Rubber Chickens for Social Thinking!

Rubber chickens~ Well that's an unexpected post topic!  I attended Michelle Garcia Winner's Social Thinking Mentor Training Program a few years ago and have implemented many of the programs, tips, and strategies with my students.

I wanted to share with you a simple and fun cue that I use for my middle schoolers to identify when behavior is unexpected.  Here is my first and very amateur You Tube video.  

Earth Day Ideas

This is an Earth Day middle school project lead by our special educators.  

Hey all,  I was trying to complete a freebie for you but just couldn't seem to get it all together during this crazy time of year.  Instead I'll share with you how I'm celebrating Earth Day with my students.

                                                                      I'm so proud to be a part of a school that values recycling.

1. Outside: We are taking services outside to green up.

a.  EET students will be donning the medical gloves to pick up trash and describe their finds.

b.  Social skills groups will learn how to add some mindfulness strategies to their bag of tools by using sense meditation.  Students will experience the sense of walking, sounds of nature, and feeling of the outdoors.

c.  Articulation students will search for their sound in the great outdoors.

2.  Touring the Building: I work at an amazing school that focuses on reducing, reusing, and recycling.   We have a full composting program which has tremendously reduced our landfill contribution.  You won't see more than one bag of garbage each day in our cafeteria which serves almost 400 students!  We also have filtered water fountains throughout our school.  Students are encouraged to bring their own reusable water bottles to school to fill up.   My students will tour the building in search of ways that our school celebrates Earth Day every day, and they will sequence their thoughts and language by writing a paragraph about their finds.

3.  Figurative Language:  You know I'm all about the themed idioms!  Here are 10 idioms that I plan to teach that pair nicely with Earth Day: 1. Down to Earth 2. World of Difference 3. Out of this World 4. Tree Hugger 5. Green Thumb 6. Call of Nature 7. Salt of the Earth 8. Heaven on Earth 9. Where on Earth 10. Earth Shattering.

2 Facts & A Fib~ Revealed!

Welcome back.  It's been a fun week of facts and fibs and I hope you enjoyed the blog hop.  

Here are my reveals: 

Thank you all for playing with us and head on over to Speech Universe to see the winner!

Also, don't forget to check out the #AprilSLPMustHave sale on TpT for some great finds at 50% off for April 7th ONLY.  

Paper, Pencil, and Paper Clip Challenge~ linky party

I must be an SLP geek because I had so much fun creating with this challenge from The Dabbling Speechie.  

I came up with a million ideas for these three props and chose to hook you in by tackling a fishing game.  I simply ripped my paper into 6 cards, wrote fish-themed expressions on each card, punched a hole in the cards with the paper clip tip, and bent my paper clip in the shape of a fish hook. I contemplated making the paper into origami fish, but decided to keep it simple.  Oh, and I even had a page left for data tracking.  

 Students need to hook a fish and deduct the meaning of the expression. It may look like this lesson is quick and only targets one goal, but there are many goals and activities that may be targeted in this fishing game.   Use this game for turn taking, listening, asking questions, story telling, sequencing, fluency, and artic.  Using a variety of skills, the lesson can be expanded to last a 30 minute session.  When targeting figurative language, ask students to give examples of when they were "A fish out of water", etc.  

Short on time, kill two birds with one stone by asking your students to help you make this Fishing for Idioms game.  Creating will not only save time, but also implement skills of following directions, sequencing, and critical thinking.  

Expressions Used: Plenty of fish in the sea, Fish out of water, Fishing for a compliment, Big fish in a small pond, Gone fishin', and Just keep swimming. 

Thank you Dabbing Speechie for this fun challenge.  I can't wait to see some of the other ideas.  Head back over to the linky party.   

Sea you soon...

Figurative Language Giveaway!

Phew, it took an entire year to complete my Figurative Language Bundle and you now have a chance to win it in this bundle giveaway!

3 lucky winners will get the entire Figurative Language Bundle!  

This is a great resource to use throughout the entire school year to incorporate figurative language into your 3rd - 5th general ed classrooms or to use for middle school age students who struggle with these higher level language skills. 

Each season includes:  figurative language definitions, idiom cards, idiom card covers, simile and metaphor activity, personification identification, personification creation, multiple meaning match, multiple meaning story, black/white printables, idiom data tracking form, simile and metaphor data tracking form page, personification data tracking form, multiple meaning data tracking form page, figurative language rubric


Figurative language is an important piece of addressing the Common Core Standards as it requires students to use critical thinking skills not only used in the classroom but in everyday life.  

Here is a preview of my new summer figurative language product.  Each month includes the same format of pages and data forms to make seasonal tracking and progress monitoring a breeze.

Win the ENTIRE BUNDLE by entering below.  Three lucky winners be chosen!

a Rafflecopter giveaway