The Speech Language Classroom

A Change of Pace....

2011-03-08T14:40:00.004-06:00

I have actually been terrible about keeping my blog this year. I would like everyone's opinion and to see if this is a help to you. So please post a comment and I will take all your requests into consideration. I will keep posting spelling lists on the site weekly (just in case they forget their lists). Third quarter grades are also coming up so please check out their quarterly progress reports.

My Favorite Pictures 2010

2010-07-20T15:12:00.001-05:00

These are just a few of my favorite pictures over the last year. I'm using them to hopefully create something fun when the students come back. Hopefully this will work. Enjoy and have a great rest of the summer.

Have a great summer!!

2010-05-13T11:26:00.003-05:00

Well a long year has finally come to a close. It's been fun and we have really enjoyed working with you child. I hope that they have learned many life skills that will help them succeed next year. For my fourth graders who are leaving....we will really miss you and wish you the very best next year. For those that are returning...have a great break and we'll see you in August. Summer school is still up in the air so keep checking the Nixa website www.nixapublicschools.net. Also, check my profile under Thomas Elementary, Staff Profiles for a quick slide show. Thanks again for your continued support and many well wishes.

MAP and Stanford-10 Testing

2010-03-30T15:55:00.003-05:00

Please check out our newsletters coming out Thursday, April 1st. Check their backpack. It will show you various testing strategies and our overall schedule for the next few weeks. Again I will be gone for at least a week beginning April 5th. Julie Snowbarger will continue to be in charge in the room and can answer any questions you may have. Thanks for your continued support of our program.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!

2010-03-11T09:53:00.003-06:00

Last week we studied poetry, rhyming words and the books and life of Dr. Seuss. We began writing a biography about Dr. Seuss whose actual name is Theodor Seuss Geisel. As most of you know we celebrated Read Across America. This is an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association. One part of the project is National Read Across America Day, an observance in the United States held on March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Our students did a great job reading outside of school and we celebrated with a Dr. Horton Hears a Who and a popcorn party. We also made mini-birthday cakes to celebrate....ummmmm yummy and messy as you can see.

Good Ole Abe

2010-03-01T11:29:00.003-06:00

Last week we researched several things but our focus was on our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. We studied the penny and determined its worth. We studied about his childhood and about all his accomplishments before and after he became our president. Did you know that President Lincoln never was elected to the Senate? We made Lincoln Log cabins with sticks and with paper....what a glue mess! We learned a lot about our history and a little bit about our nations history.

We also studied other sons of liberty by reading the book John, Paul, George and Ben. We learned the differences between fact and opinion. Did you know the story about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree is actually a fable? It was a story developed to teach children about honesty. Ironic right?

Remember to keep reading this week as we participate in Read Across America and study Dr. Suess. More later.....

Our Ought to Buy Autobiographies

2010-02-15T14:09:00.002-06:00

Over the past two weeks we have been working on writing our own autobiographies and celebrating our differences. We have studied the writing process and actually completed and labeled each section. I'm very excited. It's always a great feeling to actually complete something!! We also did a few Valentine's projects, specifically with our speech students to target their specific sounds.

A New Beginning!!

2010-02-09T19:29:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the catch up but it has been a crazy few weeks. With all the snow days and makeup days and sick days......we are just now getting caught up. So I apologize for the delay but from this week on we will be up to date. So check out our pictures and our newsletter (coming out tomorrow 2-10-10). For the next few weeks we will be studying about our Presidents and about their teeth. Watch us become patriotic.

Happy Holidays!!

2009-12-22T12:27:00.003-06:00

We went all out Grinch last week by reading the Dr. Suess book The Grinch that Stole Christmas. We did a lot of eye tracking activities, studied similarities/differences, rhyming words,spatial concepts and following instructions. We had a great "low key" week. The kids are very excited about the upcoming break and to be honest so are the teachers. I just wanted to say thanks for everyone's support of our program and that I feel extremely blessed to be working with your children. To you I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I look forward to the all new things to come with the new year.... Sincerely, Mandy Kitchen

Make It, Take It Night

2009-12-17T10:26:00.004-06:00

I just wanted to post a brief thanks to all those that participated and returned our surveys for Make It, Take It Night. I will come up with the final consensus and will schedule it some time in January. Look for newsletters and papers to come home. For those of you that wanted a little more information about this activity, I will try and write a brief description below.

