Free App February: ChatterPix Kids

ChatterPix Kids, by Duck Duck Moose, is in a class by itself. Take photos of your favorite stuffed animals, toys, friends, pets, or any object. Add a line for a mouth and record your message. 

Perfect for auditory bombardment - take pictures of 10 or more toys and record appropriate words. 

Have pictures set up and ready to record. Let students in centers practice target phonemes while independently recording. 

Enjoy!

Diana

© 2014

Free App February: Cars and Trucks

Playrific apps, Cars Lite and Firefighters, Fire Trucks, and Fire Safety Lite contain games and videos, originally found on the web, but grouped together for your students on the iPad. 

Use Cars in Sandbox: LITE to teach concepts such as forward, backward, go stop, pick up, in, and out.

Sort it Out 1 - Sort vehicles that go move in the sky, on the road, or on water. 

Toca Cars has only been free for a few weeks so grab it quickly. This app allows for much creativity and many opportunities for expressive language. 

Planet Go - Label and describe the vehicles seen on the free flashcard set.

A Funny Car Wash Game for Kids  - Wash, wax, and dry two free cars. Practice verb tense and using describing words such as shiny, dirty, clean, wet, and dry. 

Road Vehicles - Move vehicles to appropriate destinations.

Peekaboo Vehicles - Listen to the sound and predict the identity of the of the vehicle behind the cloud.  

Enjoy!

Diana

© 2014

Free App February: Stories to Read

Read these story apps with your young students.
Enjoy these FREE book apps!



Riding with Rosa Parks by LAZ Reader 

Learning A-Z, from Language Technologies, Inc., has many other free titles. Definitions of key words and the simple language make books ideal tools for language lessons. 




Goodnight Safari by Polk Street Press LLC  


This interactive book for young children allows them to help the animals prepare for bedtime through seven interactive scenes. This simple story is perfect for practicing verb tense, WH questions, prepositions, and labeling actions. 

Shout Science! by Scott Dubois

Shout Science! is a comic storybook app for readers ages 7-11.  It consists of three narrative biographies that take place during the Scientific Revolution in Europe. Good for making predictions, inferences, and answering complex questions. 

Read and create simple stories with eight FREE Collins Big Cat apps by Harper Collins Publishers Ltd. Check out my 2013 post describing these apps.

Professor Garfield's Fat Cat Books - #1 By Paws Incorporated are perfect to use when working on phonemic awareness. 

Diana

© 2014

Free App February: Apps for this Winter Season

Read and retell the story Into the Snow: A Stella and Sam Adventure. Talk about making a snowman and things found under the snow. As of January 2016, this app costs $1.99. 

This app, Winter Animals Videos, Games, Photos, Books and Activities for Kids by Playrific, has activities perfect for describing, carry-over, increasing phrase length and a variety of speech and language activities. As of January 2016, this app costs $.99. 


Visit my post, Snow Day! - Apps and More, to find out more about the free apps Snow Man (and free visual supports) and Snow. Snow Man and Snow are not available as of January 2016.
 
The simple picture book, I Like Snow, by GrasshopperApps.com has beautiful pictures of children in the snow with simple sentences. Great for vocabulary. Customize this book by adding your own photos and a repetitive line. 

Draw With Hearts allows you to add hearts to your own photographs or screenshots. This works well when working on prepositions or cause and effect. 

Diana

© 2014

Free App February Is Back!

Last February, I posted free apps that could be used in therapy or to help you with everyday routines. I thought that it might be difficult to repeat that, but new apps come out everyday. 

During Free App February 2014, you can look forward to Apps for this Winter Season, More Tools for You, Stories to Read, Cats and Dogs (And Other Pets), Cars and Trucks, and more! 

Many of the apps that I posted last year are still free. So, if you didn't see these posts in 2013, check them out here. 

Tools for You

Apps for Readers

Apps for Young Children

Apps for Young Readers

Creative App Ideas From Other SLPs

Apps that Promote Expressive Language 

Apps for Communication 

Apps for Articulation

Diana

© 2014

At Least Three Weeks of Penguins for Speech and Language

I am adamant about extending thematic units for three weeks to a month when working with language groups. Students need time to learn the vocabulary, language concepts, and might even be able to retell the story with some details after a month of repetition. Read the same literature selection at least four, five, or six times. Additional sessions might include a picture walk of the book or an adapted book - you might tire of the story, but your students will not.

I am not saying that you need to read the same book and ask the same questions during every session. Your sessions definitely need some variety. Add activities that build on the vocabulary and skills you are teaching. If the activities work (sometimes they don't), repeat those as well.

And, if you are repeating activities and using the same theme for a longer period of time, you are planning less and enjoying life a little more.

That said, here are enough penguin resources to get you through at least three weeks of language sessions! 

• A Teacher Without a Class has great penguin facts and photos on her blog. AND, free vocabulary cards (with definitions and pictures) as well as vocabulary activities - FREE at her TpT site.  As of today, there are an additional 16 FREE speech therapy penguin activities at Teachers pay Teachers.

• Rumble Grumble Gurgle Roar at YouTube (formerly at NickJr); the story of a hungry, little penguin. Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. See the flannel board version at Putting Smiles on Faces. 

• Read Penguin Party, a story at lil-fingers.com.

• There is a talking penguin on the Happy Feet Two: The Penguin App who will imitate your students without inappropriate noises.  

• Check out Penguin and Pinecone, A Friendship Lesson For Speech Therapy at Play on Words. 

• Find a penguin craft with visual supports / sequence cards at Chapel Hill Snippets. She shares a link to Penguins, Penguins at Tar Heel Reader and, on another post, is a version of this counting book in Spanish. 

• You are not alone if you like Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. Fun in First has some wonderful freebies to use when working on adjectives, comparisons, and complex WH questions. Wise Owl Factory Book a Day has three posts pertaining to books about Tacky and all have FREE downloadable activities that can easily be used with a variety speech and language activities. 

• Penguin songs, videos (including Tacky the Penguin) and more on the app, Winter Animals Videos, Games, Photos, Books and Activities for Kids by Playrific (As of January 2016, this app is $.99).

• Download the free Penguin Memory / Describing Cards from Playing with Words 365. 

• I like My Itsy Bitsy Penguin Book and My Penguin book (for writers) found at KidZone.  

• Making Learning Fun always has good ideas. Adapt the Penguin Sight Word Feed  for students working on articulation or phonological processes - use the blank cards to make your own fish. I like the emergent readers. There are two on this page. 

Diana

© 2014

Van Woert, Michael. Stuffed emperor penguins on display in the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand. 1979. NOAA At The Ends of the Earth Collection. NOAA Photo Library. Web. 1 Jan. 2014.

Tuesday's Treasure Box: Snowbots and More!

If you like to use literature selections in therapy, you will like this link. No Time for Flash Cards posted Best Children’s Books We Read in 2013 and I want to read every book. 

Don't forget to read the comments section of that post as at least two more really good books are mentioned. 

Diana

© 2014