BTS 2016: What’s In Your Cart? {LINKY}

Can you believe it is back-to-school time already?!! I know some of you lucky ducks still have weeks left in your summer, but many of us here in the South are heading back soon. In fact, my school year starts TOMORROW! So much to do, so little time. Thank goodness for the Teachers Pay Teachers BEST YEAR EVER Back to School Sale. Time to gather great materials for my new caseload at a fantastic discount. The lovely Jenna Rayburn from thespeechroomnews.com is hosting her usual linky party to help us busy SLPs find the best products in a snap.

First of all, I want to show you what I have on my wish list for this sale:

Quick Strips Prepositions from Word of Mouth

Articulation ProgressTrackers by A Perfect Blend

Grab ‘n Go Social Skills by Kristine Lamb

I can’t wait to use new materials! In my store, I think you’ll like:

No Prep Print and Go Language BUNDLE

Let’s Play: Caregiver Handouts for Beginning Communicators

Speech Seeks and Language Looks: Anytime Reinforcers

All three products are print and go-saving you time and that precious colored ink!

To find more great speechy stuff, take a look at Jenna’s blog post and follow the links. Be sure to use code BestYear for 28% off everything in my store. Happy shopping!

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Change Brings Opportunity-For You :)

Hello, everyone! I am so excited to share my new blog with y’all! I am a Georgia girl as you know, and I really loved being The Speech Peach, but the thing is- there are SO MANY “speech peaches” out there! I mean, it’s like all of the Georgia SLPs thought (just like I did), “Hmm. Peach and speech rhyme, and they are so cute when you put them together. I’ll be The Speech Peach!” Then, (just like me) they forgot to check around and see if there was already someone using that name, or another variation of it. There are also tons of other Georgia educators who call themselvesThe Peach Teach, or something along those lines. 

After becoming more involved in the online community, I decided it was time for a change. The problem was I didn’t want to fully let go of the “peachy” part of me. Remember, I really loved it! So I googled a few things and found the phrase “Everything’s Peachy!” That sounded AWESOME to me, so I thought, I’ll change to Everything Speechy and keep the whole “peachy” thing in my tagline. I shared my idea with some blogger friends, but, alas, not everyone liked it. Some suggestions were made to incorporate birds into my logo/blog somehow because my last name is Finch. Those were great ideas, but I really don’t like birds. I have actually had one poop ON MY HEAD. While leaving for work. While already running late. The bird idea wasn’t for me.

 Following some encouragement from my BFSLPs and a few other blogger buddies, I decided to go with my heart and stick with Everything Speechy. The amazing Rachel Vincent from RachBV Designs helped me out by redesigning all of my stuff (she calls them elements, which does sound more professional, but I like “stuff”). My TpT store will remain as Jessica Finch, but all of my social media and my blog can be found under Everything Speechy. If you are already following me, you are all set-no actions needed. If not, I’d love for you to by clicking the icons to the left. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. As a reward for you and celebration for me, I am giving you the opportunity to win a $25 gift card to Teachers Pay Teachers. Just enter with Rafflecopter below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Follow my blog with Bloglovin

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Six Resources for Easy Speech Session Planning

There are many things I love about my job as a school SLP. Planning is not one. In a way, IEP goals make it easier-you know which skills you have to target each session, but you also need some sort of activity planned. Like many school SLPs, I may have the same students several years in a row. This means that using the same plans and same activities every year gets pretty boring for my students (and for me, if I’m being completely honest). Who wants to make the same back-to-school backpack (no matter how awesome and relevant), for example, if you made that exact craft last year? Unfortunately, I am not really a creative genius, and I have difficulty dreaming up fun, new, amazing activities. Therefore, I am always on the lookout for new therapy ideas. 

I’m guessing that some of you might be in the same boat, so to speak. Not to worry-I have some resources for all of us (and most are FREE)! I have even included some links (some which may be affiliates) for your convenience.

#1 Pinterest

If, in the unlikely event, you do not know about Pinterest, it is AMAZING. Find it here and sign up for an account. Then you can save any ideas you find to boards that you name. For example, I have boards called Speech-Articulation, Speech-Spring, etc. To find great ideas for speech therapy, follow other speech therapists and teachers. To locate others, I search “speech” or “speech therapy.” Another way to search is to look up the theme or area you are targeting. If you are looking for something with a back-to-school theme, you could type “back to school speech” and pull up a good selection of cool stuff for your speech-language plans. 

#2 SLP Blogs

You know the saying, “Two heads are better than one?” Following SLP blogs is like having hundreds of heads focused on the same goal: Being a GREAT SLP! Ideas, experiences, and often FREE resources can be found on these blogs. Two places I have found great SLP blogs are Bloglovin’ and this resource, The Best of SLP Bloggers, from Activity Tailor and SpeechSprouts.

#3 Teachers Pay Teachers

I love, love, love Teachers Pay Teachers. Do not let the name turn you off-there are many SLPs found on this site who have THE BEST resources. You can type in what you are searching for (r sound homework) and BOOM-over 1000 results. You can narrow by price (like FREE) or specialty (Speech Therapy) to help find the perfect one.

#4 Classroom Curriculum

My second graders read a story every year in their regular classroom about dogs. Guess what I use to plan for my second graders that week? That’s right-a dog theme! Sometimes I even branch out to include all pets with my other elementary kids too. In addition to facilitating planning, we can target carryover by using the classroom curriculum! How awesome!

#5 Children's Literature

Using children's books in therapy is not only fun, but smart. You can plan your sessions around a specific book, a series, or an author. This makes it easy to search for related activities and/or themes. Often, you can address multiple skills using one book. One of my favorites for winter is Joseph Had a Little Overcoat (Caldecott Medal Book) by Simms Tabeck. In this book alone, I have targeted vocabulary, sequencing, questions, concepts, articulation, and fluency. In fact, I have a free story companion in my TPT shop that will help with session planning for this cute story. Find it here.

#6 Social Media

I have seen some fantastic therapy ideas on social media, particularly Instagram. Search and follow other SLPs by using hashtags such as #slpeeps, #schoolslp, #ashaigers, #speechtherapy, and #slpsfollowslps. Many SLPs are also active on Twitter and Snapchat, and have Facebook pages. You can find Facebook groups specific to your area of interest as well. 

I hope this helps make planning easier (and less boring) for you! If you have any other ideas, please comment below! 

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