By: Leah Musgrave and Dean Trout

It is Monday and time for a little shared information from these 2 Gals. We love sharing and we love our profession!
Today we kick off a two-part series on printable resources with the spotlight on the fine people at LakeShore Learning. They have a Free Resources tab on their website that is definitely worth mentioning. Here is the link http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/general…dMaker.jsp

I want to specifically target a few areas that we find useful. First is their Award Maker. They share with us 24 different awards that are not only cute, but can be personalized. We love that feature because regular academic awards usually do not fit the bill for speech-language praise. We also love that these awards are designed to print on letter-size paper. These are two great features in our opinion.

Second, you will find a Flash Card Maker template that has limitless possibilities. When I look at that blank template my mind whirls with creative ideas! Here are just a few possibilities: make your own minimal pairs specific to the child that needs additional help with a particular phonological pattern or sound combination within that pattern. How about making your own personalized language cards that are, again, child specific. For example vocabulary: write synonyms or antonyms on them; definition on one side-then the word on the other; or attributes on one side and object on the other.
The third area we like for SLPs is the Word Search section. I know we’ve all seen this used for speech words but how about incorporating that week’s vocabulary words? Either way it makes a fun homework activity for the student.
The next area we like is the Crafts & Activities section. This section changes monthly, so check back often. It has crafts & activities for specific content areas (language arts, math, science, etc.) and also seasonal/special days. For example, one of the activities available for March is The Lion and the Lamb for making paper plate puppets to encourage learning about March weather. It could also be used for those students working on vocabulary skills (i.e., weather, windy, cold, front, back, red, orange, yellow brown, lion, lamb, etc.) and also following directions as they construct their puppets! Other special March activities address Dr. Seuss, Spring, St. Patrick’s Day, Earth Day and more!
And lastly, check out the Clip art, Calendar, and Template section. You can print pre-designed monthly calendars, or print some very useful black line template patterns. They give us a very nice stock of clip art, too. All their printable materials are offered for Windows and Mac.
We hope you take the time to look at this site because it is a nice little bonus to have at your finger tips.
Until next week, find joy in your work with the wee little ones!

Featured Authors/Vendor: Leah Musgrave and Dean Trout and 2 Gals Speech Products
Many thanks to Leah Musgrave and Dean Trout for providing us with this article for our newsletter and website.
Leah J. Musgrave, MS, CCC-Sp holds a Master’s Degree in Speech-Language Pathology (West Virginia University, 1982) and Bachelor’s Degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology (West Virginia University, 1980) She has worked in the public schools, private practice, Home Health Care, and WV Birth to Three. She has supervised off-campus practicum for graduate SLP students and Clinical Fellowship Years for beginning therapists. She has twice earned the ACE award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Dean Trout retired after 35 years as an SLP in June 2008. She has worked in public schools, private clinic, Home Health Care, and Head Start Centers in West Virginia and Kentucky. Throughout her years as an SLP, varied work settings provided Dean with opportunity to work with a huge array of communication disorders. She brings this knowledge and experience to you through her creative product development. Dean is a graduate of Marshall University (Huntington, WV, 1972) and Morehead State University (Morehead, KY, 1986).
Leah and Dean have presented on Speech-Language topics at state conferences in Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky.