Celebrating Hanukkah - Book Companion, SWEETIE and Giveaway

My favorite way of doing speech-language therapy is with books. I have always loved to read and I enjoy bringing stories to life for my students the way some of my most beloved teachers and librarians did for me. I'm sure you've seen the term "book companion" floating around the blogosphere. These are great products that support the way you're already reading books to your students. Many of these products include games and activities to accompany the book but all of them target a skill or goal that your students have. The best ones create an entire week or more of therapy ideas and lessons - and all you need is a copy of the book! If you're anything like me, you've got quite a collection of children's literature and you probably already own the publications you'll be needing for the book companions out there. But, if you don't have a personal copy, ask around your building. Teachers are great about sharing with SLPs and I've been able to find almost all of the books I've wanted in my school's library. Once you're stuck on the book and the amazing activities that go along with them in the book companions you'll want to have your own copy.
This posting contains AmazonAffliate links for your convenience.

I've begun working on a book companion product that is Hanukkah themed. I hope to add to it in the coming school years. My students aren't usually aware of the traditions that people of the Jewish faith practice each holiday season. This product will help them to understand the magic that is The Festival of Lights.

With this BonBonSpeecher product students can make latkes, the delicious fried, potato pancakes with the game that goes well with Mrs. Greenberg's Messy Hanukkah by Linda Glaser. There is also a sequencing activity for this book.

 Students will love learning to play the dreidel game after reading the folk-tale The Magic Dreidels by Eric A. Kimmel. The Jewish Outreach Institute has a high-quality Virtual Dreidel game you can play with your students. Click here to access the game: http://joi.org/dreidel/
The site requires version 6 of the Flash Plug-In.  

The BonBonSpeecher product includes two sets of comprehension cards for The Magic Dreidels book. One set is only text and the other set has picture choices for younger students.

Most of my students are very familiar with Christmas. Many have not even heard of Hanukkah. The two holidays share a lot of similarities and students can compare and contrast the winter traditions of Hanukkah and Christmas with the story of little girl who gets to celebrate both holidays in Light the Lights! by Margaret Moorman. The book companion contains vocabulary cards that can be used in a Venn Diagram.

I would also suggest some of these games, books and songs to complete your study on The Festival of Lights.

If you check out the preview file for Hanukkah is The Festival of Lights at Teachers Notebook, you'll find a SWEETIE - a free vocabulary activity!
Also, be sure to enter the giveaway at TN! Giveaway ends on December 6.

I hope you enjoy your Holiday Season.
Happy Hanukkah to you and yours!
And as they say here in the UK - Happy Christmas!

One Day Left for Super Savings

They've done it again!! Big sales at Teachers Notebook!

Go check out The BonBonSpeecher store for some HUGE Holiday Savings!

WH Halloween Read-Along Book

My kids are very interested in Halloween. We've been covering harvest and pumpkin vocabulary for the first part of the month, but they just can't wait to tell me all about their costumes and favorite candies. It makes me so happy to see their excitement. I showed this picture to one of my little ones.

She told me it was called a "scare pumpkin."
Don't you just love it?!

I've added another Read-Along Series Book to Teachers Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers. It's called "Who? What? When? Where? Halloween!" and it was really fun to make. 

The story line follows the Trick-or-Treaters as they make their way to the haunted house asking and then answering WH questions for each of the characters. 

I think it would be fun to have the students make up answers to the questions before turning the page to see if any of them are close. You could work on prediction and inferences as well as Halloween vocabulary.

As always, the download includes three useful sizes. I like to print one full page for the teacher's copy. I laminate the pages and then bind them with the book binder or metal binder rings. I can then leave it out on the book shelf for the kiddos to look through again. The full page copy can also be uploaded to your iPad for digital viewing. There are half page sizes for small group activities as well as quarter sized pages for take home practice and carryover skills. 

This one is on sale in The BonBonSpeecher Store this week, so stop by and pick one up!

Halloween Fun

The month of October is just not long enough for all the cute, fun games and activities I want to do with my kiddos! I sometimes pull out different games for groups just so I can play the all the ones I like!! I look at it as a perk of being the speecher.

This week I want to show you some of the Halloween games I've made and link to some fun, fall and Halloween themed games that my fellow SLPs and teachers have created. So let's get going!

This first one is called "Trick-or-Treat Inferences" and it's available in The BonBonSpeecher Store at Teachers Notebook or Teachers Pay Teachers. It's designed to target inferencing skills, vocabulary, categorization, turn taking and reasoning and deduction skills.

The product includes one page of card backing that looks like this:

There are four "Trick" card and four "Treat" cards to accompany the 28 clue cards. Clue cards describe iconic Halloween characters and popular Halloween candies.

