Guest Post at The Dabbling Speechie

Hope you all are having a fabulous day! In case you missed it, I did a guest post for The Dabbling Speechie's new feature, "Wise Wallet Wednesday". Go check it out! 

http://www.thedabblingspeechie.com/2013/08/28/wise-wallet-wednesday-how-to-use-your-games-to-cover-many-iep-goals/

Worth it Wednesday {Scrambled Sentences: Speech Therapy, syntax, creating sentences}

Welcome back to another wonderful "Worth it Wednesday" post! This week's product is brought to you from Kelly over at Speech2u. It's her "Scrambled Sentences: Speech Therapy, syntax, creating sentences"

This is such a wonderful product for syntax! I love how it involves a breakfast food theme- every type of word, adjective, adverb, noun, verb, etc., has its own breakfast food. I think this is such a great idea. You can easily sort different parts of speech into their respective categories, and you can easily see how adding a different part of speech (or two) can change the meaning of the sentence.

Kelly provides a scoring rubric for how many points each part of speech and each type of sentence is worth. Each person gets a place-mat with a plate, and you are ready to go! There are such a wide variety of words (240 cards included!), as well as blank cards of each part of speech for you to add your own. Parts of speech included are:

• noun
• verb
• adjective
• article
• pronoun
• preposition
• auxiliary verb
• interrogative
• adverb
• conjunction

Kelly has included sentence building templates for those students who need a little extra help just starting out.

She has also included two carryover activities- Scrambled Sort (unscramble the sentences and put them in the right order), and Scrambled Eggs in a Cup (unscramble the directions). 

What I love:

• The breakfast theme and how each part of speech has its own breakfast food.
• There are literally SO many different cards-the sentence possibilities are endless.
• Not only can you target sentence structure, you have the opportunity to discuss parts of speech, what makes a complete sentence, expanding sentence length, etc. There are endless possibilities with this!
• The carryover/practice activities are GREAT! There are plenty of opportunities for practice.
• My students love making up silly sentences (even though that's technically not part of the rules, it's a fun extra way to play!).
• The sentence templates are so great- I love using them for my kiddos who need to expand on their sentence length. Everything is laid out for you!

You can get this great product here! Check out Kelly's blog, Facebook, and Teachers pay Teachers pages too!

I "mustache" you a question...can you find the absurdity?

I'm in love with mustaches (and with giving you all FREE stuff!)! So I created this new activity especially for you. 

This fun activity has 36 cards targeting absurdities. Simply draw a card and have your student tell you what's wrong with the card. Once they tell you what's wrong and how they can fix it to make the sentence make sense, they get to keep the card. The person with the most cards at the end of the game wins! I've even included a blank set of cards for you to add your own. 

You can find this freebie here! I would love your feedback if you download!

Worth it Wednesday {Making Inferences / Drawing Conclusions with Text Messages!}

It's Wednesday again, and you know what that means, "Worth it Wednesday"! For those that don't know, every Wednesday I review a product that I have purchased on TpT and let you know why I thought it was "worth it" to buy. The author of the product didn't ask me to write anything, so you know my opinions aren't biased.

This week's product is from Mia over at Putting Words in Your Mouth. It's her Making Inferences / Drawing Conclusions with Text Messages!

I don't know about you, but a lot of the students on my caseload have goals for inferences. And if your students are anything like mine, all they can think about is their iPhone!! Thankfully, Mia thought to combine the best of both worlds and come up with a great product that will surely keep your students' attention.

There are 30 different text messages provided, as well as 6 special cards. She's even included blank cards for you to create your own, or have your students create their own!

What I love:

• Mia combined something our students love with something they need to work on, how can you get better than that?
• The text messages are relevant to your students' lives. They will be able to relate to what is being said, which is the best way to learn!
• Mia provided so many different games to play with this product, I love having options!
• I LOVE the blank cards. Mia gave a wonderful suggestion on her cover page to have your students make up their own text messages and draw inferences from those. You learn the most when you have to teach something yourself, so having your students make up their own cards will only help them!
• You can target so many things with these cards- WH questions, categories, synonyms and antonyms, syntax, and more!

So have I convinced you to check it out yet?! You can find it here! And while you're at it, check out her Facebook, Blog, and TpT page.

The preceding thoughts are solely mine and were written on my own terms, no person asked me to write this review.

