out the mess and actually start with students!

So here’s where I should comment about my lack of posts but how about some fun pictures from my summer vacation instead! I am so lucky to have lifelong friends who wanted to celebrate our milestone birthdays (yes 60 of them) by taking a trip to Wyoming and Montana. Cowboys, happy hour, whitewater rafting, happy hour, pig races, happy hour, horseback riding, happy hour, shopping, happy hour, rodeo, happy hour, mountain exploring and did I mention happy hour?! Many memories and laughs were shared.

 

So with a new year beginning I am making no promises that my posts will be on any kind of schedule. I did promise myself that I would share any therapy ideas that others may find useful. If you’ve read my blog you know I like therapy with a twist so stay tuned. I do have some Wild West ideas galloping through my brain and will try to rein them into therapy. Of course I found therapy materials on my trip I am an SLP after all.

Can’t wait to see the twists you add to your therapy sessions!

Cindy

Credits:

Door Posters this set also contains We ♥️ Posters

Speech Ninjas

Wooden Wall words were bought at the MN state Fair but can be ordered here: Wall Words

The Listen Board was from Target’s Dollar Spot

We ♥️ Posters

Common Core Cans from Nicole Allison

Material Open Top Containers I used left over borders and taped them inside to get a more uniform look. I also did this to the portable storage drawers.

The fun seating- the flat seats were from Target on clearance. You can see what twist I added to these- Seating Twist

The ball chair was given to our school this year. A furniture company did a photo shoot this summer and donated all the furniture to our school- standing desks, carts, etc.

The “talk back chattering teeth” record your voice. I bought them on my summer vacation at a Cracker Barrel restaurant and could not find them online. I did see one on eBay.  Sorry!

The M & M dispenser was bought at the M & M store in Las Vegas. They sell them other places too. And no I no longer fill it with candy…darn heathy eating in schools.

My Fairy Door was bought from a wonderful New Zealand craftsman (Imagination Doors) who has moved and closed shop….temporially I hope.

You never know who you might run into….

Back in December I posted about using the Elf on the shelf in therapy (ours was named Lucy). You can see the post here: Elf on the Shelf in Therapy

You may remember that Steve the dwarf was also visiting the speech room at the same time.

Well after the winter break our therapy sessions discussed why Lucy and Steve were no longer in the speech room.  Lucy had flown back to the North Pole and would not be returning but might visit again in the winter. Steve has decided it was just too cold in MN and left for someplace warmer. This led to brainstorming what places might be warmer, how he traveled etc.  So time passes and spring break finally arrives!

I was lucky to have the same spring break as my granddaughter so we used free airline tickets to fly to Las Vegas. Plus we stayed at a resort for the week for 59.00! Yes we had a warm relaxing trip with a few sightseeing adventures. But the best of all is who we ran into…. STEVE!

I made sure to take pictures so I could share them with my students. It was so fun to see their faces when I posted the pictures in my room. This too led to a lot of fun therapy twists. Such as:

1. How did he get there?
2. Does he want to come back? (No- he likes the warm weather there- Plus I think he may enjoy gambling but don’t tell my students!)
3. Where does he live?
4. Will he come back here next year?
5. It also was a way to bring some idioms into therapy- “ran into,” “loafing around,” “dead-end” (some kids thought he might live at a dead-end street), etc.

So have you run into anyone that let you add a therapy twist to your speech sessions?

Cindy

What if you catch a leprechaun…..?

Just a wee bit o’fun in our speech room to share with you.  We read the book The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day. In the book the kids make traps to try to catch a leprechaun. So we decided we needed to make some too.

I brought in items from my recycling bin at home and the students decided what to use to create their own traps. Here are the results…

They added pennies to lure the leprechaun to the trap. Now we will wait to see what happens!

This is the sign posted by the traps. Leprechaun Traps

Of course there were lots of IEP goals worked on along side the trap making.

1. Following directions

2. Problem solving

3. Comparing/Contrasting traps with those in the book

4. Vocabulary

5. Sequencing

6. Predictions

Now can you add your own twists?  I know we will!

Cindy