Dig a Sentence

On Pinterest I saw this great idea for "digging deeper sentences." Here's the original post: Mrs. Meacham. 

Where I found it: http://mrsmeachamclassroom.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/167/ 

I used this idea on my whiteboard with 3rd grade and 6th grade language groups, and they all loved it! This idea works for: 
*grammar
*asking/answering questions
*story retell
*summarizing
*writing sentences
*organizing ideas

Since I got a good response from my students, I made it into a paper-pencil format and made a homework practice page. Download this freebie from my TpT store HERE. 4-page packet includes 1 version with visuals and 1 version without...homework for each. 

Dig a Sentence handout without visuals

Dig a Sentence Homework page with visuals

Leave a comment: what do you think? Who will you use this with? 

Sentence Starters

Got a request to share some sentence starters...HERE you go! 

*Great for speedy speech sessions (sentence practice if you follow with an artic card! Conversation data!) 

*can use for quick-write prompts

*practice answering questions in complete sentences

*formulate questions to get the desired response 

*etc!

A Week of Speedy Speech Activities: Friday!

 

Activity #6: Basketball 

Materials: *Hoop and ball from dollar store *Dollar Store container  *basketball cut outs 

To Play: Students say their speech sound word for the specified number of times (I have 50 paper basketballs, so I have student say words 2 times, then put a basketball in...this way in 5 minutes we will near the 100 mark!). Just before time is up, we take the paper basketballs out and the students "shoot" the actual ball 3 times.

Activity#7: Adapted Puzzle 

Another "inherited" speech room cabinet find: an Essential Sounds puzzle. (This one is great because the puzzle contains many R words when finished.) The student says the word on the back of the puzzle piece, says it again (or in a sentence if at the sentence level) and puts the puzzle piece in (the word on the back of the piece will match the word written on the puzzle back). This is an easy adaptation for any artic sound, especially if you can find a picture that has several words with that articulation sound. 

 

 

Activity #8: Sentence Strips

Having an envelope of sentences starters available is great! Just have the student read the sentence (oral reading practice), then finish the sentence with the card on the top of the pile. These can become pretty silly! 

A Week of Speedy Speech Activities: Thursday!

Activity #5: "Plix" 

Plix is an activity that can be ordered for specific speech sounds. I "inherited" these from previous SLPs (it was a speech office cabinet find!). I liked the activity so much (it's a very flexible and adaptable activity!) that I made my own for the articulation sounds I was 'missing' in my set using BoardMaker. 

To Play: Student draws a card, and says the 2 words written. The student then places the card touching the end of another card (dominoes style). If the student is at the sentence level, he says the 2 touching words in a sentence together. When it is time to pick up, it's easy to have the student say more words (more practice!) by saying both words on the card before putting it back in the tube.

Alternatives:

*Students like "racing" to see who can make the longest line of cards in a given amount of time

Students like making familiar shapes...a house is the most frequent!

A Week of Speedy Speech Activities: Wednesday!

Activity #4: Jack Pot! 

This is the  most student-requested speedy speech activity! 

To Play: Student rolls a dice, then says the words for that number (e.g., that number of different words with their sound, that number of speech-sound word into a sentence, one word that number of times, etc). The student then marks the board (e.g., chipper chat, their first initial or an X with a whiteboard marker, etc). 

Goal: to cover every number! (Then call "Jackpot!")

Alternatives: Students love playing "Mega Jackpot" by playing on the big whiteboard in the speech room.

Just use a small, individual-sized whiteboard to draw this board!

A Week of Speedy Speech Activities: Tuesday!

Activity #3: Dice Bingo! 

This is a student-favorite speedy speech activity! 

To play: Students roll a dice. They select a picture from that # row, say it at the appropriate level (I tend to have students say the word the # of times on the dice). Mark their box. Roll again. 

Goal: get a bingo! As students gain skills with their speech sound, we often make the goal a "black out" where they try to cover the entire board. 

 

Example:

• Student rolls dice, gets a 2
• selects a word from the 2 (second) row 
• Says the word 2 times (or, puts it into a sentence if at the sentence level) 
• rolls again! 

Alternatives: 

*Roll a 6: instead of simply rolling again, students select any word on the board and say it 6 times. 

*If going for a "black out," have the student say each word in the row each time they get a traditional bingo (5 in a row). 

*If the student has covered all the 4s and rolls another 4, the student says all of the words in the 4 row, then rolls again.

A Week of Speedy Speech Activities!

This week, I'll share a speedy speech activity every day. I hope these can help get others started with this great service delivery model!

Let's start with 2 very simple activities...

Activity #1: 

*Grab any free-printable or pre-made board (or make your own!). Use chipper chat markers (from Super Duper) or other quick markers. Students say their speech word at their level (I often have them say a word 2x and repeat my sentence) then place a marker. Goal: Fill up the board! 

*Alternatives: move a single marker with each production and see how far they can make it. Roll a dice and move that many spaces, say that many words (phrases, sentences, etc).