What product have you bought that you've thought was worth it?

"S....Peachy Feedback" Linky Party!

It's my favorite time of the month!! I'm linking up with Allison's Speech Peeps for her Speachy Feedback Linky Party! It's ime to reward YOU for leaving awesome feedback on something you've bought from my store! I know I'm not alone when I say that I LOVE great feedback. It shows me that you liked my product, thought it was useful, and want to tell other people how great my product is (I might be a little biased on that last point, but you did buy it for some reason, right?!)! 

Here's some great feedback left in my store from the sale the last few days:

Username "lmhelvie717", email me at sharon.schackmann@gmail.com for a free product from my store! You can check out my "Idiom of the Week" product here!

Thank you again for everyone who has left feedback in my store! Remember, leaving feedback gains you TpT credits to use towards future purchases!

TPT Back to School Sale!

It's back to school time and Teachers Pay Teachers is having a sale to celebrate! All items in my store will be 20% off August 18-19. Get an additional 8% off when you use promo code BTS13!

It's time to empty those wishlists and get what you need to make it through the beginning of school!

Here's a link to my store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Speech-With-Sharon

I've also linked up with Rachel over at The Queen's Speech! Check out all my blogging buddies whose stores are also on sale.

Good luck with your first days of school and happy shopping!!

Write it Out! Silly Story Writing Prompts

Do your students need extra writing practice, but you're out of ideas of prompts to keep them engaged? I've got a product that will help get their creative juices flowing!! 

This activity is sure to get your students thinking and laughing, all while working on improving their writing abilities! But not only that, these cards can help target grammar/syntax, vocabulary, language, and articulation- the possibilities are endless! 

There are three sets of cards: green cards, purple cards, and blue cards. 

The green cards explain what the student has to write. There are 12 different types of things to write.

The purple cards are the subject cards. There are 36 different subjects, both animate and inanimate objects. 

The blue cards tell something about the subject. There are 36 of these cards as well. 

I've also included blank pages for all the sections so you can add your own! I hope your students have fun "writing it out!" I would love to hear some of your best sentence combinations, I know there will be some funny ones :)

You can get "Write it Out!" here! If you download, please leave me some feedback. Enjoy!

Idiom of the Week!

I'm so excited to show you all this product! My students struggle daily to understand figurative language, especially idioms. I created an "Idiom of the Week" poster set to set up in your classrooms. Your students will be constantly exposed to various idioms used in everyday life. And I've provided a worksheet for your students to use to expand their understanding of the idiom. 

This product will be updated regularly. Currently, there are 25 idioms included and they are listed below. 

Each idiom has their own page. There is a picture illustrating the literal meaning of the idiom, the actual definition of the idiom, and sentences using the idiom. I've included both color and printer friendly black and white. 

The last page is a worksheet that includes a place to write the idiom for that week, write their definition, their own sentences, and draw a picture. Print out enough for all of your students to have a copy and hang them around your “idiom of the week” poster. Then you can combine each student’s pages into a book at the end of the year.

Here is how I plan to display this in my classroom. If you laminate both the construction paper and the idiom posters, you can use tape to easily remove the idiom each week and replace it with a new one. I plan to hang the worksheets around this poster to provide numerous examples of the idiom. It is a great way to do a working bulletin board!

You can download my Idiom of the Week posters here! If you snag it, be sure to leave me some feedback and let me know what idioms you want to see included in the next revision!

Worth it Wednesday {Common Core State Standards for Speech Pathologist}

I'm back with another great "Worth it Wednesday" post! This week I'm telling you why I think the "Common Core State Standards for Speech Pathologists" by Heather over at Language of Speech is most definitely worth it!

(sorry for blocking it out, I didn't think it was fair to Heather for me to show you all her hard work for free!)

I don't know about your district, but all I can hear about is "common core this" and "common core that"! But do you really have time to look at every standard for every grade just to find the one that you need? Well, Heather put together a GREAT resource for us. She has taken 15 different goal areas and has selected the relevant CCSS for each area for each grade! Talk about a lot of work!!

Areas included:

• Articulation
• Fluency
• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Categories
• Word Relationships
• Basic Concepts
• Comprehension/WH questions
• Main Idea/Details
• Sequencing/Retell
• Inferencing
• Multi-step Directions
• Clarifying Questions
• Problem Solving
• Pragmatics

What I love:

• It is such a comprehensive list! 15 different areas are included-it can't get much better than that!
• She not only took the time to research what standard fits best for each goal area, she also divided it by grade!
• She made it SUPER easy to include CCSS in your lesson plans (which I know my administrators love!)

