The decision "to be the duck" couldn't have come at a better time. The beginning of the school year is a crazy and hectic time for every SLP. If you are going to glide you might as well start from the beginning. I work with a wide variety of students from little ones in preschool to 6th grade. I serve a special population of students who have a wide very range of needs. I need to come up with materials that are accessible for all of them. So this year, I am streamlining. I try to make one big project or material and retrofit it to fit as many students as possible. Here are a couple products a Pintrest project, and a simple, easy to make and fun game that have helped the year get off to a great start!
The products that have changed my life (that's a little dramatic but I really love them)
1) dry erase contact paper
I work in a finite amount of space and kids constantly shuffling in and out of the caddies behind their seats took a lot of time and was pretty disruptive so, per the recommendation of one of our lovely first grade teachers, I covered my table in dry erase contact paper and voila! something exciting for the kids to experience and a lot less time wasted in searching for dry erase boards. I was not able to find dry erase in stores however, it is available online and you can find it here.
2) side opening storage containers
This is where I keep the games the motivator of all motivators for elementary school kids. They are difficult for a child to open which makes them great for requesting, but easy for an adult to open which means it's easy to put away games at the end of the day, a win win situation.
3) A Pintrest project!
Joy of joys a Pintrest project! This nifty idea has been posted and re-posted on the site! All you need is gallon sized bags and some duct tape. (The patterned stuff is really fun!) For whatever reason, the texture of the walls or maybe the temperature, nothing I hung up ever stayed that way and I would come back to school and see a huge pile of my students awesome work on the floor...very depressing. Any how this "display quilt" has solved all those problems. Classroom DIY has a great tutorial on how to make a display quilt and you can watch it here.
This was my finished quilt!
4) Feed the Teacher: A fast and easy game to make
I originally invented this game for my artic kids in the k-2. I also used it with grades 4-5 and they loved it too! I think the motor component of throwing the apples to the "teachers" was really rewarding to a wide range of students. I introduce the game by asking them what do teachers love to eat? Apples of course! The students objective is to earn apples by making good speech sounds. When all the apples have been earned by the students, I let them take turns throwing them in the cups. A game like this is so simple. It allows for multiple responses from students in a short amount of time (some of my kiddos got up to 50 chances to practice their tricky sounds!) Since all you need are some clear cups, a permanent marker and some wads of apple colored paper (or you could use pom-poms) it ends up being a stress free but stimulating game that fits into the back to school theme as well as being gentle on the wallet!
Have a great week!
