It's time for a TpT Cyber Monday sale, which means it's time for a What's In Your Cart linky hosted by Speech Room News!
If you have a few dollars left over from Black Friday, TpT's sale is a great way to stretch not-very-much into a-lot-of-materials. Most sellers, including All Y'all Need, have set store prices at 20% off. Enter the (upcoming) TpT code at checkout for an extra savings!

Here are a few things I'll be using this December.
 All Y'all Need
I hung up cards for Christmas Write & Say the Room just before I left for Fall Break. It's a great way to introduce the season - just hang up cards around the room, give students recording sheets, and they do their own homework! 

We will also be learning about Texas with these book companion activities for Steve Smallwood's book (not included) Santa is Coming to Texas.
 All Y'all Need
This unit includes 3 games/homework sheets for categories, spatial concepts, and following directions.
We also have Santa Is Coming to {My State} if you're in one of the other 49 states.

Confession: A Winter Book Companion Bundle by The Speech Owl is not in my cart - because I already own it! It's fun, comprehensive, and targets multiple goals - a win-win! 

On my list for my older students is Christmas (responding to non-fiction text & more!) by Mia McDaniel.
 I love all of her stuff!

And I'll be trying out Winter Find It on the Go for Language by Small Talk SLP. Another item that looks multi-purpose!
Happy shopping, and remember to use the code at checkout!



The last week of October we had our book fair.
I meant to blog about the book fair experience, but failed to do so.
"Better late than never" is the motto this Friday.
Our school always uses Scholastic Book Fair company to provide the merchandise
for our book fairs.
This fall their theme was monsters.
But for the first time ever, I did something new.
I used Krista's Creative Clips clip art to decorate the book fair.
The table signs were adorable with Creative Clips monsters.
The ceiling was strung with monsters, too.
Wow!
What a difference!
The kids are always super excited about the book fair.
It was nice to use monsters so close to Halloween, too.
I made monster-themed labels for everything.
These Top Secret UV Pens were a H-O-T seller at the fair.
The Dollar Tree colorful baskets and white baskets from Wal-Mart held things such as 
book packs, pencils, erasers and pencil sharpeners.
Teachers make out their wish lists of books they would like purchased for their
classroom libraries.
It is a wonderful program to get books for the class.
Students fill out their wish lists, too.
The stand up sign on the table and on the floor by the books were
provided by Scholastic Book Fair.
I just used Creative Clips to make the book fair look bright and happy.
These paper lanterns easily turned into monsters.
I hung up the book fair sign so it could be seen as soon as you walked
into the library.
The paper fans, a purchase from Hobby Lobby, were terrific!
I loved they came in chevron patterns, stripes and polka dots.
The black and white backgrounds were perfect for the clip art.
Here are a few more examples of book fair decorations.
And I added a little bit of ribbon to tie the labels to the baskets.
It did not take much time to create the labels, dump the merchandise into the baskets
and put on the table.
It was easier to point students in the right direction, too.
We had students dress up in their costumes for Literacy Night on Thursday night.
We handed out lollipops to shoppers, too.
I'll leave you with Captain America because he is adorable!
Are you getting ready for the holidays? Need some ideas? The Frenzied SLPs are up for the challenge!

For the first time ever, my district is having Fall Break! That means we are off the whole week of Thanksgiving! So this post is a mix of what I used for Thanksgiving last week and what I'm planning for Christmas.
 The Frenzied SLPs
Of course my students made turkeys with feathers. Is there anyone who doesn't do that activity? To make it a little more interesting for my self-contained students, I used random craft objects laying around and put them in a Dollar Tree chips and dip tray. $1 total for this activity. Love that. Note: the chenille stems do NOT glue down.
A LOT of my students need spatial concepts. So many. I'm thankful for my sister Amy who created Thanksgiving Spatial Concepts using movement and Thanksgiving vocabulary. Students have so much fun acting these out!
 All Y'all Need
Guess what's coming up? That's right, Christmas Spatial Concepts!
 All Y'all Need
Need a few Christmas {freebie} goodies? Of course, we all do! All Y'all Need has an interactive freebie to address even MORE spatial concepts!
 All Y'all Need
Activity Tailor and Jenna Rayburn put out an ebook where you can find even more ideas! Have fun perusing.

And for an easy holiday edible goodie - for yourself - try Praline Trash. It's great for men - my hubby and dad LOVE it.
Melt 3/4 cup butter and 3/4 cup brown sugar over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, and simmer for 2 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix 2 cups each Rice Chex, Wheat Chex, and Corn Chex. Add 1 1/2 cups pecan halves.

Pour caramel mixture over cereal and pecans. Stir to coat.

Lay out on a jelly-roll pan and cook at 325 degrees for 8 minutes.

Enjoy! And check out all the other great ideas by clicking on the links below! 

We are linking up with Kacey at
Check out Kacey's blog to see who else is linking up.
Thanks to all the veterans.
This picture is from an assembly my school had.
For Veterans Day, my students played Ask Away to work on vocabulary and artic.

On Thursday, my students got to enjoy I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie and start on some Thanksgiving activities.
 All Y'all Need Thanksgiving

Need some inspiration? Want to have a chance to win TpT and Starbucks gift cards?
The Frenzied SLPs are hosting a blog hop.
But hurry!
Entries end tonight!
Of course, you can always scroll down a post and start with our entry.
But if you like your letters in order, start at Speech Universe.


