Spring is here and the above photo was a picture of my whiteboard drawing as an icebreaker for my students. This drawing above initiated topics among my students such as: "My mother is growing tulips in her garden" or "Flowers need water and sun to grow." These conversations sound like some good language and some good speech sounds all in one.
I brought in artificial vegetables for my younger students to describe and they really enjoyed telling me all about the different types of vegetables. The artificial vegetables I got from Ikea in the children's section.
One of my favorite apps that a lot of my younger students have enjoyed is Dr. Panda's Veggie Garden. This app was very good to tie in all of the information that they have been learning in class about vegetables and fruit and how plants grow. Here is the link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dr.-pandas-veggie-garden/id585512923?mt=8Cost of this app: $1.99.There are 12 different fruits and vegetables that the students can grow and learn about in this app. It also provides some good vocabulary (i.e. plowing, seeding) and the students can put the fruits and vegetables in the correct category. To make it even more engaging, I chose one student to be the farmer.
First the elephant pulls up and is thinking off a fruit or a vegetable. The farmer (a student) can name what the elephant is thinking of in his mind. Below are some of the steps that the students had to take in order to make the blueberries grow.
Open the bag
Put the seeds in the pot
Use the watering can
Sunlight to help the blueberries grow
Keep the bugs away from eating your blueberries
Pick the blueberries and put them in the basket for the elephant
Put the blueberries on the back of the elephant's truck
My favorite app that I use on Wednesdays is Brain Quest, the students absolutely love it! The app is great for Grades 1-5 and all of the material covered throughout the questions is very appropriate and all of the students learn so much information. While using this app some of the common phrases that I hear from the students are:
"We just talked about this in class"
"We are having a test on this next week"
"I just learned this in class"
So as you can see from all of the feedback from the students, this is def. an app that aligns with what they are learning in class! It is free for the first few levels, but once you see how excited the students get, you are going to want to purchase this app.
This week there is no Student Success Tip of the Week because I want to know what is your Student Success Tip? Leave your Student Success Tips in the Comments Section.
Happy First Day of Spring and Enjoy!
I was looking for some new apps to download on my Ipad for productivity and I came across this cool app.
App Name: UnStuckWhere Can I Get This App? https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unstuck/id478421271?mt=8
Price: FREE
Purpose: Productivity
I think this is an Awesome app that really helps you through those STUCK moments that we experience in life.
Below are some screenshots of this app:
You pick 3 cards that best describe your stuck moment.
Example: Overwhelmed, Tired, and Unmotivated
They ask you to write why you feel stuck....
Example: "I am overwhelmed with projects that are due, studying for tests, and upcoming exams. It does not seem like there is enough time for preparation. I am beginning to feel tired and unmotivated. HELP!! (Does this sound familiar :)
After you go through the various exercises to identify why you feel stuck, the app diagnoses your stuck feelings to create strategies to help you get UnStuck.
The app provides you with tools to break down tasks that seem to keep you stuck. I think this app was designed really well and sometimes it helps to write things out and break big projects into smaller tasks.
You may be feeling overwhelmed with all of the projects that are due and all of the work that you have to do, but there really is light at the end of the tunnel! Hang in there, you can do it! It is all worth it!
Happy Monday Everyone...One of my favorite FREE holiday apps that my students are really enjoying is the Gingerbread Cookie Maker. It is so much fun and is great to build lots of language and work on those good speech sounds. Above are some of the screenshots and I always stick the cookie in the oven. We all have really enjoyed this great holiday app. What are some of your favorite holiday apps?
Following Directions With Origami {Review}
The free ‘How to Make Origami’ app is a fun, simple tool to utilize with students who are bored with worksheets. This app will walk you and your students through the steps of how to make over 70 popular origami figures (crane, rabbit, giraffe, goldfish, tulip, etc) while using 3D animation of the folding process. Steps range from a simple 6 step walk-through on how to make a boat all the way up to the 78 step ‘how-to’ on creating a spider! Users can easily go forward/backward through the steps as well as replay the animation. Each figure is rated for difficulty from easy to middle to hard. Directions for images rated easy and middle are provided for each step. For the images rated hard, no written directives are provided.
This can be turned into a great pragmatic language lesson wherein a student can take the lead and instruct others on the next step, engaging in a back and forth dialogue. Students have the opportunity to ask for clarification, repetition, or assistance; necessary social skills a lot of my students do not possess. Additional IEP goals related to following directions, auditory memory, sequencing, sentence formulation, can also be targeted.
For additional reinforcement related to the skills targeted, graphic organizer can be used to recall and organize steps used to create the origami image. Further working on receptive and expressive language.
Below are a few screen shots of one my favorite figures from this app.... a pig!
Each image is presented on the screen prior to steps being introduced.
Each step is animated and accompanied with written directives at the bottom of the screen (for easy and middle images only).
All steps can easily be replayed. Users can go forward or back through steps.
App Compatibility:
The ‘How to make Origami’ App is available on all Apple products (iPhone and iPad) as well as all Android products (phone and tablet). I have the app on both my Android phone and iPad. In the therapy room setting I prefer using the iPad where it’s large screen is a perfect size for my small group sessions.
Have fun folding!
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Author Bio: Ms.Sohan is a Middle School Speech-Language Pathologist from New York. She is the author of the blog Let’s Talk Speech and Language where she posts about behavior management, free apps, therapy techniques, and more.
Unus Tactus App
Ashley Alliano is a speech language pathology graduate student at Seton Hall University. She developed and recently released an app called Unus Tactus. It is intended to be used by people of all ages with mild cognitive or motor deficits in order to allow them to have easy access to use their cell phone with GPS features.
Visual Phone Directory
The I-phone is turned into a one touch dialer by using large pictures as a visual to dial the corresponding individual’s phone number.
Help Button
This button allows for easy access to an emergency number (i.e. hospital, family member) in order to contact that individual. A phone call is placed to the contact phone number, in addition to an email sent to the individual’s emergency email address. A Google Map link is attached to show the user’s exact location
Geofence
This feature allows the user to notify their emergency contact person whey they have left a designated radius of a given location. When the alert is triggered, an email is sent to the user’s emergency contact including Google Maps link to the user’s exact location.
