Halloween Cause and Effect Task Cards (33% off until 10/26/15)

I am sharing my latest activity to target the literacy underpinnings of Cause and Effect with a Halloween theme!

Find it HERE on Teachers Pay Teachers

 Directions and Contents:

•Print, laminate, cut all pages in half.  Attach to binder rings for easy storage.

–I like to circle the correct answer choice on the back of each card. Then punch holes in each choice.  This allows students to self-check!

•Leveled Cause/effect task cards include anchor chart and evaluation sheet.

•Includes bonus worksheets to match the cause to the effect for homework/ carryover practice.

•Levels 1 and 2: Multiple choice

–10 “effect” cards

–10 “cause” cards

–Each task card includes one “silly” answer to make the kids giggle!

•Level 3: Open ended

–10 cards to Identify the cause and effect in each scenario.

Enjoy and please follow BigAppleSpeech on TpT, Instagram and facebook for more great materials and flash freebies!!

Cause and Effect Task Cards Easy Prep for Back to school

Back to school themed interactive Cause and Effect Task cards are now on TpT!  Find them HERE!

Great for Grades 1-3.  Very engaging and easy prep product!  Plus they are 33% off as a BTS school thank you until 9/9/15 at 9 pm est.

Organizing tips for all those TpT purchases

If you're like me, you are always perusing Teachers Pay Teachers for new materials.  If you follow me on Instagram, Facebook or here then you know I make a lot of materials, too!  Click HERE for a link to my TpT store if you want to check any out.

There came a point this summer where I had piles of newly laminated materials spilling all over my house!  Don't get me wrong, I was really excited to use them all but my OCD self needed to get seriously organized.  So I did! Check out these tips to keep your materials organized.

1. Use theme-therapy.  
I love themes.  Both the kiddos and myself get excited to use holiday and seasonal materials.  I actually plan my entire year of therapy around themes! I try to find great books to go along with each theme.  (more on books later!) I pick a theme for each month and assign materials to accompany it.  I store each individual material in a large manilla envelope (from DollarTree).  I put worksheets and handouts in a large clear envelope labeled for each month.  I store all materials in BIG clear tupperware bins, separated by month.  I label everything.  Each month, I pull out the clear envelope and all the manilla envelopes of materials I have for that month.  Easy!

Here is an example of the themes I use.
September- Back to school/ Fire Safety
October- Fall/ Halloween
November- Explorers/ Thanksgiving
December- Christmas
January- Martin Luther king, Jr Day/ Groundhog Day
February- Snow/ Valentine's Day
March- Penguins/ Pirates/ St. Patrick's day
April- Spring/ Fish/ Earth Day
May- Lifecycles/ Bugs
June- Summer

2. You need binders! 

I try to always buy Avery Economy Binders at Walmart. They are under $2, have plastic binder sleeves and front pockets.  I organized all of my non-seasonal/ non-themed materials by intervention target or administrative topic.  My binders include Phonology, Articulation, Fluency, Phonemic awareness,  Social skills, apraxia, parent handouts, ASHA CEUs, CCSS, Reading Comprehension and Phonics. I put everything in sheet protectors so I can make easy copies!

3. Bins!
Homegoods, Target dollar spot and Dollar Tree are great places to score inexpensive bins.  I use large bins for special things like Sensory materials (felt food, play doh, etc).  I also use small bins for special office supplies (like the amazing chalkboard clips I found at Michaels)!  Buy some printable labels at the dollar store for an extra snazzy look!

4.  Books, books, books!
I can never have enough children's books!  I love using books in therapy.  I create many book companions to address literacy precursors.  It makes hitting those CCSS of vocabulary, sequencing, cause/effect, problem/ solutions, etc very easy!  As I mentioned, I use themes in therapy.  So, I organized all of my books by the month I will use them.  I separated the months by using paint sticks from Home Depot! Free, easy and organized!

Thanks for reading and I hope you picked up some organizational tips! Leave a comment if you'd like to get a better look at anything specific.

Happy Back to School!

Flash Freebie!! The Four Seasons: Vocabulary, Describing and Comparing/Contrasting Activity

With 2 weeks left of summer vacation, I am FINALLY getting organized to start the new school year.

I decided to start targeting more life skills in therapy this year by incorporating daily weather, seasons, days of the week and all that good stuff! 

Check out interactive, differentiated Four Seasons Activity HERE on Teachers Pay Teachers!

It includes headers of the Four seasons for bulletin boards or centers, vocabulary card sort for each season (with and without pictures) and describing sheets for each season. You can use the picture cards to compare/contrast seasons, expand expressive language, etc.

As a thank you for following me, and a back to school gift, I am offering it for FREE for 48 hours, until 8/26 at 10 am est!

Leveled Reading Intervention: Dolch Sight Word Interactive Activities

Let's get REAL about literacy.  I see WAY too many kiddos who cannot read.  And by that I don't mean 5 year olds.  I have SO MANY students in 3rd-5th grade who struggle with Fountas and Pinnell level D books.  This is a problem. 

