The Doctor is in...

Anyone else celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday?! I love incorporating real world items into our therapy sessions. The students love making a mess, so in honor of the great Dr. Seuss we make "oobleck". We learn about Dr. Seuss and read a short biography, I read a truncated version of "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" by Dr. Seuss (the original takes over 30 minutes for me to get through!?) and then I present them with the science experiment.

Oobleck is a 'non-newtonian fluid'. Viscosity is the rate at which something pours. Water pours quickly and honey or syrup pours slowly. These liquids have a constant viscosity, it will never change. Oobleck pours both quick AND slow!?

When made correctly Oobleck can be molded into a ball and have properties like a solid, and when released will "melt" in your hand like a liquid.

Oobleck is a 2:1 ratio

2 cups cornstartch

1 cup water

TIPS:
*I love to find youtube videos to help the students see what should happen, before starting.
*Use disposable bowls and spoons for easy clean up.
*Buy the rolls of plastic tablecloths to work on, then just throw everything out.
*If the oobleck is too hard add water, and if it is too wet add more corn starch!
*If the oobleck spills over and out, let it dry it will turn into powder and you can easily vacuum/sweep it up!


PROMPT: *I created a short "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" on my SMARTboard, I can change the words/phrases/sentences to achieve my various targets!

LANGUAGE: scientific method, following directions/steps, math fractions

PRAGMATICS: sharing items, turn taking for measuring, following rules

Oo the messes you will make!

Celebrate November with a Salute

This time of the year many teachers are teaching vocabulary for the big holiday in November. I'd like to take this time to remind you of a very important group that gets forgotten in the hustle and bustle of turkey season...the veterans. I've laid out my November plan in hopes to spread the love to our brave soldiers and of course express my gratitude!

I introduced the topic of Veterans Day with vocabulary: honor, respect, thankful, salute, celebrate, faithful, loyal, serve.


I work in a school for the Deaf and hard of hearing and targeted auditory skills by counting syllables for words from arlenesandberg.blogspot.com:

Words included 1-4 syllables: world, war, peace, wreath, sailor, parade, solider, salute, medal poppy, November, 11th, veterans, memorial, ceremony, military.

I explained what Veteran's Day was and we made flags out of hand prints. Some of the terminology used on the poster is from a pin I found on pinterest (http://www.mylifeasathirdgradeteacher.com/).

November 11th: a day to honor those who have served and are currently serving in the military

What is a Veteran?
-A person who has fought for our country
Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard

What do they do?
-Protect our country!
-Fight for our freedom!

I used "The Wall" by Eve Bunting and created my own reading comprehension questions based on the student's goals (i.e. main idea, recalling details, sequencing).





My older kids (5th-7th grade) get a kick out of my "Speechgram". We created usernames in the beginning of the year and I post a new picture every week. The kids can ask questions and write (grammatically correct) comments! It's fun to see what the kids come up with, and they are all super motivated to write! This is my friend Bridgett, she is a marine.

#who #what #when #where #why #how

(We are still working on the grammatically correct...and spelling)

Now for my favorite. Writing to Bridgett and her soldier friends. Operation Gratitude is always looking for letters to soldiers! Collaborate with your OT friends for a super fun writing a letter lesson! It was a fun process for the students and they were excited and motivated. I broke down the process into parts and really drilled ASKING and ANSWERING questions. I created statements (i.e. "My favorite movie is Frozen.") and had the students create their own questions; What's your favorite movie? Who is your favorite character? Again, since I'm in a school where Auditory Verbal is a big component of speech; I asked questions presented orally only and incorporated it into this part of the lesson.

It was an easy way to transition into Thanksgiving; as we were all feeling very thankful for the brave men and women in the military.

THANKS for reading.

Heads Up...I'm back!

After a long hiatus, I'm back. Hoping to connect with some parents to help them chose and use apps and activities for speech therapy!

So, this is one of my new FAVORITE games. Of all time. Ever! 

Ellen DeGeneres is a DeGenuis! A simple "Heads-bands" type game, keeps kids and adults entertained while working on various speech goals.

Players can pick various categories (I use "just for kids", cause there's a smattering of everything: people/places/things). Place the iPhone/iPad on your head and the other players describe the item! If you are able to guess correctly turn the iDevice down, if you are having trouble you may pass it by turning the iDevice up/over your head.

LANGUAGE:

Expressive: adjectives, describing, antonyms, synonyms, using word finding strategies

Receptive: (understanding all the above!), word finding strategies, follow directions

*Follow directions/understanding figurative language: I always use the phrase "It's over your head" (you don't get it) to explain the correct/pass rules. 

PRAGMATICS:

turn taking, controlling voice volume & remaining in your seat (things can get crazy!)

Just keep playing. Just keep playing.

APP-Y HOUR: TalkBoard

TalkBoard: $16.99

TalkBoard allows you to access your iPad's photos and utilize them in a custom board! Make a 1X1 board, or a 10X10 board! Add pictures, text, timer (for scan feature), branching (have app move from one board to another with the tap of a finger!) and of course sound!

This app has helped me many times when a client has forgotten a communication device, or did not have one accessible. In less than 5 minutes I was able to create a personal board for the client!

APP-Y HOUR: Glowcoloring

Glowcoloring

I love to use this with one of my school aged clients.  We practice writing spelling words, and she loves to pick a color to write in (one only, otherwise we would be picking colors ALL day!)

This is a great app not only for free-hand drawing, but for coloring/worksheets! Yes. You can import any picture from your photo album and bam! Boring old sheet because super fun and exciting with colors and stamps.  I use Dropbox to store all my exciting papers.

What are you waiting for. "Glow" and download it!

APP-Y HOUR: Questionit

Questionit (LITE/$24.99)

Users answer: who, what doing, where, when questions.  There are different areas to answer these questions: sorting, sentences (basic/advanced) and paragraphs.    Within the areas there are 3 levels.  Level (1) is easy and color coded for easier sorting, Level (2) is medium as only the borders are color coded and Level (3) is the hardest with no color hint.

I have used this with various students (preschool, school aged, adolescent and even adults!) The school aged students don't even know they're learning "WH" questions and categorization skills! We are able to learn and have fun.

Can you believe they pay me to have fun?!