by Anne Page | Jan 1, 2015 | Therapy Ideas
Kristen Cummings of the wonderful Simply Speech Blog, is hosting a linky party about board games for speech and language therapy. Click on the picture below to be sent to the linky party. For those of you who are new to blogging, this is a great way to learn about new blogs and for SLPs to share ideas.
Board games are great for so many things and most kids love them! I like to use them for my groups. Great for teaching and reinforcing sportsmanship/social skills, board games keep therapy feeling like play. Students can work on their goals and keep it fun.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Always a crowd pleaser for the little ones, it is a great introduction to board games, turntaking, following directions, color matching and learning to deal with disappointment (when they have to go backwords).
Kids love to push the dice bubble and hear the noise it makes. Usually, I play it with just two of the four game pieces for each player(because of time constraints). It’s great for artic practice, the student’s repetition of target corresponds with the number on the dice. Awsome for all ages.
Sorry is another favorite. Like Trouble, it is fun for all ages. It’s good to teach sportsmanship and critical thinking skills.
My kids go crazy for this game! I use it as a reward game to keep the novelty going. They get so excited with the anticipation of the “Dad” waking up. The noise can be too scary for some primary students and some kids that are on the Autism Spectrum. I always demonstrate the first time and if they are scared, we move on to something else.
Here’s another one kids love! This is technically not a board game, but it’s great fun for those days when the kids are having trouble sitting still (like during pre-holiday weeks). It’s great for drill. Here’s a tip to help with focusing skills: don’t hand out the Jumping Monkeys all at once. Taking turns, give two monkeys to a player after he has completed his speech target, then he can shoot. Otherwise, the kids don’t pay attention, they are so busy playing with the monkeys while they are waiting for their turn.
This is another fun anticipatory game along the lines of Don’t Wake Daddy. Players have to try to sneak the plastic bones out of the dog dish while he is “sleeping”. The dog snores while he sleeps, if you press down too hard while grabbing a bone, he jumps forward and barks. Again, this is usually too scary for the little ones. I don’t like the cat claw tweezers, we just use our fingers.
Such a fun game for the holidays. I had the original version which has little Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and Snoopy figures to use for pawns. It also had a little battery operated Christmas tree that the winner gets to light (unfortunately broken now). Kids have to collect ornaments, candy canes and presents.
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Board games are definitely our friends! I bought the more expensive ones on sale. GoodWill can be a great source for board games too, you just have to make sure all the pieces are there. What are your favorites? I am always looking for a new classic!
by Anne Page | Dec 28, 2014 | Technology, Uncategorized
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by Anne Page | Dec 10, 2014 | Freebies, Therapy Ideas
This is one of my groups from this morning. I got these Christmas word cards on Teachers Pay Teachers from Mrs. W for FREE! I laminated them in long strips and laid them out on the table . The kids took turns tossing red or green poker chips and naming the word that their chip landed on. Later in the day I had one group make sentences with the words, another group gave definitions. They thought it was great fun!
by Anne Page | Dec 8, 2014 | SLP links, Technology, Therapy Ideas
It’s all about novelty. Kids love to be excited by something new. So I like to have a lot of different choices in my therapy bag of tricks. Here is a great way to use some of your TeachersPayTeachers materials in conjunction with your iPad.
Let me show you how I recently used the Doodle Buddy app with some antonyms and synonyms worksheets from Nicole Allison’s awesome new product, Leveled Vocabulary Intervention. Click here for a link to this incredible product. I have been using it for the last few weeks and it has quickly become a go-to vocabulary resource. Thanks Nicole!
After you make your purchase, open it on your iPad in Ibooks. Take screen shots (hold down main button and on/off button until you hear a click) of the worksheets you want to use.
Open the Doodle Buddy app.
Click on the tic-tac-toe icon.
Choose photos. Go into your photos and choose the first worksheet you took a screenshot of.
Now the fun begins. Tap the chalk icon and choose your drawing tool and color. For the example I chose glitter in red. Students use their finger to complete the worksheets. They love it! 
Then when it is completed just shake the iPad to clear the screen. Magic! Just click on the tic-tac-toe icon again to get another worksheet. Another really fun feature of Doodle Buddy is the stamp feature. Click on that and a menu of stamps will appear. I chose the snowman for this example.
Students use their finger as a stamp to make the line. AND each stamp has fun audio, the holly jingles, the lips make a kissy noise. It’s really great fun! My students have been having a great time with it.
Doodly Buddy is FREE, yay, how great is that?! The Tic-Tac-Toe feature is really fun too. I have been using it as a way to match pairs of opposites. I just write in the words quickly and let the kids use the stamping feature to match them.
Fun, motivating and easy! I hope you give it a try!
by Anne Page | Nov 25, 2014 | Speech Room
Moving my speech room has set off a domino effect. Our old school is bursting at the seams and we had to add a new 5th grade teacher to our team. A large classroom was needed and mine fit the bill. I had to move.
It’s so easy to be inflexible and not want to change. But I chose a different route, (after one day of kicking and screaming in my head). Which means learning to tolerate discomfort and finding ways to be extra nice to myself during that time so that the stress doesn’t take over.
Also, I have accumulated a lot of “stuff”. Being in a large space for four years allowed me to expand my materials in size and quantity. Moving to a space half the size has forced me to downsize. Well, not forced, I could keep everything if I want to be cluttered and cramped. I don’t. So I’ve been sorting through files, papers, activity books, toys and games. if I haven’t used them or referred to them in a year, I am letting them go. The games and toys are in the “Big Prize Box”, the kids get to choose something from that when they reach the end of their sticker chart (usually about halfway into the year). The other items I gave to some of my teacher friends; the rest will go to Treasures for Teachers.
It’s an upheaval for my students too. A lot of them said they didn’t want me to move and that they were going to miss my room. Some of them helped me move. Most of them have so much going on in their lives that they can’t rely on or control, Room 4 was a nice constant for them. I am helping them learn that we can bring that feeling with us to Room 20. The rest is just geography.
And a little bit of unpacking!
Hey there I’m Anne Page. I help heart centered SLPs and educators put the fun in functional communication. 