Bloggy Birthday Day 2!

Wow!! Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and congrats to the Day 1 giveaway winner,    Erin Dunkle!! Yayyy!! You'll be getting some goodies in your email! 

 Let's carry on with the bloggy birthday festivities, shall we?! 

Today I want to share with you a guest post by a blogger I really admire, Miss Thrifty SLP! Have you been to her blog?? Man, oh, man she has the best ideas!  I'm constantly blown away her DIYs and frugal finds! Here is another one of her clever ideas:   

Hello everyone! I am so honored to be writing this guest post for the lovely and creative Mia. If you follow my blog, Miss Thrifty SLP, you have probably noticed my recent trend in social skills activities. It's an area where I am building up my materials library and clinical skills through trial and error (as well as lots of research). Right now, my younger social skills groups are learning about emotions using our emotions journal. I am trying to move them away from the clip art images now to environmental images, such as actual pictures and movie clips. This inspired me to create another simple DIY project. You can use these to simply identify the emotion as well as to follow simple directions. 

Step One: Grab some magazines, newspapers, or catalogs with lots of people pictures. Cut out the ones that speak to you. I love using Super Duper catalogs for many of my crafting projects as their models show a variety of expressions.

Step Two: Make sure the pictures are cut to size. I like to leave just a slight edge around mine.

Step Three: Tape the pictures to strips of construction paper. I always cut out one long rectangle strip to use as my sizing guide to keep them fairly consistent. It's handy to keep a large stack of these blank strips ready for spur of the moment projects.

Step Four: Laminate.

It took me roughly 40 minutes to do this project. It may take a little bit less or more time depending on how picky you are with crafting. The total cost was $0.  

P.S. You can make a similar project with stickers for following directions. 

Thanks Andrea!! I think I will look at my Super Duper Catalogs in a whole new way now!! 

Now let's talk about what I'm giving away today! 

Some of your favorite bloggers pitched in the prizes  presents for today! 

Check it out! 

Are you ready!?

1) From my friend Jen @ Speech Universe (whose blog I was reading long before I started mine) you can win her Winter Phonological Awareness  pack! 34 pages of phonological fun! 

2) From fellow Louisiana bloggers-Tech 'n Talk SLPs- check this out....

    NO PRINT Rhyming, Recalling and Responding with Initial r  designed for use on an iPad,  

    iBooks or computer! Ingenius!  I can't wait to try it! 

3) From Lora at Chatterbox Speech (one of the wittiest SLPs I know!) you can win Roll and 

     Say CVCs featuring /k/ in the final position.  

4) From my good Texan friend, Natalie at Just Wright Speech, check out her Category Sort- Holiday Edition!

5) From another great southern blogger and friend of mine....Karen at the Speech Umbrella and the Posh SLP .... is her Love-y Monkeys for /k/ and /g/ product (so cute!)  

6)  From my blogger buddy, Abby over at Schoolhouse Talk, you can win....a whole BUNDLE of her Itty Bitty Books featuring later developing sounds!  
I am in love with these! 
There's /l/, /r/, /l/ blends, /s/ blends, sh, ch, j and th up for grabs.

You can see these and more of them in her TpT store! 

7) Lastly, from me you can win Jibber Jabber Quick Drill and gameboard (for articulation, apraxia, fluency and RtI}       

Whew! That's A LOT! 

So let's do it!! 

Enter now because this giveaway ends at midnight!! 

I'll be announcing the winner here tomorrow as well as on my facebook page! 

Good Luck! 

May the odds be ever in your favor! 

(OMG I just saw Catching Fire and I'm obsessed! Can ya tell?)

It's my Bloggy Birthday!

Today is December 30th! Exactly one year ago I officially became a blogger! 

Yep, that's right...it's my bloggy birthday!   

On Dec. 30, 2012 at 3:19 in the morning I posted my very first post.  

It was my New Year's resolution to start a blog, and I did it!! 
I'm slightly shocked I stuck with it, but I did.... because I love it :)

Yayyy!! I'm ONE (or at least my blog is!) 

(Oh! Thanks to the 3am teacher for this cool frame and My Clipart Store for the adorable cupcake!) 

As corny as it sounds, writing has been as passion of mine since I was a young girl, and when I put it aside in exchange for writing IEPs and speech and language evaluations, my son (who is a real, bonafide writer with papers to prove it), my husband and my mom kept urging me to write...ya know....something besides paperwork! 

I had no idea what I was doing on that night, and honestly, I still don't much of the time, but it has been so much fun learning!  Even more than that, it has been so awesome meeting other SLPs across the country -and beyond! Wow! 

Over the past year I have been so inspired by other bloggers (who I now happily call friends) and by YOU readers!! I mean who the heck would have ever thought that anyone would actually read what I write!?  Of course, I knew my family would 

(but I thought that would probably be it). 

My mind is boggled and my heart is full each time someone leaves a comment on a post. 

  THANK YOU to everyone out there who takes the time to stop by my little blog, to encourage and support me, to listen to my ramblings, to leave me little notes on facebook and instagram and to shop in my TpT store. 

You have truly made me a better SLP.   

I'm so excited to be starting another fun year of sharing my speech room and my life with you.  

So what's a birthday without a party!?  And presents!! There must be presents!! 

ALL FOR YOU

...

to say thank you for following! 

Thank you for commenting, emailing and leaving feedback at my store! 

Thank you for telling your fellow speechies about me. 

Thank you for pinning! 

Every single small gesture of support means the world to me. 

Thank you for the little messages to say that that you dig the speechie stuff I make .

Thanks for all the click, click, clicking on my links. 

Our jobs are unbelievably rewarding but also hard and overwhelming at times. 

Knowing we're all in the same boat makes it easier and more fun! 

Thanks for choosing to stick with me on this adventure!

SO NOW FOR THE PRESENTS!! 

Today on my bloggy birthday and for the next 3 days, I will be giving away some pretty neat stuff! 

Stop by each day to ENTER TO WIN prizes presents!!!  Of course, there will be prizes presents from my store but also from some of my fabulous blogger friends and favorite clipart artists.  Besides that, I will have a guest post from one of my clever and thrifty friends!

Each giveaway will last only 1 day! Products will be revealed the day of the giveaway and the winner will be announced the next day along with the next day's giveaway!

Wanna know what you can win today? 

Well, it's a bundle of goodies from these awesome SLPs!

1) A HUGE packet called  Articulation Placemats- homework sheets  & drill activities
    from the very first blogger who reached out to me, my good friend and the best 
    proofreader- Jessica over at Figuratively Speeching SLP    
  

2) Why do I Come to Speech Therapy mini books from Teach Speech 365. I absolutely love 
     her blog- you should check it out if you haven't!  I hope one day to blog as frequently as 
     she does! 

3) Literacy Checklists that I AM IN LOVE WITH from Maria (who I adore!) over at    

     Communication Station. 

4) Candy Crunch /s/ sounds articulation packet from my new friend and a talented blogger 
     who is always full of cool ideas, Jennifer a.k.a SLP runner!! 

5) Where is the Snowman?  Preposition Pack for Speech and Language  from my sweet, 
     smart and supportive friend Rae over at Rae's Speech Spot. 

6) From Felice, the Dabbling Speechie, (whose blog I was reading long before I started mine!) this super cute Build a Snowman Articulation Game for s, z, r, l, l blends and s blends!

7) Lastly you will win New Year Traditions {responding to non-fiction text} from ME! 

Good luck!! 

So glad you're here to celebrate with me! 

Winners will be announced here and on my facebook page tomorrow! 

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!! 

Technology (and food!) Overload!!!

O.  M.  G.  My head is spinning.  My mind is BLOWN.

I spent 2 days this week at the LACUE technology conference in New Orleans

(That stands for Lousiana Association for Computer Using Educators by the way)

My principal sent myself and a group of teachers here and I am freaking out over how much I learned!

But before we get down to techy talk- let's talk about the food, shall we? 

Here is some of our little group here having dinner at celebrity chef Josh Besh's LUKE restaurant...

HAVE MERCY that was yummy!! I'm already planning what I want to order on my next visit! 

My friend Allison and I stayed at the fabulous Harrah's (casino) Hotel which and look-ie what we saw in the hotel lobby...

The sweetest (literally!) gingerbread replica of Cafe Du Monde with a train chugging around it.  It just filled the lobby with the homey scent of gingerbreada & sugar.  sigh.   Love. 

If you've ever been to New Orleans, you know what a beloved building this is.  If you haven't, you must come to visit and have beignets and cafe au lait here someday! 

Now before I get down to the nitty gritty of technology, I must show you my scrumptiousdiliumptious lunch from Dragos- another classic New Orleans restuarant.  

Charbroiled oysters smothered in cheese and garlic butter.  Mmmmmm. 

Put.  them.  on.  your.  bucket list.  

For real. 

