Free App Friday

Today there are $220 worth of apps that are free.  Check out the list at Smart Apps for Kids.  Many of them are only free until 10 p.m. (CST).

Monkey in the Middle

Next week for Large Group we will be doing more fun things with our sound of the month.  Here is our learning card:

We will be doing monkey in the middle, focusing on actions and past tense -ed.  Our weekly handout is a great one that gives some ideas for working on action terms with young children. It is from the Speech, Language and Communication Website for Cambridgeshire.

FYI: OT Workshop

I was given this flyer and wanted to share it on the blog.  It is a workshop for pediatric massage.  Even though it says it is for OT's/OTA's, it is open to parents or anyone in the community who would like to attend:

Free App Friday

Smart Apps for Kids has 32 apps, worth $92 that have gone free today. So head on over to their site and check it out.  Many of them are only free until 10 p.m. CST.  

Happy Holidays

Next week is an exciting week, and with all of the partying going on, and chaos that ensues before Winter Break, there will be no learning card for the week. We will be singing lots of fun songs from our 'Song Tree,' so be sure to ask what songs we sang at school.  You can even sing a few Christmas songs on your way to and from the store this week.   

Instead of a weekly handout this week, I wanted to provide you all with some natural ways to work on language during the Holiday Season and break. This time of year can be crazy, and our little ones feel it, so it's okay to give them a little break and just have some fun. :)

Making Sugar Cookies: The process of making sugar cookies is a great time to talk about sequencing (first, next, last), label new vocabulary items, work on concepts (put the flour “in”), etc.. If you want to add a book to support this, you could read "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."

Decorating Gingerbread Houses: You can make a simple and fun gingerbread house by using graham crackers. Our family likes to use hot glue for gluing crackers together. Or if you want to eat the house once it’s completed, you can use royal icing to "glue" the house together. Again, you can work on requesting, concepts, labeling, colors, following directions, pronouns, etc.!

Wrapping Christmas Presents: Have your little one help you wrap presents for the holidays. This will not only work on fine motor skills, but you can work on that sequencing vocabulary, following directions, and even labeling objects.

Gingerbread Christmas Trees: For these, you can use sugar cones turned upside down onto a paper plate. Ice them and cover with candy.  Talk about what you are doing.  Ask wh-questions and even work on colors.

Creating Tree Ornaments: There are a lot of great ideas for homemade ornaments: coloring pictures, making clay ornaments, popcorn strings, beaded wreaths on pipe cleaner, etc. Again, think about describing what you and your child are doing during the process, being sure to use losts of rich vocabulary (concepts, verbs, adjectives, etc.) You an even work on following directions.

Sledding: Yes, you can even work on language skills if you go sledding this year. Focus on concept terms (down, up. fast, slow, etc.). Ask your kiddos questions like, “Did you go fast or slow that time?” Or describe what you are doing, “We are walking back up the hill. Where are we walking?”

Building a Snowman: This is a great activity to work on following directions and concept terms! "Put the little ball on the top."  "You stuck the carrot in the snow, where did you stick it?"  Etc.

Getting Winter Ready: When kids want to play in the snow, they have to put lots of items of clothing on and it seems to take a. long. time. So, why not get some language targets in while you help. Label all of those items, talk about body parts or sequencing (first you put your snow pants on, then your coat, and last your hat.), work on following directions, really just describe describe describe.

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season and enjoy the break!

Cyber Monday App Deals!

Smart Apps for Kids has over $200 worth of free or discounted apps today for Cyber Monday! So hurry over there and check it out!!

The Monkey Sound

We are finally focusing on one sound this month!  It will be our monkey sound, "m."  

Use the sheets below to practice throughout the month of December.  
Isolation/CV combos: practice the "m" sound in isolation or in CV combinations while playing, shopping, or getting ready for the Holidays.  Example:  While making cookies, "mmm," or playing dress up, "My purse." Words: Here are some worksheets from Testy Yet Trying to practice initial /m/ and final /m/ at the word level. Phrases:  Use this dice from Testy Yet Trying to play a game.  Roll the dice and take turns saying the word in a phrase or sentence.   