The preceding thoughts are solely mine and were written on my own terms, no person asked me to write this review.

Are you thinking this sounds like something you could use? Check it out here (don't forget to leave feedback if you download). And while your at it, visit her Facebook page and tell her that I sent you!

What product have you bought recently that you thought was worth it?

Whose hat is that? {200 Facebook Followers Freebie!}

Over 200 followers on Facebook, you all are awesome! Here's a freebie especially for you- Whose Hat is that? An inferencing activity. 

There are 24 different clue cards. Read the clues and determine who the hat belongs to! I've also included a page of blank cards for you to add your own, and a game board. 

You can find the FREEBIE here! I would love some feedback if you download :) And if you haven't already, follow me on Facebook, TPT, and Bloglovin'. Enjoy!

Back to School Blog Hop- What to do When You're New!

Welcome to the Back to School SLP Blog Hop!

I'm so happy you are here! You will get the chance to collect great back to school ideas for SLPs, win prizes, and get freebies by touring 17 wonderful blogs! 

Use the Linkytools at the bottom of this post to hop around the 17 blogs, collect ideas, and most importantly, the clues!

Now for my post... (and hang in there, it's a long one!)

Help!! What to do When You're New!

I just graduated with my Master's Degree this May (yay!!). So like many of you, I'm starting my CFY this fall in a school district. You're in my same shoes- you're so happy to finally be done with school, but slightly terrified at this new and exciting adventure you are about to begin.

Am I really the only SLP in  my building? In my town? In my district?

While these questions can by scary- and possibly true for you!- just take a big deep breath and relax. You've made it this far. You CAN do it. Sure, it's going to be tough. But you made it through that horrible Neuro class, suffered through having clients in the clinic in addition to your schoolwork (not to mention your actual life), and managed to pry your eyes open long enough to make it through that Thursday night class after a full day of school and clinicals. Trust me, I've been there. And guess what, I'm surviving! (See, there is hope!)

Now that you know you're going to make it, sit back and take in some tips and hints from me as I explore entering the beginning of a CFY year. 

First, you have to get ORGANIZED! My school didn't have an SLP last year. So, all the materials were thrown aimlessly on the shelves. Student files were everywhere. My little broom closet was a mess!

My OCD just can't handle all of this- not to mention its not ethical to just leave student files all over the place!!

So I spent almost a week at school this summer just organizing all my stuff. Yes, you read that right. I spent a week on organization! Why? Well for one thing, if you're new, you really need to know what you have to work with. I cleaned out every shelf, opened every binder, and looked at what materials were there. That way, when I get my teeny tiny budget from the school district, I know what materials I don't need and what materials I do. 

For the open shelving unit, I organized all of the games by topic- Artic, Game pieces, Grammar, Books, Board Games, and Language Games. I took a label and slapped it on the shelf underneath where that section starts, that way, when I use a game I know exactly where to put it back. (As a side note, I really wanted to put the games in the closed cabinet and use this cabinet for my binders so the kiddos aren't occupied with looking at the games. But, the shelves were screwed in place so I could move them. I plan on getting fabric to cover the shelves so no one gets distracted!) 

Like I said above, I also took out all of the binders and organized them by topic. I put labels on the sides of all of the binders so I knew what was inside.

 Here's a close up of my labeling. (Told you I was OCD!)

Now I know all of you have found some wonderful Teachers Pay Teachers activities. But how do you organize them? I've tried a couple different ways and most recently changed to this method. First, I laminate and cut out all the cards and extra sheets and put them in a gallon sized ziploc baggie. That way, I can still see the title of the activity, and all the cards and worksheets are in the same place (and can't get out thanks to the handy dandy zipper!).  

I'm storing these baggies in hanging files in a milk crate I got from Wal-Mart, but I know you can get them basically anywhere. Mine is going next to my filing cabinet under the table. They are organized in there by topic. I don't have enough seasonal activities to do mine that way, but I might change it up once I get some more! The milk crate on top of the table is going to house my students' working files, where I will keep their IEP goals, attendance sheets, and data sheets (which I plan on having my students help with). The filing cabinet houses old student files, current files, and loose worksheets. If you get nothing else from this post, for your own sanity, please organize your materials!

