Feeling thankful in my speech room these days

If you've been reading, you know that my students and I have been "Thanksgiving" it up this month in speech and language therapy!

I just love this time of year when the air is crisp and everyone is filled with gratitude.

I was shocked in the first week of November at how little my students related with Thanksgiving so I've been shamelessly bombarding them with the ideals, traditions and history of Thanksgiving.  Wanna peek?  

We learned about the Pilgrims and Native Americans and their first feast together.  I used the little gameboard from my Thanksgiving Fun Pack to get in lots of artic drill.  With my second grade kiddos who also happen to be struggling in math, we did a little roll-n-cover. 

It was interesting to find out about the Thanksgiving feasts my students have in their home. This is Louisiana so it's not always about turkey.  Some of their families have traditions of feasting on deer, shrimp etoufee', seafood gumbo, fried catfish...even turtle soup!! I also had several Hispanic students tell me all about their feast of homemade Mexican dishes.  Yummmm. 

Dot art always does the trick with my youngest students for artic drill, too.  Oh, and you know I love quick drill! 

For my language students, we've been getting down to the nitty gritty of Thanksgiving. After one of my fourth graders told me that he thought that Thanksgiving was about Christopher Columbus sailing to America on the Mayflower, I knew it was time for some heavy duty educating!  

We have been trudging through the 22 non-fiction passages and questions about Thanksgiving in my Thanksgiving non-fiction packet starting with the very beginning all the way to present day traditions. 

When I wrote these passages, even I learned a lot! Did you know that there were no desserts at the First Thanksgiving?  WHAT!? 

My kids are shockingly interested in this (which makes ME thankful).   I think it's because the passages average about 5-6 sentences.  Many of my language students are also struggling readers and they get so discouraged by the looonnnnnngggg passages they encounter in class.  This was manageable for them and let them feel some success.  

That was a beautiful thing to see.

 I've been doing this not only in my speech room but also in my push in/inclusion classes.  Before we get out for Thankgiving break next Friday, my "babies" will be Thanksgiving experts!  Woohooo!! 

We've also been using EETchy to write about Thanksgiving.  Can I just say, that EET string of beads has been a Godsend! 

With both my language and articulation students, We've been making silly Thanksgiving stories.  Stamp-a-stories just make everyone talk talk talk talk talk AND the kids can't wait to read them to everyone. It's an SLPs dream! 

You can use stickers or stamps; I just happen to have a huge stash of stamps. 

As we stamp, students have to decide if they need to add word endings (s, -ed, -ing) to their stamp with with a sharpie so that the sentences are grammatically correct.  

These came out pretty good!! Not all of the kids let me keep their story to show off- most of them wanted to take it to class or home to read to their teachers and family.  

(I challenge them to bring it back signed by everyone who they read it to).  

For articulation students, sometimes I have them highlight their target sounds. 

 In any case, it's just plain fun and full of speech & language (eek! love that!) 

Apparently this little dude is a fan of pigs. LOL  

This is just small part of my Thanksgiving fun pack, by the way :) Honestly, I haven't even had time to do all the activities in the pack.  I actually wish November lasted longer! 

Evenmore, I wish we held on to these Novemberish feelings of gratitude all year long.  

Oh what a wonderful world it would be.  

As I write this post early on a Saturday morning, I'm feeling very thankful for so many things. 

If you follow me on instagram,  you may have seen some of my thankful posts :)

-thankful for the little things that held me breathe deeper and get me through the day-

-thankful for my youngest son who is so very good to the core-

-and my oldest who wants to change the world-

-thankful for my students who are a constant reminder of why I get up and go to work everyday-

-thankful I'll be @ Disneyworld in 7 days- ahhhhhhh !! 

-thankful for all of you who read my blog and follow me in all my "places" :)

TpT, Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram.  

and all the people (in my computer) that I've never met but now call friends.

It's been so rewarding and just incredibly fun to get to know SLPs from all over and share my corner of speech world with you.  Honestly, I wish I could throw you all a party.  

My house isn't really big enough for that so how about a giveaway instead? 

:)

Two lucky readers can win every Thanksgiving Activity in my TpT Store just in time to print and use for Thanksgiving! 

This: 

This: 

AND this: 

Happy Thanksgiving y'all & good luck!