Blog – Page 2

Simple Itsy Bitsy Spider Speech Therapy Activities for Little Learners

It's April, and your preschool classrooms are probably doing a weather unit. This was always one of my favorite themes in the Spring, but, also with Spring time comes the end-of-year sprint with 5,000 evaluations, between annual IEPs, birth-to-three services initial evaluations for kids turning 3 in the spring and summer, kindergarten transitions, etc... which leaves basically no time to plan! Using Itsy Bitsy Spider as a theme within your weather theme is an easy way to incorporate some ... read more

Turn Your Phone into a Document Camera for Teletherapy

At this point, I’m hoping teletherapy is a short-lived way of life, and that it’s not going to continue into the Fall (Aren’t we all?) Keeping that hope alive also means that spending $50+ on a document cam for a situation so short-term isn’t really at the top of my list! At least with investing in digital materials like BOOM cards, I can still use those on the iPad once in-person therapies resume… but in all likelihood, I personally am probably not going to use a document cam once ... read more

5 Literacy-based Halloween Circle Times

With so many Halloween books out there- how do you narrow it down?! Truth be told, I'm still struggling with that (my husband and the friends we had in town visiting pretty much had to peel me away from the Halloween kids' book section at Target last weekend- but it's fine. Everything's fine.) I have narrowed down some of my favorite books to use at circle, though, and thought I'd do a round-up for you! Each of these books has their own blog post, so I'll do a photo and quick ... read more

“What is Halloween?” Circle Time

I looove this circle time activity because it's super simple, fun, and interactive!We start out using the book, "What is Halloween?" by Harriet Ziefert. (Find it here on Amazon or here on Thriftbooks.) This is a really simple lift-the-flap book, and is great for introducing some basic concepts surrounding Halloween! After reading the book, we watched the adorable “Knock Knock, Trick or Treat” song/video from Super Simple Learning on the iPad. I printed the characters from this song on ... read more

“It’s Pumpkin Time!” Circle Time

So many good pumpkin books are out there to choose from, but one October book I like to use at circle is called "It's Pumpkin Time!" by Zoe Hall. (This is a Scholastic book I can't find on their website anymore, or on Amazon or Thriftbooks, BUT.. at the time of this post, there are several copies available on eBay for around $4).I use this typically more towards the middle or end of October rather than the beginning, when we first start learning about the pumpkin life cycle, because it touches ... read more

5 Little Pumpkins Halloween Circle Time

5 Little Pumpkins is a classic Halloween book, but I changed it up a little bit this year for circle and it was a hit! To start, I read the book one time through and we do all the actions with it:1-"Oh my it's getting late"- surprised face with our hands on our cheeks2-"There are witches in the air" (pretend to hold your broomsick in front of you and sway side to side like you're flying around- at work we changed it to "leaves" and covered the witches with leaf pictures so we pretended ... read more

Little Blue Truck’s Halloween Circle Time

There are SO many great preschool read-alouds to choose from for Halloween, but one of my all-time favorites is Little Blue Truck's Halloween! It's a lift-the-flap book and has a truck and animals wearing costumes, so it's pretty much a hit with everyone! I printed off pictures of each animal from the book, did a Google-image search "eye mask clip art" and printed one off for each animal. Tape the top of the mask to the top of the animal's head so you can lift the mask and see who's ... read more

If You Take a Mouse to School Push In Activities

We all know “If You Take a Mouse to School” is a classic start-of-the-year book. It’s an easy go-to, but, if we’re being honest- sometiiiimes…. those favorite go-tos, after you read them over and over, get a little stale, right? Well, if you’re looking for some fresh, new ideas to use with this book for circle time in the preschool classroom- you’re in the right place! Let’s get started with 3 ideas for whole group! 1. Object box Using an object box/manipulatives to go with your ... read more

How To Store Your Cariboo Cards

If you read my post on how to use the Cariboo game for speech therapy, you’re probably ready to jump right in and start prepping cards to go with the game. But, you might be wondering, “How do I actually ORGANIZE all these cards?” (Psst- there's a free download for you at the end of this post you don't want to miss!) I’ve tried my share of organizational systems for these cards, so I’ll walk you through the pros and cons of each one, and which one I like the best! 1. Binder ... read more

How To Use Cariboo Cards in Speech Therapy

If you’ve spent any amount of time in any of the SLP Facebook groups, you’ve probably seen people asking about the game Cariboo. “How do I use it?” “Where did you find it?” "Do you use the original cards with the game?""What's all the fuss about?" First off, it’s basically therapy gold, so consider yourself lucky if you’ve managed to find one! Secondly, I’m here to break down alllll the different ways you can use the game. I personally don’t use the original cards ... read more

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