The Weekly Review: Week 83

SLP Resource of the Week

Mel at Classroom Freebies made a free downloadable Snail or Slug game that would be perfect for working on production of /sl/ and /sn/ blends, auditory discrimination, and simple sorting skills.

Ava/Michael Weekly Contrast

Potential spoilers ahead - do not read if you want to watch the new Tinkerbell movie without any hints of what the movie contains.

We watched the new Tinkerbell movie last night. It was a great movie. We all enjoyed it and the children are itching to watch it again today. I enjoyed watching the wonder, joy, and laughter on their faces as much as I enjoyed watching the movie. There were some sections of the movie that were emotionally intense though. I found it interesting that the children responded entirely differently to them.

Michael was in tears when Tinkerbell and Periwinkle were forced to separate against their will and the audience was led to believe they would never see each other again. Ava was relatively calm during that section of the movie. Closer to the end when the fairy dust tree was in danger of being killed by a freeze Ava was sobbing and needed to be held and comforted. That part of the movie had Michael excited and engaged, but certainly not breaking down.

It was fascinating that the children reacted so differently at different parts in the movie. I'm not reading too much into the specifics. I was grateful there was only one child to comfort and reassure at a time.

Weekly Weight Loss

Let's just agree to not discuss the slight backslide caused by our first (delightful) cheat night and monthly hormones, shall we?

Weekly Speech Resource Kit Update

So close. I'm probably working on writing the new table of contents, final editing, and conversion to PDF as you read this. I need to tackle the mechanics of getting it added to the store and writing the details page. But it is close. I should be on schedule for getting the /k/ set available to you all by the beginning of November. I'm particularly pleased with this set. There are a ton of cards, a full printable Speech Switcheroo set for initial /k/, and a new Race to the Top Game I made for the Mixed /k/ section just to name a few highlights.

Another Simple DIY Speech Warm-up Teachers Will Thank You For

Here's another perfect blend of phonics and speech that is a great activity for working on final consonants and word families at the same time. (See the last one here.) This will only take you 5-10 minutes to make from materials you'll already have around.

Gather

1 piece of cardstock or construction paper
1 piece of regular copy/printer paper
marker or sharpie
stapler
craft tape (optional)

Assemble

Quarter-fold the cardstock and paper and cut into fourths. Decide if you want your mini flipbook to have six or eight pages. If you want six pages, put three pieces of paper on top of one piece of cardstock. If you want eight pages, put four pieces of paper on top of one piece of cardstock. Then fold that pile in half and put three staples in the fold line to hold it together. If you like, put a piece of craft tape over the outer fold to cover the staples and make your mini flipbook look "bound". Next, cut the inner pages once so that the right half is 2/3 of the book's length and the left half is 1/3 of the book's length.

Now you have a blank flipbook to fill out. Choose 6-8 word families that have your target sound as their final sound. For final /k/ I used: -ack, -ake, -ick, -ock, -oke, and -uck. Write these on the right-hand pages of your flipbook. Then write 6-8 beginning consonant sounds on the left-hand pages of your flipbook. I chose six early emerging sounds to keep the focus on the more difficult, targeted, final sound. My six initial consonants were: /p, b, t, d, m, n/. As you use the flipbook, some combinations will make real words and others will make nonsense words. That is fine. Now write your target sound on the cover and you're ready to go.

Inspiration found here. Follow the link for 10 different games to play with phonics flipbooks.

Speech Card Set Activity: Initial F - I Have Who Has

I Have, Who Has? is a great game for speech practice. It is a quick-paced, cooperative game that keeps all students engaged, paying attention, and producing target words in a carrier phrase all at the same time.

Preparation

Print this I Have, Who Has? card deck.
If you need another target sound, make one of your own using one of my card sets (free, premium) printed two sheets to a page (to make them smaller). Then cut out the pictures of your choice and glue them onto handwritten I have, who has cards made from construction paper or cardstock.

How to play.

Distribute the cards as evenly as possible to the students. If you're doing individual therapy, divide them between yourself and the student and your productions will serve as models. The person who has the start card begins and asks, "Who has fan?" The person with the other fan card will say, "I have fan, who has phone?" Play continues in this manner until the group reaches the end. To make things easier, have the children turn over each card as it is "played". This will reduce the number of cards left that they have to keep track of.

Advantages

• It is a fun, engaging cooperative game.
• Each child practices saying two target words per turn in a carrier phrase.
• It is a good game for practicing attention skills.
• It has great re-play value.

Word List

• fan
• phone
• fun
• food
• foot
• foam
• fight
• feed
• fin
• five
• feet
• fetch
• fuss
• full