I'm not labeled a "reading specialist" but as a SLP I know the underpinnings of language acquisition and reading skills.  I believe that between phonemic awareness skills, phonics work and sight word memorization, we can get our students to READ!

I've dabbled in sight word instruction in my speech room before.  But I wanted a leveled, measurable way to target sight words from beginning to end. With that comes my latest labor of love.  I'm ready to share it with you! Find it HERE on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Here is a bundle of 37 weeks of leveled sight word activities.  Each week targets 6 words through 4 interactive activities from Pre-Primer to Grade 3.  Each activity is designed to use multi-sensory techniques to get students to memorize sight words through repetition of tracing, writing, identifying, reading and sentence construction.  You can use this tool for ELA, classroom centers, Response to Intervention or Speech/Language therapy.

I have included Dolch sight word lists for each level, an anchor chart, evaluation forms for each student and binder spines.

For anyone who only needs 1 level, I have posted each separately on TpT. Click on the level you need below.
Pre-Primer
Primer
Grade 1
Grade 2
Grade 3

Feel free to post a comment or any questions you have!

It's Teachers Pay Teachers Back to School 2015 Sale Day!!

I will be stocking up my cart...stay tuned to see what I buy!

And check out my products all 28% until August 4th.

The Day the Crayons Quit Book Companion Literacy Precursor Activities On Sale 20% off until 7/26 at 8pm est

Check out this comprehensive book companion to be used with the book "The Day the Crayons Quit" by Drew Daywalt.  If you don't know this book, it is an adorable book for elementary students.  Each crayon writes a persuasive letter to its owner, convincing him to change the way it is used.  It's a really cute, fun way to work on Author's Purpose, as well as many other literacy precursors. 

Find it HERE on tPt.

The download is 37 pages and includes:

-Describing/ attributes page for each crayon

-30 Comprehension/ Auditory Memory Question Cards (laminate 

and shuffle)

-3 Compare and Contrast Crayon Venn Diagrams (with choices 

page included as a branching strategy)

-Cause and Effect Matching and Writing Activity (includes anchor 

chart)

-Author’s Purpose Anchor Chart

-Persuasive Writing rough and final draft pages

-Bulletin Board Title Templates (with and without backgrounds)

Enjoy!

Friends of the Library Programs

I LOVE books.  I love using books in therapy.  There are so many amazing children's books out there.  I love watching students really engaged in a story.  I love working on literacy precursors (retelling, comprehension, sequencing, cause/effect, predicting) after and while reading a story.  

Enter the problem.  I love books so much, I want a ton of them.  But books can be expensive.  

I recently moved and found that my public library has an amazing used book program called  "Friends of the Library".  They are constantly collecting, sorting and selling used books.  They sell hard cover for $1 and paperback for $.50.  You don't even need to join the library to take advantage of this.  Here is my latest score for under $5!

I highly recommend calling local libraries in your area to see if they have programs like this.  

Happy book hunting:)

Updates to one of my favorite FREEBIES!

I'm FINALLY starting to get organized for September....aaahhhhh! This includes updating weekly themes, monthly lesson plans, pursuing the Target Dollar Spot constantly and updating some of my own materials.

Last year, I used "Reasoning with Rain", an activity to target facts versus opinions, A LOT! My kids loved the activity and really "got it" after a bit of practice.  I even made a cute bulletin board from the activity when we were finished!

I strive to make the best activities I can, but the font I used on this one gave some of my kiddos extra difficulty.  And let's face it, most of my students struggle enough, they don't need a silly font to hinder literacy abilities!  I just updated the FREE download with a fresh, easy to read font.  Grab it HERE on TPT:)

Have a great weekend!

Rewards and Incentives

When I walk into classrooms, many students raise their hand in anticipation and say "Me??! Is it my turn?".  I just LOVE that feeling.  As much as I would like to think they want to come to speech to learn, let's be honest, students need motivation.  I have created a system of rewards that keeps students on track and progressing throughout the school year.  I'm ready to share it with you!

First off, I buy a notebook for every student.  I keep the notebooks in my speech room and have them organized by grade.  Every morning, I pull out the notebooks for the students I am seeing that day.

On the inside cover of each notebook, I tape a motivational "sticker chart".  

When I pick up new students for the first time, I explain that every time they come to speech and do their work, they will get a sticker to place on the chart.  When the chart is full, they will get to pick a prize from the TREASURE BOX! 

I also put full sticker charts on the "Speech Hall of Fame" hung on my door! Students love finding their old completed charts.

Now that I set the hook, I explain the rules.  If a student is not doing the "right thing", I will give a warning and state the behavior I expect.  If I have to give three warnings, that students will not get a sticker for the day.  That's it! It's all about structure.  Students know exactly what is expected of them, and what they can expect from me.

I have found this system works really well.  Every day I hear things like "Look I'm getting close!" and "I only need 7 more stickers to get a prize!".  On the flip side, some students say "I got two warnings today, next time I will follow directions."

