August Homework Packet

Miss Abby and Miss Mary's Rooms:

Your students will be receiving homework packets like this in their backpack!  Please work on the vocabulary words with your child, and read the books with them!

Sus hijos van a recebir un paquete de tarea en la mochilla.  Por favora trabaja con el vocabulario y lee los libros con sus hijos!

Puppy Minimal Pairs App

 

I am excited to announce that I have partnered with a software engineer, and we will be releasing an iPad application called Puppy Minimal Pairs in the near future!!  As you can see from the screen shots students and speech therapists will have the opportunity to work on reducing different phonological processes with engaging pictures!  Every picture includes Jensie, a cute black lab puppy.  This will help the students be more interested in each word. The students can be asked questions such as "What is the puppy wearing?" in order to get the students to say each word.  The app also gives students the ability to audio and video record themselves saying different words.

How it works:   

Cost: 

The entire application can be purchased for thirty dollars.  If you are thinking of purchasing all of the sections, we recommend utilizing this option up front to save some money!  Alternatively, individual sections can be purchased.  Initial Consonant Deletion is free because we want to give you a feel for the applications effectiveness and quality before committing to spending money! 

How to Use the Features:  

When a section is available simply click on that section to receive a set of at least 20 minimal pairs with pictures and recordings.  Click on the written word to hear a sample of how that word should be pronounced. Click record audio to create an audio recording of your student saying the word and compare how they said to the word to the minimal pair.  Click video recording to record and play back a video of your student to see in action!  All of these features work together to give your students maximum cuing.  Cycle through the words to practice a variety of Minimal Pairs!

FAQ

1. Will the audio recordings or videos be saved to my device?  Because of HIPPA and memory issues, I don't want anything saved to my device.

No.  The audio recordings and videos are temporary files created for use only by the Puppy Minimal Pairs application and they are deleted when you move on to the next Minimal Pair.

2. I bought a new iPad or deleted and re-installed the app and my previously purchased sections are showing prices again.  Do I have to buy them again?

No, once was enough!  When you click on the sections, as long as you are logged in with the same Apple account, you will receive a message saying you have already purchased this item and it will ask if you would like to receive it for free.  Which of course you should say yes to!  If you had previously purchased all sections simply follow this process for that section, otherwise, follow the process for the individual sections you had previously purchased.

3. Is there an iPhone or Android version?

Not yet, but those may be coming soon! Which would you like to see? Email us at the address below!

4. I need help, who should I contact?

Please email PuppyMinPairs@gmail.com

We are very excited for this app, and we truly believe it will help students become more engaged in their speech therapy!  We will keep you all updated with the next stages!

March Vocabulary Words

This month we are focusing on rainbows, St. Patrick's Day, and plants!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite times of year! I love all of the pinks and reds, and talking about love and friendship with my students.  Here are some of things we are doing this week:

Books:

There are lots of great books about love, friendship, and sharing.  Here are a few of my favorites.  I also added a couple of fantasy books because I think castles, fairies, and princesses go well with the Valentine's Day theme.  I got most of these books from the Goodwill, and all of the others I got from Target. 

Vocabulary Words:

I always like to buy actual objects that go with our vocabulary words!  I got cookie cutters in the shape of hearts, flower petals, candy hearts, and valentines.  I laminated the valentines so I can use them next year too.  I got all of these at the dollar store (besides the cookie cutters which was a gift).

Sensory Play:

This is the Frozen sensory bin, and I just added the Valentine's day vocabulary words to the bin.  It was great, because the students pretended to feed the characters some candy, give them valentines, etc. 

Sequencing 

We did a fun sequencing activity with Valentines!  I had visual cues of all of the steps the students would need to take in order to make a Valentine.  We also had all of the materials listed.  We worked on vocabulary words, following directions, and requesting with this activity!

Frozen

Many of my preschool students are obsessed with Frozen right now.  The best part is that both the girls and the boys are obsessed!  In my articulation class, we had a class dedicated to the movie Frozen, and we targeted the /z/ sound.  Here are a couple of things we did:

Book:

There is a great app called Frozen: Storybook Deluxe that we read in class.  It has great images, and short video clips.  It was a great tool to use for the students to answer questions, participate in story retell, and talk about their favorite parts of the movie.

Sensory Play:

We also created a sensory bin for our students to play.  I found the "recipe" somewhere on pinterest, and it is 8 parts flour and 1 part baby oil. We added some laminated photos of Frozen characters and some pretty blue rocks.  The photos were from a Frozen memory game, so we worked on finding matches and talking about "same" and "different."  This bin also just got the students to talk a lot in general!

Homework:

We sent the parents home with some Frozen coloring pages .  If you want some more suggestions, I found this great website that has all sorts of suggestions!

February Vocabulary Words

Here are our vocabulary words for the month. We are focusing on Valentine's Day/Friends, Arizona/the desert, and dental care/teeth!  

Arctic/Winter Theme

This past week we did everything Arctic and winter themed!  We had so much fun!  Here are some of the highlights:

Books:

 There are so many great books about arctic animals and winter time.  I had a few of my own books, and I got some more from the library.  My students really liked the non fiction books about all of the arctic animals.

At one point, my students got tired of looking at the books and wanted to play with blocks.  To make sure that we were still working on our vocabulary words, I had them pretend like the blocks were food and they helped feed all of the animals on the covers.  It's important to always follow the child's lead, and you may have to get creative!

Sensory Play: 

Arctic Sensory Bin

We had so much fun with our Arctic sensory bin! With this bin we worked on answering questions, learning new vocabulary words, following directions, and eliciting spontaneous language.

Contents:
Arctic animals (i.e. penguins, walrus, polar bears, artic foxes, arctic hare, etc.)
Large cooking utensils
Ice
Water
Anything you can find that is white and floats to look like an iceberg

Gross Motor Activity 

For our gross motor activity, we watched clips of Arctic animals on Youtube and then acted like them!  I put all of the videos on silent, and we talked about what the animals were doing and what they looked like.  The kids loved acting like them!  

Actions:

Polar Bear: Walked on four legs

Walrus: "Swam" on our stomachs

Hare: Hopped 

Penguin: Waddled

Seal: Rolled around on our stomachs and back 

*** Remember to put the videos on silent, and you may have to fast forward through some clips to see more of the animal actions!