I don't know anyone! Not even the principal can remember my name...

Starting at a new school can be terrifying. You're the fresh face. Do you really know what you're doing? Can you be trusted to make important decisions? YES YES YES! You DO know what you're doing! You've just spent the last 6 years of your life dedicated to furthering your education and learning in depth information about our field. You can do this. Now you just have to prove to everyone else you can.

My biggest advice here is introduce yourself to everyone you meet. It will be harder for you to remember everyone's names, you do, after all, have a lot more names to remember than everyone else! But really try to make an effort. Come up with a mnemonic device you can use, use associations, anything that will help you remember! Not only will your fellow teachers be impressed you remembered their names, you will feel more comfortable talking to someone if you actually know who they are. 

Make good friends with your principal, office staff, computer guys, and janitors. These people will be able to get you basically anything you need. Make yourself known to them, tell them thank you for what they do. Spend some time getting to know them. You'll be surprised what you can learn from them. And who knows, making friends with them might get you something you want in the future (like maybe an IPAD or a larger classroom!).

I have 50 students on my caseload and don't know a single one of them...

It can be overwhelming taking over someone else's caseload. You don't know any of the kids. You don't know what motivates them, what makes them tick, their likes and dislikes, or even if their goals are appropriate for them. You'll spend a lot of time with your nose buried in various IEPs, so make it worth your while. Start making lists of who have similar goals, when IEPs are due and when their annual reviews are. It may seem like a lot of work, but it will help you in the long run, trust me. 

My favorite way to get to know someone is to play a fun game. My freebie for the hop is on initiating conversation, and I think it would work perfectly for the first day of school!

It includes 36 different topic cards. Your students must use the words on the topic card to form a question. I've included a hints page if your students need help with this. And if you like the freebie, check out the full version here. 

A few other things I like to do on my first day with students:

• Go over IEP goals with your students. It is so empowering for your students to know what their IEP goals are and why they are working on these goals.
• Make goals for the speech room. Does your student want to master that tricky sound, use the correct pronoun, graduate from speech?! If your students are working towards a goal, they are more likely to work harder during your sessions.
• Have fun! Remember, these kids are young, and they are only going to be young once. Try to have a little fun with your students, they will appreciate it, and you will too!

Find Speech with Sharon on:
Facebook
Teachers Pay Teachers
Bloglovin'


Thanks for reading, I hope you learned a thing or two! And now for the really fun part- what do you get if you win the blog hop!?

5 Winners: 

• A goodie basket full of TPT products from all of our wonderful bloggers on the hop!

1 Grand Prize Winner: 

• A goodie basket full of TPT products from our stores
• a $50 TPT gift card
• Articulation Station from Little Bee Speech, School of Multi-Step Directions from Virtual Speech Center, and Kid in Story from LocoMotive Labs! (Be sure to go like their pages and thank them for donating an app! Tell them you came from the SLP Back to School Blog hop!)

The Rules:

• You must decode a SECRET MESSAGE
• In order to complete this task, you will need to visit each of the 17 blogs and find the OWL CLUE
• The OWL CLUE will include one word that is part of the code
• When you enter the Rafflecopter, you will be asked to enter the secret code
• The contest will run from August 11- August 17!

Enjoy reading through the blogs, downloading the freebies, and participating in our Blog Hop! Good luck everyone!

And now for my clue:

Think you have the secret code? Insert it in the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bugging out with Social Skills!

I'm so excited to present this product to all of you! I've been working long and hard on a wonderful social skills resource that I hope you'll all love!

This 32 page packet includes over 200 cards and 5 worksheets! Each bug has its own skill to target.

A Fly's Tone of Voice

Includes 20 tone of voice cards and 36 different sentences to use with them, as well as a worksheet to that you can use to decide what tone of voice to use in a certain situation. 

Each section starts out with a similar cover page. The skill is defined and briefly discussed. Then I tell you how to use the included cards and worksheets.

Here is an example of the sentences used in this section. You can have your students draw one TOV card and one sentence card. They must read the sentence in that TOV. You can also read a sentence to your students in a certain TOV and have your students determine which TOV it is. The worksheet includes 10 different sentences where your student must determine which TOV is appropriate to use in that situation. 