What's up for next week?
More turkeys!
My students will be practicing artic and language while working on Talking Turkey Facts and Opinions, thanks to my sister!
I'm grateful for my children and their big hearts.
My son, age 20, dressed up like a turkey and ran around with Lisa's Pre-K class.
I can't post pictures, though.
And my daughter and her friend participated in a food drive to benefit local food banks.
I'm proud of both of them for helping out!
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Counting blessings, family time, less commercialism, great food, the fall colors - it's a winning combination for me!

One of the parts of my life I'm most grateful for is the connections I've made with The Frenzied SLPs. We are foregoing our usual linkies and running a blog hop.
 The Frenzied SLPs
By reading all the posts and gathering letters for the phrase, you have the opportunity to be one of three winners of a $10 TpT gift card and a $10 Starbucks card! Who wouldn't be grateful for that? Here's how to participate:
1) Read each Thankful and Grateful post.
2) Collect the letter/character at the end of each post. Write them down - they will spell out a phrase!
3) Enter the Rafflecopter on any post by entering the phrase.
4) Visit The Frenzied SLPs FB page for an additional entry.
5) Also visit our FB page to find out if you are a winner after 11/13/15!

I have TONS to be thankful and grateful for. For this post, I'm concentrating on my SLP life.

First, I'm thankful for opportunities. I owe this thinking to Gilmore Girls. While I can't find the exact episode right now, at one point in Season 3 or 4, Lorelei's dreams of opening her own inn are not working out, and instead of focusing on the negatives, she emphasizes the opportunities. So I try to think of things this way:
* Large caseload? More opportunities to make a difference in students'  communication
* The corresponding numbers of IEP meetings? More opportunities to work with parents and teachers.
* Home languages other than English and Spanish? More opportunities to learn about other languages and more opportunities to work with interpreting companies.
* More paperwork? Yeah, I haven't figured that opportunity out yet.

Second, a great space! I've worked with the same district for 23 years. While I've worked at several schools, I've always had my hand in the service of one particular school. A few years ago, my principal got maintenance to paint my little corner of the world. It makes me happy!
And finally, connections. 
* In my family. All Y'all Need is made up of my sister Amy and cousin Lisa (ALL=Amy, Laura, Lisa). It's given us a connection that I never could have imagined and made us closer.
* At my school, a principal who takes care of me; an AP who helps me schedule; a co-worker who is a bigger Wicked fan than me; a diag who helps me out; and all the teachers and staff who are supportive.
* In my online world, oh my - how did we exist before the Internet? I've met Sparklle SLP very briefly, and I've never met Mia from Putting Words in Your Mouth, but they have both made me a better SLP, along with Tracy from GoldCountrySLP, Lynda SLP123, and Kim from Activity Tailor. To all of The Frenzied SLPs, big hugs! And huge thanks to the The Elementary EntourageMrs. Dailey's Classroom and Mrs. Plemon's Kindergarten for organizing such a great group!

Here's the letter you're looking for:
For your next letter, head over to some friends I'm very thankful for - Twin Speech Language and Literacy!
Want to start at the beginning?

  a Rafflecopter giveaway
We are linking up with Kacey at
Doodle Bugs Teaching today. Two days late, but who's counting?
Check out Kacey's blog to see who else is linking up.
Here's the reason I'm late.
We took a short trip to Disney World.
Here are my daughter, hubby and son.
We didn't get a picture of all 4 of us.
It was a crazy trip, complete with being affected by Texas flooding and the stomach bug.
It was also wonderful! Such great memories!
Here's my daughter, husband, and me.
We got back late Tuesday night and went back to work Wednesday morning.
That's the other reason I'm late.
I've been catching up on sleep this weekend.
We got an early start to Thanksgiving at school with one of my favorite books.
And worked on vocabulary with Turkey Bingo from Speaking of Speech.
Speaking of Speech was one of the first websites I ever utilized (yes, I'm old).
I still go to it quite a bit. It's good. Check it out.
This week, we'll be talking about Veterans Day.
I live in an area with a huge military presence.
So much so, that students get off Wednesday for Veterans Day.
Staff has professional development.
I want students to know why they have the day off.
So we will be playing Ask Away to work on vocabulary and artic. It's part of this package.
 Ask Away by All Y'all Need

Tomorrow night, Dancing with the Stars is on.
I'm rooting for Bindi Irwin.
Who is your favorite?



I have already had my parent conferences, so I will be recapping what I did. This year, my conferences were a little bit different. In previous years of teaching kindergarten, I have always discussed what letters need to be worked on. Pre-K conferences are a little different. Some students are coming in with knowing all letters and some students only know the letter that their name begins with. I used my parent conferences to touch base with my parents about how I differentiate to meet the needs of their child. I show them work samples and data from our Beginning of Year assessments.   This summer, I won a free grade level subscription to ESGI for my new school!!! My coworkers were so excited to use it! Partly because, I sang of ESGI's praises in my job interview! ESGI test results print outs and flash cards made parent conferences a breeze. I was able to show accurate data without spending hours after school to create a results letter. I also send home alphabet cards for my students to practice at home, a list of games to practice the alphabet at home and a list of ways to practice fine motor skills at home. I organize all of my handouts and data into a data folder so it is easily accessible for each conference. Below is a link to an adorable cover freebie on tpt by Kristine Nannini! I just staple to cover to the front of the folder and it is ready to go.

(Click the image to go to her tpt store!)
 Student Data Tracking Binder Covers and Binder Spines {Freebie!}

I hope everyone has very successful conferences!







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