Dollar tree and Target Dollar spot are my go-to places to make this reward system budget-friendly.  I spend $1 on each prize.  I have 50-55 students on my caseload.  It takes 25 speech sessions for each student to win a prize.  With the majority of mandates being twice weekly, most students are choosing 2-3 prizes per school year.  So for about $150 for the year, students are motivated! Priceless:)

Tell me Tuesday...what kind of reward system do you use?

Easter No Prep Auditory Comprehension Story for iPad

My kids loved my no prep St. Patrick's Day story!  It was great to work on auditory comprehension but also targeted goals for following directions, turn-taking and phonemic awareness!  Several students asked to read it again and again everyday this week!  So I decided to write a story for Easter that can also be downloaded to iBooks...NO PREP! Find it HERE on TpT!

Check out "My Easter Basket", an auditory comprehension story you can download and open in iBooks (or a similar pdf reader).  This story includes 4 short (3-4 sentence) passages.  Students can independently read, read with guiding, or listen to each passage.  Following each passage are 3 "WH" questions to measure comprehension.  Each question has 2 answer choices (some with pictures).  Students will love self-checking their answers! After you read it, you can also use this story to work on vocabulary, describing, and sequencing the story! 
Happy Easter!

Listening Leprechauns! NO PREP Auditory Comprehension for Pre-K-Grade 1. Only $1 until St. Patrick's day!

This packet is NO PREP and created to be downloaded to iBooks (or a similar pdf reader) and used with the iPad.  It is 50% off (that's only $1!) until 3/17/15 at 4pm est.

This download includes 4 slides each with a short (2-3 sentence) passage about St. Patrick’s Day.  Find it HERE on TpT.

•Each passage has 2-3 subsequent slides with “wh” questions pertaining to the passage for auditory comprehension.

–Each question has 2 answer choices

–The first 2 passages have picture choices

–The last 2 passages have word choices

–Each question has an answer slide

•No Prep Directions:

–Download this activity

–Open in iBooks (or a similar pdf reader for ipad)

–Read each passage and questions to students.

–Have students select the correct answer by pointing to the picture or verbally answering after you read choices.

•I hope you enjoy this activity!

Please leave feedback on TpT to earn credits toward further purchases!

Interactive Expressive Language Notebooks: Pronoun, Sentence Creation are Syntax Books are here!

Almost ALL of my kiddos have expressive language goals: pronouns, verbs, sentence creation and syntax.  I have been looking for a way to target these goals quickly and efficiently, with one product, using a tiered approach.   So, I created these multi-tiered interactive notebooks to easily target all of their expressive language goals!  The best part is, you can use them over and over again, and easily see when and how your students are progressing.  I have been working on this project for months and have finally brought it into my speech room!  My kids love these activities and have been asking to use the "sentence books" everyday! 

I have uploaded each book individually onto TpT for $1 (for most), along with a money saving BUNDLE of all 16 books.  Check out the individual books at my store here!

The bundle also includes FREE anchor charts, Common Core Standards sheet, Binder Spines and a Progress Monitoring sheet. You can find the bundle HERE! 

Now, there are several options for using this product.  If you have any questions, please contact me through TpT before you purchase! Here is a preview of the books.

1.Option 1:No PREP! Just print and have students cut and glue piece to create sentences.

2.Option 1 -Binder (this is what I use).  Keep in mind, when you add Velcro, pages become THICK and you will need space to store all 16 books.  I keep them separated into three 2" binders.

a)Cut Laminated pages along the top, bottom and right edge ONLY

b)Leave the left edge in tact (for hole punching space)

c)Leave the last page of each book whole (with the symbols on it).  This is your anchor page for each book.

d)Cut the rest of the pages in half along the border.

e)Cut out each symbols half page.

f)Attach velcro or sticky tack to the individual symbols and place over the same images on the anchor page

g)Attach velcro or sticky tack to blank spaces on each page

h)Hole punch all notebooks and place in a binder

i)Pull out each book as needed and have students create a sentence by choosing the correct pronoun and object.

3.Option 2 and 3-  Individual Notebooks (no binder needed)

A.With Velcro, Sticky Tack or double sided tape:

1.Laminate all pages

2.Cut around each side of the border

3.Leave the anchor page whole] (last page of each interactive book)

4.Cut every other page in half

5.Punch two holes in the tops of each page and attach with binder rings.

6.Cut apart each symbol on the duplicate page (none anchor page)

7.Attach velcro or sticky tack to the symbols and place over the same images on the anchor page

8.Attach velcro to blank spaces on each page (if velcro was used on symbols. If sticky tack was used, you’re done!)

B.With Dry Erase Markers (no Velcro or sticky tack needed)

1.Laminate all pages

2.Cut around each side of the border

3.Leave the anchor page whole]

4.Cut every other page in half

5.Punch two holes in

6.Ready to use with a dry erase marker!

1.Have students cross out the symbol and pronoun as they place it in a sentence

2.Students can write the pronoun and draw a picture of the object in the blank spaces on each page

7.Duplicate symbol page is not needed in this option.

If you purchase these books, I hope you and your kids love them as much as we do!  Please do not hesitate to contact BigAppleSpeech through TpT with any questions!