Mr. Caterpillar's Emotions

Includes 20 emotion cards and 20 definition cards. You can use these cards to help teach the definition of each emotion. After your students are comfortable with each definition, use the cards to play Go Fish or Memory.

Use this worksheet to target emotions in many different ways! There is a space for your students to draw out the emotion, give the definition, give examples, and give synonyms and antonyms. 

Perspective Taking with a Ladybug

Includes 24 cards with scenarios.

Read each scenario and determine how a person from that scenario fells. I've included a worksheet where your students can come up with a situation in their lives that involved another person. They must determine how the other person felt during that situation. 

Problem Solving with Ms. Butterfly

Includes 24 different scenarios.

Read each scenario and determine what would be the best solution to your problem. The included worksheet allows your students to brainstorm a problem and possible solutions to that problem. 

Making Conversation with a Dragonfly

Includes 36 topic cards and 3 pages of hint cards.

Your students draw one of the topic cards. They must use the topic word or words on the card and form their own questions. If this is too hard for your student, I've included "hint pages", where I've provided example questions for each topic. 

The Spider Can Stay on Topic

Includes 24 conversation cards.

Each card presents a scenario and your student must determine an appropriate comment to make that stays on topic. There is an included worksheet that allows your students to make up their own conversation topic and determine appropriate comments.

Also included are 6 special cards and a game board. 

Are you as excited about this product as I am!? You can check it out here! And if you're feeling really lucky, enter in the Rafflecopter below and try to win a copy for yourself!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Worth it Wednesday {Articulation Game Show! sh, ch, th, s, r edition}

This week's Worth it Wednesday post looks at a product from Kristin over at [simply speech.], her Articulation Game Show- SH, CH, TH, S, R Edition!

Articulation can be SUCH a boring thing to target. How many times can you run through that set of artic cards before your students are begging to do something different? Well ladies and gentlemen I have found your answer- Artic Game Show!

It's set up like the popular game show Jeopardy. There are 5 different categories, each with 100 to 400 point squares. Each sound gets its own game board. The categories included are:

1. Fill in the blank- Kristin included sentences with a blank somewhere in there. All words have the target sound in them, in either the initial, medial, or final position.
2. Rhyming- You are given a word to rhyme with. Each one of the words has the target sound in the final position, requiring your student to use the target sound in the rhyming word.
3. Make me a sentence- You are given a word (with the target sound in it) to use in a sentence.  
4. What am I?- In this category, you are given a few clues to guess the word that contains the target sound. 
5. Mystery Square- All the questions in this category are a little different- hence the term mystery square. Options range from wh- questions, tongue twisters, repeating words, and fill in the blanks.

What I love about this product:

• It makes articulation fun! Your students aren't stuck doing drill, they feel like they are playing a game.
• You can use it with mixed groups. Because there are so many different categories, this would be perfect to use in mixed artic/language groups! So many language topics are covered- word finding, wh- questions, rhyming, sentence formulation, etc. 
• It's also great for one student who has mixed artic/language goals. You can play one game and get in both goal areas at one time. Talk about using your time wisely!
• It's in a friendly competitive format. I love the Jeopardy style board. You can even split your group into small teams to incorporate teamwork and peer interaction. 
• It targets those harder sounds- these are some of the hardest sounds to learn and are often the sounds I see kiddos the longest for. 
• As I mentioned earlier, I really, really LOVE that it targets so many language concepts in addition to artic. Products like these are so valuable!

The preceding thoughts are solely mine and were written on my own terms, no person asked me to write this review.

Have I perked your interest? You can check it out on TPT here! (And if you like it so much you want to get it with different sounds, check out her Articulation Game Show: k, g, f, l edition!)And while you're at it, head on over to Kristin's Facebook page and blog and tell her hello. 

What have you gotten recently that you thought was "worth it"?

A peek into my life....Wedding photos!

So I know this is completely none speech related, but it doesn't have to be about speech all the time, right? In case you didn't know, I got married on May 11 of this year to my high school sweetheart. I've only been watching stalking my mailbox waiting for these to come in since we got back from our honeymoon in Jamaica! Enjoy a few some a lot of my favorites (it's so hard to choose only a few!). 

There's my handsome hubby :) My little brother is on the bottom left and the top right is a foreign exchange student from Germany my family housed my freshman year of college!

You gotta have a little fun, right?!

It was the perfect day.