Is it summer yet? T minus eight days for me! IEP season is in full swing, but the end is in sight. I recently had an hour to sit down and put together a few new language at home lessons for the little ones. I am very excited to sit down in a few weeks and start on some new materials to share this fall! 

I really love Shirley Neitzel's books and today I am featuring "The Dress I'll Wear to the Party."

I don't remember "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" from when I was a kid. It was a book that for some reason, I never read. I found it as an adult and can't lie, I love it. I've never seen the movie, but really enjoy reading the book with my language groups while they're talking about weather in class.

As usual, I am going to share a copy of my Language at Home companion for the book. Do you ever use "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" in your language groups or class? What activities do you like to do with this book? Please comment on this post to share what you teach with this tale!

Here's a short and sweet post. I have several kiddos who are on the verge of being where they need to be, but still struggle with conversational speech sounds. 

Below is a free downloadable copy of my conversation carryover homework half sheets. Please comment and give me some ideas for carry over!

I love the story, "The Little Red Hen Makes A Pizza." My kinders usually do too. I totally forgot about it, but stumbled across it again last week as I reorganized some of my materials. 

There are lots of great activities to accompany the story online. 

I also created a Language at Home handout for students to take home and discuss with their parents. I am including this downloadable PDF freebie below. Please let me know if you're familiar with the story and any activities you do with the Little Red Hen!

I know this school year is wrapping up, but I am always thinking a little ahead. I remembered something that I do for teachers at the beginning of the year and hope to expand on it more next year. One thing I feel like I don't always do a fabulous job of is communicating specifics on each kid to every teacher early enough in the year. 

The first day back, I do try to get a note out to teachers immediately. I know things can change rapidly in the first couple weeks, but I do like to open that door pretty early with classroom teachers.

Something I plan to do next year is give teachers something a little more solid in writing. I usually verbally go over things with teachers, but for the kiddos who have more than just an /r/, I think this would be beneficial.

Below is a copy of both teacher handouts for free download. Please share in the comments below how you get your teachers in the loop about your speech-only students!

I know that posts have been few and far between this school year, which I wasn't expecting myself! I have so many ideas always brewing, but having the time to execute them just hasn't happened. I am in MAJOR awe of all the lovely SLPs and teachers out there who consistently post such great materials and ideas. I am just happy right now to make it all the way to my bed at night! 

I recently celebrated two big milestones: (1) I turned 28 and (2) I lost 50 pounds (which I had gained between the first week of grad school until the last, embarrassingly enough) and for the latter, I promised myself an iPad. I finally followed through on that promise last week! I am really excited to use this with my kiddos and I plan to spend some time this weekend researching some apps. 

I thought I would share something I did this week with my younger students who work on beginning /s/ blends. A lot of the kiddos need help with that concept of long and snaky + short. 

We broke out my long sentence white boards and flipped them over to the blank side. We drew a long snake and a short little snake head (or tongue).

Then as we said the long snaky sound we ran our finger over the dry erase marker and made it disappear. Then we tapped on the short tongue when we made our second consonant in the blend (whether it be n, m, k, l, whatever!).

(Am I the only one who goes home with colorful dry/wet erase marker hands/finger nails/baby carrot fingers at the end of a school day?)

I am excited to say that I saw some light bulbs go off this week with this concept instruction, so yay! It's not exactly groundbreaking or rocket science, but just an idea.

Happy speeching!

Pat over at Speaking of Speech generously gave me permission to share my modified  informal language sample form here with you good people! 

I usually language sample my kiddos first to get an idea of what to focus on for the remainder of the assessment. Before this form, I always felt really overwhelmed trying to organize and present the information I found. It's also nice to have it documented that you looked at these things when you are done. 

You definitely do not have to look at every area listed, you just leave it blank if you have no information - but it's so nice to be reminded of what you are looking for as you go along. Each area, thanks to the original poster, Jessica D, at SOS, is broken down into categories. I added in possible harmful effects for some areas and ages for which some areas of morphology/grammar become more of a concern. 

On the back, I usually copy a form I have from a million years ago that helps you analyze each of the 50 word utterances for grammar and MLU. Since I do not have a right to that, I cannot publish it. :[ I also just staple a copy of the transcribed language sample to the back of the form. I do not break it down into phonetics or anything crazy. I just type the 50 utterances they say on my computer as we do the sample.

I hope this helps you with your language sampling process. Speaking of Speech has a bunch of great resources that I love (many made by the same user who originally shared this!). I urge you to check it out!! Jessica D, if you ever read this, THANK YOU!

Below, I am sharing a copy of this form (with written permission from SOS). Please leave a comment as you download and let us know how you do language samples! :]

I feel like I have been saying this a lot this year, but *cricket, cricket*.... to say I've been busy over the past month is an understatement. :] I tend to post in spurts on here and I am sure a creative spree will hit again, but for right now - I am going to continue to take a break. :] No news is good news for now.

I will gladly take requests or inspiration though in the mean time. 

I haven't had the opportunity to post as often as I would like this fall, which disappoints me because I have SO many ideas floating in my head! There are many things that are coming to fruition in the near future, so do stay tuned! 

As much as I would love to give each and everyone of my kids something bigger for Christmas, it's not economically possible with 50, 60+ students. I am the kind of person who means so much to give out cards and bake cookies and just be giving, but a lot of times, procrastination gets in the way. This year has been better. I made a simple card for my students (with the help of the Mac Pages templates), signed it, and attached a piece of candy to it. They were THRILLED. It's very much the simple things.

On that note, I am also not one to get offended when people say happy holidays, rather than Merry Christmas. Living in the highly multi-cultural oasis that I do, I do try to embrace all of my children's cultures, even if they are different than my own. I don't think there is anything wrong with Merry Christmas, but I know districts vary on what you can/cannot say. I wanted this to be accessible to all! (Did not mean to get personal there, but I know some find "Happy Holidays " to be an offensive term)... :]

Below is a free PDF download of my "card." I know it's a little late, but we go all the way through Friday and I am seeing kids until the end this winter! 

Please, as you download, share what you like to do for your students this time of year that is cost-effective, fun, and the kids love? 

Thank you and happy break (or soon-to-be break!) to all and to all a good night!