Initial H Speech Worksheet

Make classroom teachers happy, reinforce phonics and handwriting, and practice speech all at the same time.

This worksheet is pretty self-explanatory. You might enjoy sliding it into a sheet protector and using dry-erase markers during your session. Then you can use this same sheet all day long. Alternately, at the end of the session, slide it out and let the child take it home for homework.

Younger children will just enjoy identifying the pictures and working on clear initial /h/ sounds while letting you fill in the letter "h" for them. Slightly older students can work on their handwriting and fine motor skills by writing in the letter themselves.

As always, you can practice these words in isolation, in repetitions of two or three, with carrier phrases, or in short sentences. If you're sending the sheet home for homework, write in extra directions if you want the parents to practice at a particular level.

This worksheet is modeled after The Missing Vowel worksheets included in the Simple Vowels Speech Kit.

Enjoy!

Slightly Crafty Birthday Party Favors: Felt Crayon Carriers

I am not the birthday theme sort. We choose a nice venue and invite friends for company. We have a cake and candles. We sing happy birthday and open our presents at home. (I've found that asking a crowd of 3-5 year olds to sit and watch someone else open presents for 15-20 minutes while they'd rather be playing is just painful.)

I do like the relatively new tradition of having small gifts/party favors for the guests - particularly when those guests are very young children. This year I, rather ambitiously, decided to make something. I didn't want to do the party favor aisle stuff this year. I know from experience most parents end up throwing that stuff out. I also liked the idea that I could make something more unique that the kids and parents would like out of materials I already had lying around from my busy book days (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).

I'm making little felt crayon rolls in a variety of colors. I'm going to include a small piece of paper that says "Thank you for coming to Michael's party!" with cute clip art. I'll attach balloons to each one and use them to decorate the table. Then each child can choose one they like and take the crayon roll and balloon home. The crayons in each roll will coordinate with the color of the felt.

I took 9x12 pieces of craft felt and cut 1.5 inches off length-wise. Then I cut the remaining piece in half. Fold that piece over by about 2/3. Also cut a 18 inch long piece of ribbon or cord of some kind, fold it in half and stick in in-between the fold on one side. Sew a U shape around one side, the bottom, and other side making sure to securely attach the string/ribbon. Then just make four evenly spaced lines from the bottom to the top of the pouch to form the pockets for the five crayons. Insert crayons, roll-up, and tie. Repeat 14 more times. (I didn't get very many RSVP's from Michael's classmates so I want extras just in case.) Done.

Well, then make the thank-you for coming notes on the computer, print out 15 of those, cut them out and insert them in the rolls. Then remember to actually bring the favors to the party and attach balloons to them and place them on the table. But then you're done.

Ok, fine. Then you have to set up the cake, loosely supervise children and chat with parents, orchestrate the gathering of children and singing of Happy Birthday, cut and serve the cake, take pictures, pay the venue, gather all of your things, and get out of there before the next party. Then you're really done.

Hmm... well, I can actually think of a few more things, but I think you get the idea. :-)

(Inspiration found here.)

The Weekly Review: Week 84

SLP Resource of the Week

I've always felt isolated as a school SLP. Almost always, you're the only SLP at a school. Often you're the only SLP at several schools. Particularly when you're new you have questions and no easy way to get answers from other professionals. Even once you have more experience, you're always encountering a new type of client (apraxia, fluency, hearing impairment, anything less common than language and straightforward articulation) or a client who just isn't responding well to typical interventions. I've often wanted to find an active message board. One where you can post a question or comment and get several replies in a timely manner and I think I've found one. Speaking of Speech has a message board set up and it appears to be pretty active. Check it out. If you know of any other active message boards for SLPs, link to them in the comments. I'd love to check them out.

Weekly Michael

Five!!! Michael turns five this weekend. I am just so lucky that I am one of the people that gets to watch him grow into the amazing person he's already becoming. We are so excited to have my husband's parents coming in to town to help us celebrate. Michael is also having some school friends at his party for the first time. It should be a great weekend.

Weekly Ava

Ava has an under-appreciated generous streak. I say this because she's a bit of a drama queen and is quick to play things up when she feels slighted. This dramatic behavior distracts from her consistent, unsolicited generosity with her brother. She automatically thinks of him when she gets a treat. If he finishes eating first and is still hungry, she will offer him some of her food. If he wants a turn playing with her toy she will often hand it over (Although she will qualify, "Just for 3 minutes DD!"). I love this about her. I have difficulty finding words for the feeling that spreads through me when I watch my children truly care for each other.

Weekly Weight Loss

It's been three weeks since my last check-in here. I'm 3.2 pounds down from that week. Of course that week was so bad that I didn't even report a number. :-) The stress of getting the vowel therapy kit done on such a tight timeline wreaked havoc on both the weekly-review and on my diet. I broke out of low-carb for about a week and haven't gotten fully back in line yet. I'm working on it though. I learned a lot from working with a low-carb diet and so even when I'm indulging in some carbs I'm still not eating like I was before. That helps a little.

I'm down almost exactly 25 pounds from where I started. I am a little miffed that no one seems to have noticed! How is it that I can lose 17% of my body weight and no one notices? (Grumble, grumble.)

Weekly Speech Resource Kit Update

Close your eyes and imagine me doing a happy dance. That's how I feel about having the vowel kit done. The next 6-8 weeks are going to be crazy. During those weeks I'm handling three major holidays, two school breaks, one birthday, one family vacation, and one surgery on a close family member. New speech kits are going on the back burner. I am going to try to do some edits and revisions to the first three kits. If and when I get a revision done I'll either send everyone who has already purchased the kit an email (or just do a post here on the blog) letting you know a revision has gone up so that you can contact me if you want a code for a free copy of the revised kit.