Game play instructions are part of the download as well, and there's a cute points card that can be printed, downloaded to an iPad, or projected onto a SmartBoard in the classroom. Kids will love guessing at the clues and won't even realize they're targeting goals!

Here's how you play:

Each player gets one guess per clue. The teacher reads the first clue on the clue card to students.

If a player guesses correctly after one clue, 3 points are awarded and the student keeps the card. If no one guesses correctly, play continues with the point value decreasing to 2 points and so on. If no one guesses correctly after all clues are read, the teacher keeps the card.

“Trick” cards take away one clue from the following card - the following card will be worth only 2 points max.

“Treat” cards allow all clues from the following card to be read at once – card is still worth 3 points.

The player with the most points at the end of game time is Trick-or-Treater of the Day!

Click here to grab this game from Teachers Notebook or Teachers Pay Teachers.

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I'm planning to use this set from Speech Room News with my preschoolers. 

They loved the version for "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves" so I know they'll be excited to see this one for Halloween. You can visit Jenna's page to get more info on this amazing Book Companion Pack.

The SLPRunner has some creative fall activities. See them here at

Ahhh, Autumn

It's here! It's finally here! It's been unseasonably warm all summer here in the UK and I was beginning to wonder if the crisp, cool breezes of fall had forgotten about us.

But, the air is nice and chilly and I wore a sweater all day yesterday. 

It's Autumn, and I LOVE IT!

I'm happy to report that The BonBonSpeecher store was selected as a Daily Deal winner on Teachers Notebook. You can find the item that was on the Daily Deal here:

I've placed it on sale for this week to celebrate my favorite season! Enjoy!

Avast, me Mateys!

I don't know where or when or really even how it started, but I do know that it's FUN!

September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day and in celebration, I'm running sale and a giveaway on
Pirate Parlay: Phonological Awareness Activities at Teachers Notebook.

 

  

 This product targets 12 different phonological awareness skills and is Common Core aligned. 

 

The graphics are from Scrappin Doodles and the font is called "Amazing Ruler" from KevinandAmanda.com

  

The download includes 40 pages of cards designed to target the following phonological awareness skills:

Syllable-structure awareness tasks

Blending and Segmenting

Onset-rime awareness tasks

Spoken word recognitionSpoken rhyme detection or rhyme oddity
 Spoken rhyme generation Onset-rime blending

Phonemic awareness tasks

Phoneme matchingPhoneme isolationPhoneme blending with wordsPhoneme segmentation with words

 

I hope you and your students will enjoy working with this product. It was loads of fun to create!

 

I've linked the game board here as a free download. Just click the picture to grab it!

 

If you liked this, then you should head over to SLPRunner's Facebook page. She's got a list of Pirate themed activities from other speechies and teachers.

A Whole Month?! + a FREEBIE

Whew! Where has the time gone? I can't believe the last post was almost a month ago! It's like school started or something :-)

 

I am so excited about this school year. After having some unintentional time away from the world of speech therapy, I feel like I'm rediscovering myself. I'm getting to know what professional happiness feels like again.

 

My fellow teachers and students are getting to know
Mrs. B, too. It's always interesting figuring out how the new school works and what the norms and mores are for that particular staff and faculty. Like a lot of you SLPs out there, I'm split between campuses this year so, I've got to get to know two of everything!

 

One thing I've come to know with my intermediate level kiddos is that some of them understand why they're coming to speech class and others have no clue. I think it's important for students to know the purpose of their learning, and speech goals are no exception. I'm loving the Common Core "I can" statements I've been seeing on Pinterest, Teacher's Notebook, and Teachers Pay Teachers. My district hasn't moved to Common Core yet, but we'll be getting there soon.

 

In the meantime, I've created this little activity to help my students get to know one another and facilitate some conversation about speech therapy goals and outcomes. You can grab it here free by clicking on the picture below.

 

 

 

Once again the graphics are from ScrappinDoodles
(I just love her stuff!) and the font is called "Follow You Into the World."

 

I hope you're all having a great start to the school year. Come back soon for loads of Sweet Speech Halloween themed games and activities.

 

 

 

Back to School Bundles at Teachers Notebook-UPDATE!

August 13, 2013 - UPDATE
WOW! This just keeps getting better! If you were excited about the Back to School Bundle Sale, then you're going to flip over this news!

The folks at Teachers Notebook have introduced the "Build a Bundle" option. Now you can customize your bundle from the products offered by participating teacher shops.

Load up on what you want, erm... what your students need
this school year! :-)

Also, check out the sales going on all over the site,
including The BonBonSpeecher Store.
EVERYTHING is 25% from August 12 until August 19th.