This year will be our 3rd annual Make It, Take It night. Parents (and children, if you decide) come in and make therapy tools that they can use at home. You can come and go as you please during the alloted time and make as many or as few items that you would like. For those working in reading we can print off leveled books for them to read at home, teach you strategies to use with them, and show you some eye tracking activities. You can come and just ask questions about what they are doing in class or your voice your concerns. It's very informal....just a night to provide you with tools and information.

It's Snowing!!

2009-12-10T09:24:00.003-06:00

Hope you had a lasting and peaceful Thanksgiving. Christmas is right around the corner. Last week we read Geraldine's Snow and made beautiful and yummy snowflakes!! We made paper snowflakes with glitter and learned about the concept of symmetery. We toasted "snowflake" tortillas and added some spices (for reading and following directions). They were hot but yummy. The kids love to cook!! This week we will be discussing various size concepts as we make snowmen and write about what they do at night!! Please check out your Make It, Take It Night paper and fill them out. Call if you have questions.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-20T14:44:00.003-06:00

This will be our last blog before Thanksgiving break. We won't have any spelling words next week so disregard all lists. This week we have learned about the tradition and origin of Thanksgiving by reading the book Thanksgiving Is and Oh, What a Thanksgiving. We had the most difficult time with the concept that we eat turkey for Thanksgiving....or at least most of us do. Chicken became a popular answer as well as ham and lasagna of all things. See what they've learned about this week and talk about your traditions. I can't wait to hear how their break was spent. Have a happy and safe holiday espcially for travlers. See you soon.

Our Week of Substitutes

2009-11-16T14:20:00.004-06:00

Last week was a sad time for our classroom. Ms. Julie's dad passed away so she and I were gone on and off for the week. So with help from various subsitutes we were able to learn about elements of a story and the writing process. We read the story Cinderella Penguin and determine what a character was and the various settings in the story. We also started development on our writing folders. Check out what they know. Things will be back to normal soon!!

Our Short Week!

2009-11-09T15:32:00.002-06:00

Last week was a very short week for us...but we did get some things accomplished. We read the book Detective Larue and studied writing friendly letters. We even made our very own mailboxes. Ask your child about the parts of the letter. They should be able to tell you.

Review Week!!

2009-11-04T08:49:00.004-06:00

This week is review week with spelling words so even though you only have a few days to study you should already know these. I have confidence in you. Last week as you know we studied skeletons and read the book Skippy John Jones and the Big Bones (quite an exciting book to read!). Ask you child about different types of bones, what they are used for and to describe them!! They may just teach you something.

Thanks to all those who came to Ms. Julie's house for cupcakes and cocoa on Halloween night. We had a great time and appreciated all who drove out. Later this week look for postings of pictures of this fun event.

We've Gone Batty!!

2009-10-16T07:50:00.002-05:00

This week we have studied about bats and read the book Stellaluna by Janell Cannon. We have created bat hats by following 3-step instructions, and drawn big bats with descriptive characteristics using the EET. We have also compared bats to humans all of our similarities and differences using a Venn diagram.

A Celebration!!!

The speech and language classroom help set the world record for reading the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle last week on October 8th. Jumpstart for learning already had over 1 million people read this book last week and are continuing to get data until the end of the month. Thanks to those of you who supported this event. You should be very proud that your child has helped create history. It's not too late to get your own Very Hungry Caterpillar book at participating Wal-marts to continue to promote literacy!! If you would like to learn more about Jumpstart's reading programs please check out their website http://www.readfortherecord.org.

The Life Cycle of the Butterfly!!

2009-10-12T15:23:00.003-05:00

This past week we participated in Jumpstart's Read for the Record on October 8th. Now your child can say that they helped to break the record for reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We studied food groups and the life cycle of the butterfly. The students worked really hard creating art activities and posters. Ask them about the four cycles of butterfly development.

Break the Record!!

2009-09-30T08:55:00.004-05:00

This week, September 30th we are studying about pumpkins and reading the story How many seeds in a pumpkin. We have worked on the concepts inside, big, medium, and small, and descriptions. We also snuck a little math in there by counting and grouping pumpkin seeds. Ask your child about another way that you can count pumpkin seeds as you prepare your pumpkins for fall.

Next week we will be studying The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. On October 8th we will read and try and break the record with Jumpstart's Read for the Record. Jumpstart supports year round literacy efforts with children in low-income communities. Check out the website www.readfortherecord.org and buy your Very Hungry Caterpillar book at Wal-mart a supporting sponsor. Continue to support reading!!

