If You Take A Mouse To School

So if you're keeping up with my Instagram account (@practicallyspeeching) and my "instaCFY" endeavor, you know that I spent my day in the bookstore yesterday! Yes, I was the nerd trolling through the picture books, laughing at Amelia Bedelia...total nerd, I know. ANYWHO, I discovered the educator discount for B&N (20% off) and since I love a good sale I went a little wild. I listed my book haul for you yesterday on Facebook, and I'm super excited about the activity I just finished with one of them!

Laura Numeroff's "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" is quite possibly the most memorable childhood book I have. I find I relive it currently in my adult life with Luka...If you give Luka a dog treat, he'll probably bark his head off until you give him another...sound familiar, fellow animal lovers? LOL

I put together this 20 page packet to focus on language goals you may have with your students. It's geared a bit more towards the little ones, but you can always modify and branch up if you need. There are a few writing assignments that can come from this and a few that are included.

In addition to reading the book and using the packet, I'd recommend getting a backpack and filling it with items from the book - pencils, cookies, notebooks, etc. I think adding something tangible to your lessons always is a home run for our kids.

ALSO I'm trying this new "collage" app for the mac to display all the photos from my activities. What do you think??

Download this great activity HERE on TpT and have a ball with that funny little mouse!

Winter Adapted Book FREEBIE!

With the crazy weather here in NY (see house pic nightmare of snow!) I wanted to share my adapted free book for winter clothing! This will be one of those short, late-night posts, so I apologize! I wanted to make sure this one got out to you guys!

I created this for use with an AAC device, but it really can be utilized for so much more! I've also used this activity to target vocabulary with an ESL student, following directions with a student targeting auditory comprehension, and as an introduction to the topic of winter!

The options are endless! Plus, I wanted to make this a freebie since I know I have been using tons of awesome freebies on TpT from fellow bloggers - gotta give back!

Click HERE to download this freebie adapted book on TpT!

Halloween Following Directions Print-N-Go Packet

Just a quick check-in before I wander off into Sunday chili and sweatpants! I wanted to share this following directions packet I've been using for the month of October. I have a lot of kinders this year who came in with following directions goals. I've been trying to target them each session with fun, coloring crafts each time so they can see their work.
This packet is four pages, black and white, and FREE! It includes following 1 and 2 step directions, following varied directions, and following conditional directions. All the sheets are halloween themed and of course black and white for low-ink usage! Check out this scarily fun packet HERE on TpT!

FREE Parent Handout for "Self-Talk" and "Parallel Talk"!

This summer I pledged that I would work with more of the little little guys in my private practice - early intervention and preschool age. I love this age group and really missed working with them (currently I see preK through second grade in a school setting). Working in a home-based environment is incredible because of all of the great parent-training we get to do. I love being able to explain and show exactly what I'm doing and the strategies I'm using.

As all SLPs know, with this age group we are doing a lot of self and parallel talk. Sometimes I leave my half-hour sessions out of breath! Of course, talking is never an issue for an SLP!! I find that my parents are talking to their child, however their language needs to be modified, or they need to present things differently (i.e., giving options to elicit more language vs. yes/no questions).

I created this parent handout to familiarize my parents with what I'm doing and to emphasize effective carryover. I like to say …

Practically Speeching