TpT Back to School Sale: What's in Your Cart? {Linky Party}

Can you believe how fast summer is flying by and that we're already thinking of going back to school? It's crazy! But it's also that time of year when Teachers Pay Teachers holds their back to school sale where buyers can save up to 28% on all their purchases!  Jenna at Speech Room News is hosting her annual linky party so we can all tell you about the great products we've got in our carts, so you can get some ideas of what to put in yours!

Here's a couple of items you should check out from my store:

I really LOVE my newest product, Back to School Scavenger Hunts and I Spy Games. You can target almost any goal you want with the I Spy activities. I use them all the time with every child on my caseload. The Scavenger Hunt lists each target a specific skill, including object function, attributes, negatives, colors and social skills.  I just know you'll find this product useful!

Another one of my favorites is an oldie-but-goodie: Monkey Buisness: Carryover Activity for R, S, L and Blends.  It's perfect for practicing words in sentences and laying the groundwork for skill generalization to conversation!

Now, what's in my cart that I can't wait to purchase???

The first item is Ashley's Category Asking and Answering WH Questions. I've got several little buddies who are working on these skills and this product looks like it will be a great addition to my lesson plans.

Look how cute this Apple unit by Collette the Alberta Speechie is? This will be the perfect fall unit for my preschoolers!

I'm also loving TLC Talk Shop's Receptive and Expressive Language Builder Back to School Edition. This one targets so many skills including description skills, inferencing skills, and asking and answering questions.

Here's one that EVERYBODY who works on articulation needs: Articulation Deep Test for R by my friend Tracy. This test is so amazingly inclusive and will be perfect for helping me identify exactly which targets to address.

After all of that, I really NEED this one:

Organize Your Speech Files by Jennifer Bradley should help me do just that! I am sooooo looking forward to getting more organized!

Want to see what some other bloggers have in their carts? Go visit Jenna's blog to see who else linked up!

Happy Shopping!

Pam

Back to School Scavenger Hunts and I Spy Games

I know it's only the end of July, but I am already planning some of my back to school activities. I have a diverse caseload of kids in preschool through middle school, and I love to find activities that can be adapted to use with almost all of them. My kids just love treasure hunts, I Spy games and racing the clock in timed challenges, so I created this packet to include all three of those motivating activities.

This product features two colorful I Spy! game boards that can be used in a variety of ways.  I like to use them with my preschoolers to target categories, attributes, colors, letter recognition and object function. I just ask them to find "something in the sky" or "an animal that lives in the zoo", and have them cover the item with a checker after its found.

I use these boards in so many ways! I use them with the checklists that are included to find objects belonging to categories, but here are some other ideas:  Adapt it for working on S-blends by having the student say "I spy a ____" while finding each item. Use it to target negatives by finding items NOT in the category listed, and have them say, "A ___ is NOT a ____." or "A ____ DOESN'T have ____." Have the students direct others to find specific objects by describing them. Be creative! 

I've got a couple of older elementary students who struggle with processing information quickly and have difficulty with rapid naming tasks, so I created two rapid naming checklists to go along with each board. 

All you need is a stopwatch (there's probably one on your cellphone), a dry erase pouch to put the I Spy game boards in, a dry erase pen to cross off items as they are found, and a pencil to record the number of items found. I have the students name the items as they find them, often having them state the color of the object as well.

My older kids really love this one! Anytime they can race the clock, they are happy campers. This would be a great activity to target fluency, too.

The second part of this product is the set of five different scavenger hunt lists.  There's a color hunt for the little ones...

...ones that feature object functions, attributes and negatives...

...and one that targets social skills. I've even included an extension activity targeting follow-up questions.

These scavenger hunts are perfect to use one-on-one or with a group, or even for sending home as homework.  I haven't used them with my kids yet, but I just know they'll be a hit!

Want to add these to your back-to-school lesson plans? You can find them in my TpT Store, so just click on over.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Pam

SLPs in Vegas LInky Party

I was one of those fortunate speech-language pathologists who attended the Teachers Pay Teachers Seller Conference in Las Vegas last weekend.  It was such an amazing time of learning, inspiration and friendship that I just have to share what I took away from it!

First, let me just say that I love to create my own treatment materials and share them with you, but I am NOT a Mover or a Shaker in the TpT world. I am just a lowly little seller trying to build her store and learn some things along the way. But the opportunity came up for me to attend this conference, and I decided to go, despite the fact that I had only "met" the other SLPs in the group online. I even agreed to share a room with one of them!

My roommate, the lovely Tracy from Gold Country SLP

Meeting Tracy and all of the other amazing SLP creator/sellers was BY FAR the best thing about going to the conference. Look who I got to spend time with:

That's Lisette from Speech Sprouts...

...here's Lynda from Lynda SLP 123 with Susan Berkowitz...

...Ashley from AGB Speech Therapy and Ashley Rossi...

...Kelly from Speech 2 U (who is extremely witty and hilarious)...

...and the Fabulous Mia from Putting Words in Your Mouth! I was star-struck!!!

There were many others too, but I wasn't fortunate enough to get pics with all of them.  But here's the whole group:

We ROCKED those t-shirts, by the way. Everyone at the conference knew who the SLPs were! Here's me wearing mine on the day it arrived in the mail:

I was so excited! I had no idea what to expect before I went, but I knew it was going to be fun.

So, what did I take away from this experience besides meeting new life-long friends and colleagues? I learned A TON about marketing, the ins and outs of being a TpT seller, using social media, and product design.  I can't share any of the conference sessions' info or content, but I can tell you this: if you're a TpT seller and you want to improve your skills, GO to this conference next year. Why?

1.  Networking! Many of us SLP sellers/bloggers already belong to Facebook groups and have gotten to know each other through social media, but actually meeting these wonderful people in person is beyond compare! Even though we're all sellers competing for our share of the market, this group of ladies is incredibly supportive of each other's efforts. We talked about tips and tricks that have worked for us, laughed about failures and mis-steps, and taught each other things about PowerPoint, Pinterest and Periscope.

2.  Inspiration!  I met so many inspiring people and heard so many encouraging words from other sellers and presenters. Teachers Pay Teachers is an incredible resource for speech-language pathologists, too, and I am blessed to be a part of it.

3. Motivation! All kinds of sellers were represented at this conference. Those who are just beginning, those who (like me) keep plugging along and want to build their stores, and those who have reached the stars in their success. Regardless of where you are on this continuum, this conference provided the motivation to improve your skills as a blogger, seller and professional. I left feeling overwhelmed by my new to-do list, but at the same time, ready to move forward and grow with a clear plan in place.

I came home with my mind buzzing with new ideas, ready to put some new-found energy into my products and blog, secretly wondering how in the world I was going to juggle it all, and reminded myself that the key is BALANCE. So I took some time out to go watch some of the Special Olympic events taking place at a nearby high school on Sunday.

Wow, talk about inspiration and motivation! Those athletes are the epitome of those two words! How can I not be inspired by the athlete who stopped to pump his fist in the air to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd before crossing the finish line? Or the athlete with physical challenges who ran the race to the best of his ability, even if it meant finishing minutes behind the winner? Watching these athletes compete and succeed and observing the pride and support of their families reminded me that THESE are the lives we are impacting with our services and products. If I can make a difference for one, that is reason enough to keep going. I may finish miles behind other sellers and their sales goals, but I am going to celebrate my victories along the way.

Want to know what some of my friends took away from their time at the conference? Click on the link below!

Speech Sprouts SLPs in Vegas Linky Party