Spring is here!!

We are celebrating spring this month in therapy at the ECC.  The students are very excited to be outside and to be onto the spring season!

In preschool, we are working on spring vocabulary, following fun multi-step directions, sorting flowers by size, and going on a scavenger hunt.  

In kindergarten, we are having fun using our speech and language skills to describe, compare, contrast, and practice speech sounds.

Hope you are all having a great beginning to spring!!  

Cassie 

Taking the Plunge

This past weekend, 35 dedicated individuals from Coal City School District took a plunge in to icy water in order to support Special Olympics Illinois.  The Law Enforcement Torch Run sponsors the Polar Plunge throughout the state of Illinois in order to raise money and awareness for the athletes of Special Olympics.


Special Olympics is a global organization that "unleashes the human spirit through the transformative power and joy of sport, every day around the world.  Through programming in sports, health, education and community building, Special Olympics is changing the lives of people with disabilities solving the global injustice, isolation, intolerance and inactivity they face.  Special Olympics Illinois provides opportunities for more than 21,000 athletes, 40,000 volunteers and thousands more statewide through 18 area programs in all 102 counties of the state."




Who wouldn't want to support such an organization?!

The Polar Coalers once again raised funds over the course of 4 months in order to show support for the athletes of Special Olympics and in exchange took a plunge into some frigid water in order to honor their bravery and courage.  Due to the incredibly cold and icy weather, a modified plunge was set up off site from Loon Lake, where the plunge has traditionally been held.  With an air temperature of 8 degrees and a windchill around 10 below, it was still very "polar!"  Steam poured off of us and from the tanks of water because the air was so cold around us!!  You'll find video footage of the plunge below.



Despite the crazy weather and the modified conditions of the plunge, the Polar Coalers were proud to have raised over $21,900 for Special Olympics Illinois!!  We won the Golden Plunger for the third year in a row by raising the most money of any team that the Yorkville plunge site.  

The Yorkville plunge raised over $130,000 in total!!  I know I can speak for all of the Polar Coalers when I say that these totals warm our hearts.  

We wish the very best of luck to all Special Olympians as they continue to compete throughout the year and we echo the Special Olympics oath with you: 

"Let me win.  If I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."

Learning all about transportation at the ECC!

This has been a fun week in speech-language therapy at the ECC.  We have been learning about vehicles and modes of transportation.  The kids love anything that moves so this is right up their alley!   Here are some of the fun activities that we have been doing throughout the week.

We started the week making a book that introduced all different vehicles including car, boat, plane, dump truck, digger, train, van, fire truck, taxi, and hot air balloon.

We also played a train board game where the students answered different types of wh-questions including who, what, where, when, and why.

Towards the end of this week, we started making a train.  We used our describing skills and help from the EET (Expanding Expression Tool) to think of attributes to describe a train.  We will be finishing up our trains next week.  This activity was a big hit with the kindergarten train lovers.

Next week we will be continuing our fun transportation unit and I can't wait to see what the kids think of the activities I have planned for them!

Cassie

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful . . .

. . . but inside the speech room things are delightful!

We are taking cues from the weather and talking about all things winter since coming back from Christmas Break at the elementary and intermediate schools.  Last week we discussed favorite winter activities including building snowmen, drinking hot chocolate, sledding, and making snow angels; this week our theme is arctic animals.  The snow falling outside (AGAIN!) has served as the perfect backdrop for some great conversations about winter fun.

I have tried something new with the students the past two weeks where at the start of each session I ask them to take a one question survey.  Last week's question was, "What is your favorite winter activity?" Many of my students had a difficult time narrowing it down to just one favorite (with the exception of one third grader who very quickly announced his favorite winter activity is staying inside where it's warm), and in the end the results looked like this:

Looking at this graph gave students a great opportunity to talk about concepts like "more" and "least", and the survey taking also allowed for great persuasive conversation when students tried to convince each other why their choice was the best one.

This week we are talking about arctic animals including orca whales, seals, polar bears, penguins, narwhals, and snow owls.  Once again I'm asking students to take a survey:  which is their favorite polar animal?  Students are watching videos about different polar animals and we are targeting skills like answering questions following the videos, describing the animals by their critical attributes, and practicing articulation while reading stories about animal habitats.  What will the favorite arctic animal be?  Stay tuned for the final results!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to a brand new year!  We hope you all had a very relaxing holiday season and that 2014 is off to a great start.

After having an extra day added to their winter break, the students at the Early Childhood Center were ready to get back to work in both the classroom and therapy settings.  In speech therapy, our weekly theme included activities focusing on snow and winter.  With freezing cold temperates and snow piles all around, it was the perfect fit.

One activity I used with some of my kiddos was assembling an Olaf snowman, from the Disney movie Frozen.  Using the different snowman pieces which had already been cut out by an adult, students got to assemble their own snowman and then decorate their Olaf.  They were able to practice their speech and language goals, while still keeping busy.  This snowman, along with other great Frozen activities your whole family can enjoy, can be found here, courtesy of the Teachable Mommy blog.

Here is an example of one student's Olaf:

My kiddos with articulation goals also enjoyed a new snowball game from Jenna Rayburn of Speech Room News.  Each student was given a snowball pile, and the pictures on each of the snowballs contained words with their target sounds.  They went through the snowball pile, practicing their sounds while collecting snowballs.  There were also 'wild cards,' where students could either gain or lose a turn.  Whoever had the most snowballs at the end was the winner!

I am looking forward to the second semester of speech therapy and watching the students grow and learn everyday.   If you ever have any questions about your child's speech and language growth, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Margaret 

Toy Tips

Better last minute than never!  At holiday season parents are often overwhelmed by requests from their children for new toys they want and by family members asking what they can buy for the children.  I would like to share an information sheet that is provided by the American Occupational Therapy Association to help parents figure out what toys to buy their children.

In case you would like to read more about this, you can follow this link to the AOTA website.

Happy shopping and happy holidays!

Thankful :)

The focus this week in the therapy room at the ECC has been on Thanksgiving.  I think we sometimes forget how lucky we are and to take time to be thankful.  This past week has reminded all of us to take that time and be thankful for the people we love and the things that we have.  I'm so thankful for all of my friends at the ECC and that they are safe and healthy following the tornado last weekend.

Here are some of the fun activities we have been working on this week:

In kindergarten, we made a giant turkey and used the feathers as a way to describe the things that we know about turkeys.

In preschool, we added feathers to our turkeys based on categories such as food, animals, and people.

This activity was used to work on articulation skills.  We added our target sound feathers to the turkeys and then came up with our own words to add.

In the preschool language group, we learned all about the different kinds of food that we can eat at Thanksgiving and used the pictures to make our own Thanksgiving dinner.

With my older students we worked on some writing and describing.  I love hearing what the kids are all thankful for.  They put a smile on my face everyday!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, we will see you in December!