Pancakes, Pancakes

2009-09-08T09:46:00.003-05:00

Last week we studied about pancakes and had a great time making our own. We read and studied three books: Pancakes, Pancakes, Pancakes for Breakfast, and Pancake Breakfast with Poppleton. We discussed different things we eat for breakfast, determined similarities and differences between waffles and pancakes, and wrote our own stories. Check out our recipe below....they should be pros.

Welcome Back to School!

2009-08-31T13:05:00.002-05:00

We are so excited to start our new school year. Last week we got to meet all our students and learn a lot about them. They created their own personal books titled: My Book About Me and became familiar with our classroom. We are off and running this week and will be making something "yummy"....stay tuned.

The End of the Year

2009-05-13T13:39:00.004-05:00

I can't believe it's here.....the end of school. The whole year just flew by and now everyone is beginning to pack things up. I would like to encourage you to stop by on Thursday, May 23rd and look at what you child has been doing. I will be working on progress reports that night but would love visitors. Progress notes will go out next week and therapy will cease on Tuesday so that we can finish up end of the year paperwork. It has been a pleasure to work with your child. I truly appreciate the opportunity. Have a peaceful and restful summer. See you in the fall.

Peep, Peep

2009-04-23T11:19:00.003-05:00

This week we are studying chicks and the candy known as Peeps. We read the books Chic and Duckling, and The Perfect Nest and learned the concepts small, medium, and big. As our surprise for the week we made homemade peeps. We learned a lot about fractions, reading, and following complex instructions. We also had a lot of sticky fun. Check out our pictures and our first video on our blogspot. If you want to make Peeps as home the recipe is below.

Life Cycle of Butterflies

2009-04-03T11:27:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone enjoyed a week off of school. It always goes by so quickly. This week we have been studying about the life cycle of the butterfly and about lines of symmetry. We created symmetrical butterflies using lots and lots of paint and created murals that captured their entire life cycle. The had a wonderful time painting and the custodial staff enjoyed cleaning up their mess (I'm sure!). See what they know....they just might teach you something.

St. Pats & Spring Break! Yeahhhhhhhh!

2009-03-21T15:59:00.002-05:00

This week we were missing Vic terribly but somehow managed to make it without her. We made several St. Patrick's Day crafts including a mosaic rainbow and ate/graphed Lucky Charms (Yummmmm). Julie and I only had to buy 2 or 3 boxes because we kept eating them. Our plants are growing strong and will be a great addition to our garden. Even after all our fun we were looking forward to Friday. Everyone have a wonderful and safe spring break and we'll be ready for you when we get back!!

Spring has Sprung!

2009-03-05T15:51:00.002-06:00

This week we have been working hard planting seeds and getting ready for Spring. We have read the book The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and planted seedlings for eventual transplant into our Thomas Garden (check out our newsletter for more information on our garden). Ask your child to label the parts of the plant and tell a little about how each system works. They will amaze you. They also created amazing tissue paper flowers that even smell good!! They are really beautiful.....check it out!

Hail to the Chief!!

2009-02-20T11:19:00.002-06:00

This week we focused on President's Day and read the book George Washington's Teeth. We learned about pictographs and bar graphs...some of us have lost a lot of teeth, and the value of money. Vic took over and had the kids make adorable powdered wigs, American flags with story details, and money pendents. Those kids are just a little richer. Ask your child about facts they learned about George Washington. You may just get a little wiser.

Congratulations to Vic and her family to their newest addition!!

Valentine's Day!

2009-02-16T11:19:00.002-06:00

We hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. We had a great time making different Valentine's project even if we ran out of time. Ms. Vic has taken over the majority of the class and has been doing a great job. Her parents even came to see her hard at work. The kids really enjoyed their visit. We created beautiful heart mosaics throughout the week for your window and read the book Froggy's First Kiss. Most though the kisses were yucky!! They had a wonderful time and created something very memorable.

Groundhogs & Shadows

2009-02-07T23:42:00.002-06:00

This week in the classroom we celebrated Groundhog Day and read the book Geoffrey the Groundhog Predicts the Weather. We made our very own "personal" groundhogs popping up through the grass, studied graphing, wrote a paragraph about groundhogs and learned a new MAP strategy. Check out our new decorations and writing on Tuesday for parent teacher conferences!!! Hope to see you there.

Snow, Snow, Snow!!