Activity #2:

*Another use for chipper chat markers. These boards are easy to make. My pictures are often from google images search; some are from  Word clipart. (I can share over email!) I keep these in a page protector and rotate them for appropriate events or seasons. The most recent favorite was the local football team logo!

 

Dollar Challenge 2

Finally posted my Dollar Challenge Bulletin Board! (see my first post HERE)

Students are enjoying putting their dollars up and working towards putting up a speech room dollar! This is an activity enjoyed by my language, articulation, and social skills students! 

Speedy Speech Basket--A Must Have!

If you use the intensive articulation intervention service delivery model, a speedy speech basket is a must-have! It makes everything grab-and-go! 

Here's a look at mine:

Dollar store basket works perfectly in size and price! 

Everything fits in, and it's easy to travel with throughout the hallways. 

I usually carry my basket and my schedule clipboard when I do sessions. On data collection days, I also carry my speedy speech data notebook. 

 

Here's what's inside my speedy speech basket (left to right, clockwise): 

• Pencil Bag: *dice *dry erase markers *chipper chat wand and markers
• Chipper Chat boards for a quick activity 
• Sentence Starters: not always carried, but these are perfect for conversation-level practice/data, and oral-reading level practice
• Speedy Speech passes: this makes it quiet in the classrooms! **See note below 
•  Small nonfiction book with very short paragraph/1-page sections for oral-reading level practice 
• small whiteboard 
• timer!! (a must) 
• Articulation cards. (I use these decks most often, but swap them out for other speech-sound cards so there are different words to practice with)  

Speedy Speech Pass Note: 

I walk into a classroom and put the Speedy Speech Pass on a student's desk, then walk out. The Pass cues the student to come out to the hallway with me for speech. When the speedy speech session is done, I tell my student who the next student is and the pass is put on the desk of the next student. It works for teachers, too: it's a very quiet, non-disruptive system, and when the pass is on a student's desk the teacher knows that student is in speech and will return shortly. 

Speech Room Behavior System!

We currently don't have a school-wide behavior program (we are working towards one, thankfully, but are currently in a year of data collection), so this summer I was on the search for a behavior system I liked for the speech room that would fit my needs Kindergarten through 6th grade.

I really liked the behavior system I found at the blog Sped-ventures (her post is here), so I made my own version which I am already loving!

I made my behavior signs with these labels:

• Outstanding! (Earn 2 Stamps) 
• Ready to Learn! (Making Great Choices!)
•  Think about it. (What are the speech room behaviors?) 
• Warning (Loss of stamp) 
• Time Out (can return to the group after processing with [speech therapist] or [principal])

My students keep their picture+paperclip Behavior Chart Marker in their speech room folders and clip it onto "Ready to Learn" when they enter the speech room. Their marker can be moved up or down as cued during the speech session. 

(To make the Behavior Chart Marker: *take student picture, print and laminate *use packing tape to attach to a large paperclip.)

At the end of the speech session, I write a very brief note in their homework folder to stay in contact with parents. In the top line, I circle where they ended up on the behavior chart. (Some students can circle this themselves).

Get a free download of the My Speech Time Report at my TpT store.

Elementary Speech Folders

My speech students have 2 folders...a homework folder (that goes home and back....and may risk never being seen again, thus the second folder) and a speech room folder (that stays in the speech room).

Behavior chart marker (paper clip), stamp chart, cover page

Speech students who come into the speech room have a speech room folder. Those who are speedy speech only or inclusion only do not have a speech folder (just a homework folder).

Here's what's in each student's speech room folder: 

• Cover sheet (goals, speech room expectations, speech times)
•  Student stamp chart
• Behavior chart marker (picture) 
• The Dollar Challenge 100 tracking page (post here)
• As we work on tasks, this folder will house the different individual visuals, projects, etc. until they are ready to be sent home, posted on a bulletin board, or filed for progress monitoring (data!).  

(Click here to grab your free download of the cover sheet and sticker chart from my TpT store)

Free download

My students keep their speech room folders in their grade-bin. 

The speech room folder routine looks like this: 

• enter the speech room, find your folder in the grade-bin
• take out your behavior chart maker and place it on the "Ready to Learn" poster
• bring your folder to the table and open to the stamp chart, with your homework ready to be "stamped"
• if we are  not taking anything out of our folders, the folders "go under you." (My students love this because I don't care where it is as long as it is "under" them and not a distraction. Some students choose to sit on their folder-literally, while others put it on the floor under their chair or balance it on the metal bars of the chair. This open-ended method is a great way to get compliance without a challenge from those more 'creative' students...!)
• receive stamp (if earned) at the end of the session, re-place behavior chart marker, re-file folder in grade-bin.

This routine is faster and faster once the students are familiar with it. They like the independence and responsibility, and I appreciate the organization! 

100! The Dollar Challenge

I found The Dollar Challenge at SpeechRoomNews (post here) and immediately wanted to use it with my students! (Thanks for the idea, Jenna!)

I made companion documents to go with The Dollar Challenge (TpT download HERE).

• Articulation Tracking Graph: to use with Speedy Speech Students 
• Language Tracking Graph: to use with non-artic goals 
• Parent Note Home: so the parent can celebrate with the student for the accomplishment of 100!  

Here's how I'll use it: 

Articulation...Goal: to get 100 correct productions of the speech sound within 1, 5-minute speedy speech session. Schedule: Sporadically, at least monthly, probably every other week we will have a "Dollar Challenge" Day. Method: clicker counter to count productions; graph to track how many productions were achieved! 

Language...Goal: 100 correct goal behaviors (e.g., wh-questions, story grammar elements, grammatically correct sentence productions) Schedule: speech sessions when I take data and/or when students take their own data Method: Students will shade in a box for each correct answer until all 100 boxes are shaded!

On Task Behavior...Goal: to get 100% on task behavior during a 10 minute observation. Schedule: each time data is taken there is an opportunity (note: The students aren't aware of when I take data, since I am in the classrooms frequently) Method: on-task behavior data during classroom observation

Then, to celebrate with Parents when their student meets The Dollar Challenge, a note will be sent home. 

Speedy Speech!

I LOVE speedy speech! (In the research you may see it listed as the "intensive articulation model" of therapy). With speedy speech, I have seen wonderful progress in my articulation students, the students' parents have been impressed with their child's progress, and the teachers love that I only pull a student out for 5 minutes at a time (so they don't miss much-if any-instruction time).

I remember reading that within a given school year a student misses 1 week of instruction time walking back and forth for pull-out groups (speech, resource, PT, OT, reading recovery, TitleI, etc). Wow! I worked in a school where we did speedy speech sessions at an empty desk in the hallway by each "pod" of grade-level classrooms, and in my current school I have that option in some halls, but typically just sit on the floor in the hallway(!).

Here's my top reasons for loving speedy speech (in no particular order): 

1. it's fast, so behavior is rarely an issue
2. it's fast, so the students stay engaged
3. progress! progress! progress!
4. a variety of activities are perfect for 5 minutes with very little prep time
5. not material-heavy (the students don't get bored with the activities, so I can 're-cycle' through my materials/activities every month or so and I can do the same activity within a week) 
6. progress! progress! progress! 
7. the teachers love it
8. I get to see my students 4-5 days/week, so I get to know them individually better 
9. I get to see my students 4-5 days/week, so I am more in-tune with educationally-relevant changes and can work along side teachers/parents with problem solving (e.g., medication issues, vision/hearing concerns, home changes that impact the school day, sleep issues) 
10. progress! progress! progress! 
11. the students see "my face" 4-5 days/week, so using correct speech sounds is on their mind more frequently 
12. I am around the building so all students see me--that makes making a relationship for a screening, starting RtI, testing, etc. much faster and easier

I'd be happy to help anyone set up their speedy speech program! More posts to help out! 

 

Sneak Peek at my Speech Room!

Welcome to my elementary speech room!

• My desk and file drawer
• Clipboards on wall are great for quick access: mileage, schedule, student behavior data (school-wide)
• Low file cabinet for "friendship files" with some of my social skills students
• Wall-hanging quick-grab forms (IEP forms, SAT forms, etc!)
• Double-sided bookshelf--AR books
• Temporary walls are perfect for yarn trees!

Quick Grab files are great for SAT papers!

                                 

A crazy week this was!

• Quick-grab forms on the wall
• Double-sided bookshelf holds many materials!

Organization of materials...visuals, activities

 

• Storage on the left! 
• Crescent therapy table for small groups 
• Speech room expectations on the tall cabinet (listening ears, focused eyes, hands on work, no blurting)  

• Lucky to have 2 whiteboards! 
• Task "board" velcroed on the edge of my table  

•  Cards within arm's reach on the wall
• Easy access to school supplies in the purple bin 

I've enjoyed exploring the speechie blog responses to Jenna's "Anatomy of a Speech Room," like the one at Live Speak Love (http://livespeaklove.com/2012/02/24/come-on-in/)!

Homework!

I am in the camp of SLPs who believe that homework is very important for practice and carryover into other environments (generalization). 

We all have students who have their sound down pat when the "see our face," then walk into the classroom door and it all goes out the window! Because of that, I'm working on a variety of generalization strategies for the classroom (like classroom walk-throughs when possible, visuals on the desk, a special 'remember my speech' pencil top eraser, secret signals between the classroom teacher and the student) and for home (homework...that's really the only way I get "into" the home!). 

I use some homework that I find from SpeakingofSpeech.com. Check out their Materials Exchange HERE if you haven't before! Materials are made by SLPs for SLPs and downloads are free .pdf files.

First Free Homework Download! 
Ice Cream Articulation Homework

Packet includes the following sounds: L, S/Z, SH, CH, TH, S-blends, L-blends, vocalic R, CVC words, and a bank page you can individualize. I used Word clipart.

Language Bingo!
My Summer Homework looked like this. This could also be adapted to be done for a month (e.g., November Language BINGO!). Made one for older elementary, and one for younger elementary/preschool.

Grab this free download HERE.