 

  

Remember, The BonBonSpeecher Store is featured in bundles 16 and 22 which are intended for 3rd-5th grade. Click the numbers to go directly to those bundles, but search the site for other amazing offers from tons of other teacher shops!

ENJOY!!

Back to School Bundles at Teachers Notebook!

Oh, my goodness! I'm so excited to help promote the

Back to School Bundles Sale at Teachers Notebook.

  

About a week ago, the staff and team over at TN asked all shop owners to submit products to be bundled and sold at $20-30.

Over 3,000 products were submitted and the staff carefully assembled the bundles to give you the best deals in the following categories:

 

Common Core Math

Common Core Reading

Common Core Writing

Classroom Decoration

Classroom Management

Assessment

Special Education

Homeschool

Educational Technology

 

What this means is when you purchase a bundle during this sale, you'll be getting over $100 of high quality, Common Core aligned, super cute and fun activities for your classroom for only $25!

 

The BonBonSpeecher Store is featured in bundles 16 and 22 which are intended for 3rd-5th grade. Click the numbers to go directly to those bundles, but search the site for other amazing offers from tons of other teacher shops!

ENJOY!!

Mmmore sushi, please!

So, I'm really loving this clipart from Lettering Delights. It's so stinking cute!

 

I created a little Articulation Bonus and included it in the download of the

Sushi Reinforcement game you can pick up at Teachers Pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook.

 

Today, I want to give you a little something extra. I whipped up this

Sushi Language Freebie to go along with the set.

 

Click here to download color and B&W versions.

It's a one page print out of some WH questions that focus on eating at a restaurant. I've provided both color and black & white options for printing. I hope this will be useful to you at some point over the school year.

Enjoy! 

 

 

I'll be hanging out in the England and Ireland with some of my best friends over the next two weeks. I have some new things in store for back to school though... AND

Stay tuned for some amazing news from Teachers Notebook tomorrow!!

MMmmmm...Sushi

What can I say? I'm a fan. I enjoy a good sushi roll from time to time. Connoisseurs would say I know nothing about sushi and don't really eat true sushi. Nigiri? Sashimi? Rice - inside or outside? Wasabi? Soy? Raw? Fried? I respond with this: I'll try anything once, and I know what I like!

I made this quick little reinforcement game because I saw the clip art at Lettering Delights and had to have it. I enjoy reinforcement games almost as much as my students. I think they keep the drill more interesting for my articulation kiddos and they provide an opportunity to introduce a new topic of conversation at the speech table for the language students.

This one is pretty simple in gameplay, but will be challenging enough for your groups to complete so it's really a win-win.

There are eight different types of sushi and four special cards. The goal of the game is to collect ten matching pieces to complete your sushi roll. Each student gets a plate/placemat with a picture of the sushi roll they are trying to complete.

The cards will be placed in a Chinese take-out box or bento box. After each talking turn the students will draw a sushi piece and see if it matches the one that's on their plate/placemat. If the card is a match, they keep it. If the card doesn't match, it's returned. If the student draws a special card, they will follow the directions to draw another card(s), return card(s), or lose a turn.

Printing instructions are included in the product download. I've provided backing for the cards, but it's not always necessary to print double sided. I usually do print my cards with a backing in case I decide to use the cards for another purpose or with new rules for the game. For example, you could hold up the cards and have the students pick from your hand or arrange the cards in a round on the table and call it the conveyor belt like in the picture below. For my wiggle worms, I like to play games with cards in different locations around the room so they have a chance to move about and use up some energy. The backing is nice in these situations, but you're free to choose how you want to print your file.

Also included in the product file is a FREEBIE BONUS articulation word list with sushi themed words. I hope you and your students will enjoy this fun game in your classroom. You can purchase Sushi at Teacher's Notebook or here at Teachers Pay Teachers.

A camping we will go

So, I made it half way up the mountain in Scotland.

 

 But the views I saw from there were breathtaking, and I'm proud of my accomplishments.

 

 

We traveled a bit around Scotland after the Ben Nevis trek and I am already planning another trip back.

This time we stayed in hotels and B&B's along the way, but I think it would be amazing to take a tent and camp alongside the lochs in the highlands.

Like I said before in the last post, we camped a lot as a family when I was growing up. I think that's why I enjoyed making this camping themed game.

 

Camp Antonym was designed to be played like “Go Fish” with a twist. It's a great game because most children pick up on the concept of "Go Fish" easily. You can use your house rules for “Go Fish” (number of cards dealt, when to lay down pairs from your hand, etc). Now for the twist: when a player draws a Picture Card, he/she must follow the instructions to return card(s) from his/her hand to the bottom of the draw pile or gain card(s) from the draw pile. The player with the most pairs at the end of game time is The Camper of the Day!