Ok now that the food talk (my favorite thing) is out of the way, let's get down to technology talk.  

Warning:  your head may explode from excitement. 

Have any of you ever seen a presentation by Leslie Fisher?  She is a nationally known tech guru and a truly dynamic presenter.  I could not tear myself away from her fascinating workshops!

Here are just a few of my new favorite things that made my jaw drop:

1) IPEVO  

IPEVO makes 2 things I fell in love with! 

First up- a very affordable and compact document camera (that can even be wireless with an attachment)

and an equally affordable device that turns ANY SURFACE into an interactive white board (you must have a projector).  Did you hear me, people?  Any wall, dry erase board, chalk board.  ANY. WHAT!? I bet those of you SLPs still doing therapy in the closet never dreamed you could have an interactive whiteboard.  Your dreams are more in reach now!

You can check them both out at www.ipevo.com! 

2) Leap motion

Leap motion allows you to control any computer or device with hand gestures only! Currently there are 147 compatible apps that work with LEAPMOTION but I am sure this is only the beginning. This means that our students who struggle with poor fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, or motor precision can have access to more technology.  I think this is going to be groundbreaking for disabled children, and in particular for us, students who need alternate means of communication  - ESPECIALLY since it is so affordable! 

You can see more at leapmotion.com or check out the video below of it being used with disabled children in an Australian classroom. 

3) Colar Mix app

 Colar Mix allows you to download coloring pages and copy as them as many times as you like. There are a handful of free sheets and you can buy more sheets (10-12) for 2.99 when you're tired of the free ones. I downloaded the free coloring pages on my computer at colarapp.com and printed them in a snap. Easy as pie. 

But wait.  There's more! (hehe)

Now I'm sure you're asking....Mia, why in the world are you so darn excited about coloring sheets? 

Well, after your kids are done coloring them (with crayons or colored pencils only and NOT covering the black lines) they come alive. That isn't just an expression.  They come to life- they MOVE and become animateD!!!  WTH!!?? Right?  

Download the free CoLAR Mix app.  Go on.  Do it.  You will want to hug me.   

After your students are done coloring the page,  just open up your Colar app and point your camera's device at the coloring page. Be sure to fill the screen with the entire page.  Then watch it come to life.  

Ridiculous! 

Your students can even put their hands under the iPad and see their hand interacting with the virtual object that THEY created! You can view all angles of the moving objects simply by moving the iPad or iPhone.  It's all kinds of cool I can't even comprehend. 

Coloring has never been so much fun! 

Can you imagine all the things we could use this for?  I plan to have my students use EETchy to describe their creations and write about it.  

Watch the video for a demostration then try it with your kids! 

You can thank you me later ;)

By the way, I WILL be posting more about how I used this (including videos!) 

4) TAB app

Ok here we are back to talking about food.  Since we were a large group of people eating out in New Orleans, I decided to try the TAB app that a presenter mentioned at the conference.  
OMG so neat!!
It's perfect for when you're dining out with friends- I'm usually the expensive "orderer" and I hate splitting the bill evenly because I don't want anyone else having to pay for my foodie indulgences.  

This is how it works: 

-You take a picture of the bill.  

-Then you type in everyone's first name.  -Simply touch a name and touch everything that person ate/drank.  

-If 2 people shared something, simply touch it for each person- it will split the cost.  

-Each person gets their exact amount!

We tried it. 

We loved it.  

It's my new BFF.

5) GLYMPSE app

Ok so I never promised this post would be all speechie related.  
This app is related to another one of my favorite things..... traveling! 

Whether you're traveling a few miles to pick up a friend for a night out or across the country, this app keeps your friends and family in the know. 

It shares your location and "trail" in real time so anyone you invite to view it can see where you are, how long you've been traveling, etc, etc.  

Instead of telling your friend how many minutes you'll be until you reach her house, just send her a glympse. She can watch your progress on her smart phone. 

 I wish I'd known about it during my recent drive to Disney World because I would have sent my mom a glympse so she could practice using her iPad (hi mom!) 

 I know next time my 23 year old rambling man son goes on a roadtrip, I will be tracking him on glympse for peace of mind.  

Not to mention, if you're the paranoid type or on the wrong side of the tracks you could always send a glympse to a friend and tell her to call 911 if you don't reach your destination! (sorry I went to the dark side for a moment there)

You can find Glympse at the app store :)

Well, that's all for now!  You can be sure I'll be posting more about my new technology toys and apps as I put them to use in my speech room!! 

Happy Weekend, y'all!