Read a New Book Month

I am a sucker for children's books.  If you ask my husband, he'll tell you it's kind of an addiction.  I love buying them, thumbing through them at bookstores, giving them as gifts, and reading children's books to anyone who will listen (preferably a child, because reading them to adults gets a little awkward).  So I am super excited that December is 'Read a New Book Month.'  To celebrate, we will be reading a new book (not new new, but new to our class) for Large Group.  Check out this post to find out what book we will be exploring. Here are some ways to celebrate this month:

• check out a new book from the library, either for you or your child
• add a new book to your Christmas wish list 
• surprise your child with a new book in their stocking this year
• look up story readings online of books you have never read:
• Storyline Online
• Barnes & Noble Online Storytime
• A Story Before Bed
• YouTube
• Storynory
• check out some of these wonderful lists for new books this year:
• Amazon's Best Books of 2013 (ages 3-5)
• Amazon's Best Books of 2013 (ages baby-2)
• Amazon's Best Books of 2013 (ages 6-8)
• Publisher's Weekly Best Pictures Books of 2013
• Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) 2013 Notable Children's Books
• The New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books Awards for 2013
• Barnes & Nobles: Best Books of 2013... So Far
• Amazon's 2013 Best Books of the Year: The Top 100 in Print

As I was looking through these lists, there were some that I have already fallen in love with and several that I will add to my shopping list.  Some of my favorites this year have come from the BabyLit books.  They are written by Jennifer Adams who lives right here in Salt Lake City.  They are adorable board books taken from classic novels, with fun, creative illustrations that teach concepts related to counting, weather, fashion, opposites, colors, and sounds.  My favorite (although I seriously love them all) is Pride and Prejudice (which is my all time favorite book, so I am a little biased):

But check out the BabyLit website because there are some fun ones, including Romeo & Juliet, Moby-Dick, Alice in Wonderland, & A Christmas Carol, to name a few.  

Okay, another great one that came out this year is The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt.  It is hilarious, and wonderful for talking about colors!

One that I have not read yet is Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great by Bob Shea.  It looks like a fun one, so it may be one of the "new books" for my daughter this month.

I also love reading classics, and I have always wanted to read Alice in Wonderland, so my new book of the month is going to be Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. 

We'll see if I can squeeze it in with work, holiday madness, and my (almost) 1-year-old's birthday party.

Anyway, I hope you will take some time to check out some of the books talked about on the above lists, or just spend an afternoon at the library with your little one to find a new book to read during bedtime.  We have all heard it, but books are truly wonderful for children's overall development, especially in the areas of speech and language!! ;)  

The Hat

Next week for Large Group we will be reading "The Hat" by Jan Brett.  

We will be working on pointing to and labeling the animals in the book, as well as WH-questions.  There are some unusual animals and animal names, so we will be talking about those more in depth...hedgehog, gander, pony.  Here is our learning card:

We will be retelling and acting out the story after we read it together.  Jan Brett has these wonderful mask printables on her website that we will be using:

The children will wear one while they act out the story:

If you don't have the story at home, here is a reading on YouTube that you can watch with your child.  For our handout this week, The Budge SLP has a GREAT post with tons of Wh-question resources.  Check it out and choose one or two to do this week at home.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and break! 

TEDx

A few weeks ago, Canyons School District held their own TEDx event.  Only 100 were chosen to go, and I was one of the lucky ones.  I love TED, so I was very excited!  There were several wonderful talks given, and eventually they will all be posted here.  In the meantime, here is one of my favorite TEDTalks:

If you haven't experienced TED yet, check out their website and watch some of the shorter talks. They are honestly all wonderful.

Free App Friday

This week over at Smart Apps for Kids there are 28 apps worth $65.  Also, check out Free App Friday, which does a weekly round up of apps for children.  Have a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving

With next week being Thanksgiving break, there will be no learning cards.  Because children only come on Monday, Large Group time will be done by the teachers.  Once again, our weekly handout is a post from Speech and Language Kids. It gives great ideas for language activities to do during Thanksgiving time.  I hope you all have a great break and a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Apps, Apps, and more Apps

This week there are 24 free apps worth $51 over at Smart Apps for Kids.  Also, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is currently holding their annual convention, which usually means great deals on speech apps!  Smart Apps for Special Needs has a wonderful list of several of those apps.  They are not free, but some are discounted quite a bit.  Last, but not least, I have added new apps to my apps page, so check those out as well!  Have a wonderful weekend.  

Little Miss Muffet

Next week for Large Group we are doing "Little Miss Muffet."  We will be working on building our vocabulary and sequencing.  Below is our learning card:

We will use these cute visuals from Sparkle box to first learn the story and work on sequencing:

Then everyone will take turns being Miss Muffet or the spider while we act out the nursery rhyme.  

It's one that the children always love, so I'm excited to introduce it again this year.  Our weekly handout is on sequencing.  Happy Fall!

  

The Drum Sound

For the next few weeks we will be talking about our drum sound, "d!"  

Again use these sheets below to practice.  
Isolation/CV combos: practice the "d" sound in isolation or in CV combinations while playing with toys.  Example:  While stomping the dinosaur up the mountain, make the sound, "d, d, d" or the CV combo, "do" while playing cars, "Ready set, DO it!"  Words: Here are some worksheets from Heather's Speech Therapy to practice initial /d/ and finial /d/ at the word level. Phrases:  Again, these are from Heather's Speech Therapy.  Initial /d/ and final /d/ at the phrase level.  Enjoy!

