Christmas Fun Flashback and a link up!!

Ahhhhh.....the first real day of Christmas break.  Bliss.  Heaven.  Pure relaxation.

My dog, Lola, thinks so, too! (that is her resting her head between by slippered feet!)

There sure hasn't been much time for blogging over the last few weeks.  

Between the shopping, tree trimming, and work, I've had the flu and bronchitis.  Bleck! 

I feel like I didn't get to squeeze in as much Christmas fun with my students as I would have liked... 

BUT Jenna over at Speech Room News inspired me to share my speech room activities....even though it's a little late.  

So here we go! 

1) Reindeer Cookies!!

This is the first time my co-workers and I tried reindeer/Rudolph cookies!! My co-SLP found this easy and fun snack activity on Pinterest (of course!) All you need is double stuffed oreos, pretzels, M&Ms and a little gell icing in a tube to help the M&Ms stick. 

First, have the kiddos break a large pretzel. Then they should open the cookie and smush the pretzel "antlers" into the cream.  Next, put the cookie back together. Put a dot of icing to act as "glue" and let the kids stick on the eyes and nose. 

(This is a great activity for sequencing!) 

Voila!  Eat and lick lips!

2) Games of all kinds!! 

This Elf themed one was a big hit since most of my students have elves watching over them at home!

Reindeer Games was a hit for my kids working on articulation in longer phrases and sentences and I love the little scratch art Christmas trees for kids to do while they're waiting their turn to say their sounds. (the little green trees in the center of the photo on the right). I buy them every year from Oriental Trading. 

3) Reindeer Food! 

For as long as I can remember, I've made reindeer food with my kiddies.  The recipe is:

3 scoops of oats

2 scoops of sugar 

Lots of sprinkles of glitter so the reindeer can find it on the lawn! 

(lots of reiteration that this is only for reindeer and humans CANNOT eat it/glitter is not to be eaten!!) 

All put into a plastic baggie along with a sweet little poem. 

Only one kindergartener attempted to eat it and was promptly stopped.  Success! 

The only picture I caught of this was of the tragic glitter spillage....

4) Suit Up Santa!

This was a new game for my kids this year and they loved it.  They are beyond obsessed with Santa and thought it was hilarious that he was not in his usual suit!  Since it's open ended I was able to use it with everyone, regardless of the goal. This will be a go-to in my room for years to come! 

5) Christmas Trivia Competition! 

If you're a regular reader, you know I love to motivate my kids with a little competition. I split up my groups into teams. You can see the whiteboard shows this game was the Santa team versus the Reindeer team!  We use my trivia questions to test their knowledge of all things Christmas AND to see how their speech and language skills hold up under pressure (without me constantly modeling or reminding them. It's one of their favorite activities all year long.  There were no criers this time (especially this game since it was a tie) only a few balled fists which is just a teachable moment and the perfect time to apply those social skills we talk about! 

6) Christmas Barrier Games 

Everytime I use barrier games, I love them more and more. I used these most with a private "after school" client that needs to work on expressing himself in a more organized manner (and carrying over his articulation skills into conversatio

n).  Wow!! This worked miracles. I had him tell me where to place the items and I often placed them in the wrong spot (which was very eye opening to him that he wasn't explaining himself clearly!). 

He loved this so much he made his mom copy some of it on their home scanner/printer! Now they are playing at home with the family. 

As a side note, you can see how I organize my TpT products (large manilla envelope, lots of binder clips and plastic baggies)

7) COLAR Coloring Pages!!!!

I think I left the most exciting for last.  I discovered the FREE Colar Mix App at a recent conference I went to and it has been so much fun!  

Coloring is boring.  I never have the heart to make kids do it. This year, I DID. 

 It's not boring anymore! 

We did lots of testing before our Christmas break and when my students finished their testing, I gave the coloring sheets to color, promising them we would do something special with them.  I downloaded the sheets from colarapp.com (those are free, too!).  The site has coloring sheets for sale but also free seasonal sheets that can be downloaded, printed and copied. 

They currently have coloring pages for Christmas and New Year. 

Once my students had colored their masterpiece, I opened my Colar Mix app and "caught" the image of their coloring sheet in the screen.  THEN IT COMES TO LIFE!

Oh- important to note- use crayons or colored pencils only and avoid coloring darkly over the black outline- the app "reads" the black lines. 

Here is a screen shot of what it looks like when you "catch" the image: 

(note the ipad- or you can use an iphone- is grabbing the image of the color sheet below)

You can see it in action in these videos (good grief excuse my voice- this is me recovering from bronchitis and the loss of my voice) and for you out-of-staters, don't be alarmed by my lingering cajun accent (believe it or not, I have the mildest accent of any cajun I know). 

This is considered normal for Louisiana :) 

Here is a present someone colored. Note how it comes to life in the colors the kids color it with.

Don't hesitate to move the iPad all around the coloring sheet- it's a complete 3D view from all angles and you can interact with many of the images. Check this out!

There are 2 different sheets for the New Year. 

We will be doing more of these in January! 

How cool is that!!???

Merry Christmas, y'all!!