2009-01-31T08:42:00.002-06:00

This week we began studying about the Chinese New Year.....and then the snow and ice came. For a few days next week we will finish our Chinese Dragons and the comparison of our New Years and China and then finish out the week talking about Groundhog's Day. We will be reading the book Geoffrey Groundhog Predicts the Weather. We will align this with the district curriculum by discussing elements of a story and what a prediction really is. This week a student teacher from Missouri State University will also be joining us, Victoria. So if you hear a new name that's her. We are really excited to have her.

Also, be thinking of parent conferences coming up soon. Please set up an appointment or stop by and take a look at your student's work, especially those in the DSL program. I hope everyone has a wonderful, restful weekend.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

2009-01-22T14:58:00.003-06:00

During this short week we have studied Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's Birthday and the Presidential Inauguration. Our book of the week was Martin's Big Words by Rappaport. We made dream mobiles while learning to follow directions, write words, and develop sentences, and will have a dream balloon release with letters that the kids have written. They seem to really enjoy their projects this week and know a lot of information about the civil rights movement. I can't believe how smart they are!! Take a moment and ask them what they know....It's really amazing.

Please send back the Make It, Take It night survey and earn your child an extra sticker in speech! If you have questions please contact me and I will happily discuss the details. No spelling test this week but look for new words next week when we study the Chinese New Year's a little early.

Penguin Pandemonium!!

2009-01-16T15:29:00.003-06:00

We have studied penguins for two weeks and are all penguined out!! We made masks, small penguins, and a landscape with lots of describing words. We have learned about different species and their habitats. That's about it!! Have a wonderful 3 day weekend!!

The New Year!!

2009-01-12T11:07:00.004-06:00

Welcome Back!! Although I have been sad about the lack of snow, the break was wonderful. I hope everyone had a peaceful, restful holiday season. We are back to work as usual and are creating new things in the classroom. Plans for penguins were delayed until now which we are reading Tacky the Penguin. All the students are studying about the life cycle of a penguin and designing their own cute creature. We are comparing similarities and differences between our penguins and learning an easy way to help us describe them. Ask your students about the "speech catepillar" and see if they can remember our chant! Also check for a new newsletter in the student's backpack.

It's Snowing!!

2008-12-18T08:54:00.005-06:00

Sorry for the delay in the blog...I've been out sick for a few days. Hope you stay well. Last week we studied snowman and read the book the Biggest, Best Snowman. We made paper snowmen, started paper mache' snowman (which Julie loved), and we are working on some beautiful ornaments. They kids are one sticker away from earning a pizza movie party on Friday!! We are keeping our fingers crossed!! Hope everyone has a great Christmas Break and a Happy Holiday.

The Holiday Handwriting School

2008-12-05T13:56:00.002-06:00

This week we made holiday notebooks, gingerbread men, and Christmas trees. We discussed symmetry, parallel lines, and intersecting lines as a part of the state math curriculumn. In the area of languag, we discussed size (big, medium, little), spatial concepts (top/bottom), and shapes. Ask your child about the things that they learned this week. Next up....snowmen!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-24T11:10:00.003-06:00

Last week we studied about the history behind the first Thanksgiving. Did you know the first Thanksgiving lasted for 3 whole days!! We have read the book Thanksgiving Is... ,made turkeys, harvest baskets, and chests for the Pilgrims "belongings". This week we are continuing our theme with the book The Night Before Thanksgiving. We will be rescuing turkeys by using popcorn words, learning about turkey facts and opinions, and making a fancy turkey with tissue paper. Come and check out all the things we are doing!! Happy Thanksgiving from Julie & Mandy

The Little Scarecrow Boy

2008-11-15T22:29:00.002-06:00

This week we have read the book The Little Scarecrow Boy and made paper scarecrow puppets. You may be thinking how is the related to speech and language?? Very easily actually. While reading our book for the week students were asked to predict, determine main characters, setting, problems and solutions. They did all this while targeting speech sounds...some if them without even knowing it. They had to follow complex instructions to complete their puppet and discuss what type of emotion they wanted their puppet to have. We had great fun and made lots of sticky messes!! Just how we like it!

The Insomniac

2008-11-11T04:14:00.002-06:00

This is my first attempt ever at developing any kind of blog or website. So as I lay awake in the early morning hours I have decided to try something new. I hope this will help my students and parents stay connected and provide open communication. I would love to hear what you things you might want to access on this site.