Those first speech therapy sessions at the beginning of the school year always seem to be hardest for some speech language pathologists. Especially SLPs new to their district or new to the field in general. Do you immediately start in goal work? Do you break out a game or another icebreaker? Or maybe you pull each of your 175 students individually to complete full baselines? (Please don’t do that last one! You will immediately start out behind in your IEP minutes!)
I always loved doing easy “get to know you” activities. For a couple of years, I used the book “Chrysanthemum” to get the kids comfortable. We had follow up activities for the next few weeks that allowed us to work on our goals as well as get to know each other. (You can find the book companion here).
I also read “If You Take a Mouse to School“, “Howway for Wodney Wat,” and even “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse.” You can find book companions for the other two books in my free resource library. (SIGN UP HERE!)
But…what if you don’t want to commit to a book? Maybe you’re going to baseline in your small groups and need something to keep 2-3 kids busy while you quickly take data on another. Or you just want a refresher activity because we all know kids forget what they are working on in speech FREQUENTLY!
Say less hon! Insert this little freebie into your life. Take the pain out of PlAnnINg!! This resource is a print, copy and go. Set out some boxes of crayons or markers. Do you have student with more than one sound? Then pick out a couple that you’ll target at the beginning and have them complete both.
I love to print these on bright colored paper because it just looks more fun. But maybe that’s not in the budget. Print them on white paper and have the students make them colorful. Or if you have the materials, have students cut out pictures from magazines or draw their own.
Even though I am in private practice now, I will use these from time to time when I start a new client or cycling through sounds with current clients. I say that so that if you’re reading this and not sure this would work for the private practice clinician… yes it does! Plus, it’s free…what do you have to lose?
Download your copy today and make that first day of therapy a breeze! Because after all, that schedule you just created probably caused your stress level to rise a bit.
WHAT?!!!! You’ve reached the end of this blog post and not grabbed these freebies I just mentioned? Well, here’s your chance one more time!
speechchicktherapyblog.com 