Game play goes quickly as the picture cards are easy to understand and complete. The graphics from Scrappin Doodles are adorable (as always) and children will enjoy matching antonyms with cuddly forest animals.

The font is "Everytime I Miss You" from KevinandAmanda.

 

You can use this card game to target all sorts of speech-language therapy goals. Here's a short list for you:

 Goals to Target using Camp Antonym

 

•Vocabulary expansion

•Antonyms

•Synonyms

•Use of complete sentences

•Turn taking

•Eye contact

•Asking/answering questions

•Following directions 

Instructions for game play and expansion activities are included in the file download. You can get your copy for half price this week by clicking the picture for Teacher's Notebook or stopping by Teachers Pay Teachers here.

 

 

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of this game.

Going on Vacation

As children of teachers, my brother, sister and I always had the summers available for travel and family time. We didn't always go too far from home, but we did always schedule the trip around something educational.

Camping in state and national parks was always a hit. My brother was obsessed with Civil War battle grounds. I loved anything to do with Native Americans. I think my sister enjoyed visiting my grandma's house the most.

What I remember most though would be considered the little things: singing classic rock songs in the car with my daddy and playing road trip games like "The Minister's Cat" with mama.

Vacationing is a great subject to bring up with summer school students. Even if the student has never actually been on a vacation, all children have a place in mind they would like to visit or see. You can also discuss the new terminology of "stay-cation," where you stay at home and enjoy local sights and events.

I created the "Vacation" book series as a way to introduce the vocabulary we associate with traveling. While it blends seamlessly with summer themes, you could also use this book with a transportation theme and discuss the differences between traveling by plane, train, bus, car or boat.

Students are led through simple text with italicized vocabulary words. Questions, activities and role-playing scenarios assess students' understanding of new topics.

You can print this product in three sizes: Full pages for a teacher copy, half pages for a center station, or quarter pages for a take home activity. A suggestion for the center station would be to laminate the pages and provide students with a dry erase marker or crayons to complete the activities. You can also display the full sized images on the SmartBoard or iPad.

I'll be heading to Scotland in a few days to tackle Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles. I'm really excited to visit Scotland and I hope I don't embarrass myself too much in front of the other hikers! Where will you be going on vacation? Leave a comment and you could be the lucky winner of this BonBonSpeecher Store Product!

I hope you'll enjoy this vocabulary building activity book. I've made it half price this week! You can pick it up here at Teachers Pay Teachers or at Teacher's Notebook by clicking on the image below.

Safe and Happy Journeys!

Happy Summer!

Today is the summer solstice which means it is OFFICIALLY summer time! Here in the UK it means tonight will be light with the sun staying up until around 11:30pm. It also means there will be loads of people celebrating at Stonehenge. Here at our house though, we'll be having a "Backyard Burger Bash" and I thought I would share this reinforcement game inspired by such get togethers.

 

Students will love building cheeseburgers using the cards in this game. But they'll have to watch out for ants, which will spoil their meals unless they have bug spray to stop them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The game includes an introduction card, instructions for gameplay, four plate cards, two cheat cards with ingredients listed, ants and bug spray cards and ingredients cards and a grill playing board. I always laminate and cut out the cards for my students to play with. It helps to keep them clean and last longer.

 

Using the cheat card for reference you can have them create the sandwiches in a specific order to target sequencing skills or have them monitor their own ingredients to assess executive functioning and organization.

 

Pragmatic skills are always fun to target using food items as we all have our own opinions about what tastes great and we must use manners when we are around other people. You can teach socially appropriate conversational skills by describing your favorite burger. "I like tomatoes, but I do not care for onions. Would you like to have my serving?"

Requesting is also an easy area to incorporate with this game. Have the students ask for specific ingredients to complete their burgers. They can even negotiate with other players to achieve their goals.

Articulation students can draw a card from the deck after each talking turn and language students can examine the cover page with the cookout scene and then describe the event using new vocabulary.

The possibilities are endless, really... just like the fun one can have at a Backyard Burger Bash!

Grab your copy here at Teachers Pay Teachers or click the picture below to purchase at Teacher's Notebook.

 

 

Enjoy your summer break!

Welcome to Sweet Speech

Hi, there! I'm Ashley Bonkofsky, also known as The BonBonSpeecher.  I earned the moniker "BonBon" in graduate school (thanks to Casey W. for the nickname). For those who don't know, a "speecher" is a school-based speech-language pathologist. Do ya get it? It's like speech + teacher = speecher. Therefore, I'm the BonBonSpeecher!

I have been planning this blog for about a year now. I hope to post information that is useful for students, parents, colleagues and those who are curious about the world and work of a school-based SLP. I want to offer treatment suggestions, share freebies and my original products.

Thanks for joining in on this journey with me.