Love that air quality...

So this post isn't super speech related, but I think it is helpful for those of you with children who have special needs or health concerns.  It is no surprise that the air quality in Utah is not great! Well, The Utah Division of Air Quality (DAQ) has teamed up with Weber State University to launch a new, free mobile app that delivers real-time air quality information for the state of Utah. There is an android app and an iOS app that offers current air quality conditions, a three-day air quality forecast, trend charts, and a health guidance that helps figure out how the pollution level will affect those with health conditions. You can grab the iOS version here and the android app here.

Dancing with Scarves

Next week for Large Group we will be dancing with scarves!  Our focus will be on pronouns.  Check out the learning card below:

Our handout is from Speech and Language Kids.  Its a great one that gives 5 steps for teaching pronouns. 
 

Support Group!

I am so excited to share this flyer with all of you.  This is a support group for parents of children with special needs.  It is brand new, so this will be their first meeting.  Check out the flyer below and spread the word!  

Free App Friday

This week there are 27 free apps worth $61 over at Smart Apps for Kids.  Remember they are only free until 10 p.m. (CST).  Have a great weekend!

Prematurity Awareness Month

November is Prematurity Awareness Month.  I have had several nieces and nephews who were born prematurely.  One was a 32 weeker and after spending a month in the hospital he caught whopping cough 2 months later and was again hospitalized for weeks.  So spreading awareness about prematurity is one dear to my heart, like so many others!  These little ones struggle with health and developmental problems, including possible speech and language delays.  
Here are a few facts about prematurity:

• babies are considered premature if born before 37 weeks
• in the U.S. 1 in 9 babies are born prematurely
• Worldwide there are 15 million babies born early
• it is the #1 killer of newborns
• those born prematurely can have vision and hearing problems, lung issues, developmental and/or intellectual delays, etc.
• premies may have feeding difficulties
• having multiples increases the risk for premature birth
• Parents has a nice list of risk factors for preterm births

The March of Dimes started the prematurity campaign and has wonderful information throughout their website including information about the campaign, facts about premature babies, annual reports about the progress their campaign is making in communities, ways to support the world prematurity day, etc.  

November 17th is World Prematurity Day.  Socks for Life "is about promoting art activities which will create attention and awareness for preterm babies in Europe and Beyond."  Check out their site for ways to promote awareness or fundraise for a specific project or organization.

The National Premie Foundation also has some nice ways to get involved.  

Last, but not least, I just wanted to give a little information about Kangaroo Care. I'm always amazed when I talk with someone who has just had a baby, especially a premature baby, and they have never heard of Kangaroo Care. It is the first thing I recommend to parents of new babies! Kangaroo Care is amazing and helps babies regulate their body temps, helps with bonding, increases success and production for breastfeeding, regulates breathing, sleeping, and heart rate in baby, helps with weight gain... really the list goes on and on! Kangaroo Mother Care is a nice website dedicated to promoting use of Kangaroo Care!  Check it out.

The Tick-Tock Sound

For the next few weeks we will be focusing on our "Tick-Tock" sound.  

Again use these sheets below to practice.  Remember to make it a game or even just target this sound during play activities!  If your kiddo struggles with drill work, just say lots of words with the "t" sound in it while playing so that your child hears the correct production of this sound over and over!  Just have fun with it and the more naturalistic the better!  :) 
Isolation: practice the "T" sound in isolation in front of the mirror or even a video camera.  You can show your little one our Tick-Tock picture (above) while you work on it.  If you use a camera, record your practice and then watch it together after you finish! CV combos/Words: Here are two great posts with initial /t/ and final /t/ from Testy Yet Trying. Follow the directions provided. Phrases:  use the cards provided above to make 2-3 word phrases ("The big boot." etc.) Have fun with our "T" sound!

Large Group

Since next week is another short week, we are doing our Glad Monster, Sad Monster Large Group again.  Our kiddos who come Mon/Wed got it in Ms. Jeana's class and those who come Tues/Thurs got it in Ms. Ange's class the last time.  It was a great one that I wanted all students to enjoy, so this week I will be flip-flopping which room I'm in.  I will be doing Ms. Jeana's Large Group on Tuesday, November 5th for her Tues/Thurs students and Ms. Ange's on Wednesday, November 6th so that her Mon/Wed kids get it .  Check out this post to see the Learning Card.  Our handout this week is from Super Duper and is on greetings!  Enjoy!    

Free App Friday...and more!

Sorry I missed posting last week about free app Friday! With the break I completely forgot.  Anyway, this week there are 28 free apps worth $74! Head over to Smart Apps for Kids to get them.  Remember that most are only free until 10 p.m. (CST).  Also, Smart Apps for Special Needs has a post about the top 10 Halloween themed apps that are free! Check them out.  There are some fun ones!