TenseBuilder App Review

TenseBuilder by Mobile Education Store is one of my new favorite apps. I have been using this app for a few weeks and love all of the different ways the app can be used and changed based on each students needs.

This is the homescreen that is seen when the app is opened. As you can see, I created this set under my name as an example. The first selection is to turn audio instructions on or off. I turned them off because I didn't think they were necessary. Correct answer reinforcement is basically the option to allow praise after each question. Recording the correct answer allows keeping score, but most of the time I use this app with two students and there is not an option for that, so I keep my own data. Level of play allows a different structure for more or less advanced students. I will show examples of each level later on. Maximum number of choices allows you to select how many answer choices are shown for students playing in level 2 (this will also make more sense later). Tense allows you to select who tense you want the videos to focus on. You can select from past, present, future, or all of the above. Verbs allows you to choose if you want to focus on regular or irregular verbs or both. There is also an option to select exactly which verbs to focus on. Lesson style allows the selection of a short lesson, which is a short video and then the selection of pictures or words, the short lesson comes in if a student gets the answer incorrect. The app will switch the image in level 1 to the tense that was selected and explain why that answer was incorrect. In a long lesson, the video will be played again and stopped periodically to explain how each tense is occurring.

This is what the video screen looks like. The blue button allows the user to swtich from a short lesson to a long lesson. The red button allows the user to move on to the next video. The green button plays the video. These videos contain only sound bites, they do not contain voice of any kind.

This is what the video screen looks like after a level 1 video has been played. The sentence tells you which tense and the student has to match the picture to the sentence.

This is what the screen looks like after a level 2 video with 5 answer choices. The app reads the sentences and the student must decipher which verb fills in the blank. When the user touches or slightly moves any of the answer choices it will read the answer choice.

Overall I think this app was done very well. My only cons about this app is the fact that you can only work on one user at a time and in level 2 the answer choices do not disappear when the student guesses incorrectly. It is not difficult to switch between users, but it is annoying to have to keep switching back and forth between users. I would definitely consider this app a MUST HAVE!!!!

Breana


The opinions in this review are mine and only mine. I was provided a copy of this app and no other compensation.

FREEBIES!!!!

I have recently released a series of freebies to help with different areas of therapy.

The first freebie is a prompting mat for WH questions.
     This activity contains a visual representation of each wh- question that students can create themselves or that a therapist or teacher can create and give to their students.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Wh-Question-Prompt-Mat-962550

The second is a list of vowels, diphthongs, and retroflexed/rhotacized vowels for quick creating of nonsense syllables and words.
     This one pager contains a list of vowels, diphthongs, and retroflexed/rhotacized vowel for easy reference. I know I find it difficult to come up with vowels sometimes when I am creating nonsense syllables during articulation therapy.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Articulation-Vowel-Sounds-967908

The third is a prompting mat to help with describing and adjectives.
     This one page cheat sheet will help students with activities that require describing and use of adjectives.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/What-Words-Can-I-Use-to-Describe-1002626

The fourth is a cheat sheet for the rules of regular and irregular plurals.
    This one page list contains the rules for regular and irregular plurals. Students can use this list to create regular and irregular plurals for a variety of different activities or as a reminder.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Rules-of-Plurals-1002638


Hope you enjoy.
Breana

November Love it and List it Party

Jenna over at Speech Room News has done it again. This month the Love it and List it Linky is about Articulation Apps. I know based on my current case load, I would be in big trouble if I didn't have these apps.

My absolute favorite artic app is Articulation Station Pro by Little Bee Speech. This app has tons of different words and sentences for each phoneme, although I do wish it had phrases too. The pictures provided are real not cartoon and are more recognizable for students. Student can practice words as flashcards or a matching game, sentences, and stories. There is also a recording feature so students can record and listen to themselves for self evaluation.

For my older students I love I Dare You Articulation  by Eric X. Raj. The student love this app because they love completing the dares and laughing at each other. If I have multiple students in a group and they are not all doing artic, they all love to fight over the iPad and see who can get the best dare. This is the app to use for students who do not want to do speech because they wont realize what they are doing.

Although at the moment I only have the free version of Entire World of R flipbooks, the full app is on my list of apps to buy. I love that the three different flip books can be each be changed or left behind. There are hundreds if not thousands of sentence combinations for this app and each vocalic /r/ combination has its own set of flipbooks.

This app is not necessarily an artic app but it helps with tongue placement. Speech Tutor by Pocket SLP provides videos in profile to show students approximate tongue placement and how the phoneme should sound. I have found this app helpful with some of my older students. They can watch the video and figure out for themselves where their tongue should be with a little help. My younger students like the videos but don't necessarily understand the tongue placement. This app also helps in explaining tongue placement.

Hope this helps. Check out what other SLP's had to say here. And check back next month for another linky party.

Breana

Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes

This may be a Pillsbury recipe, but I am taking credit for the cute cupcake liners and decorations. I did not fully follow the recipe, I used a vanilla frosting and chocolate chips on top as opposed to making mini chocolate chip cookies.

Find the original pillsbury recipe here, but i will also provide the recipe and directions below.

You will need these ingredients to make the chocolate cupcake:
1 1/2 cups of gluten free flour (I use King Arthur's flour for everything)
1/2 cup og cocoa powder (I use Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa)
1 1/4 teaspoons of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar (I only used 1 1/4 cups and the cupcakes were way too sweet)
1/2 canola oil
1 cup warm water

You will also need the container of gluten free cookie dough. I used most of the container to make the cupcakes but ate a few small bites.


So the point of this recipe was to use the new gluten free refridgerated cookie dough from Pillsbury. Let me just tell you I was eating the cookie dough that was left over with a spoon. 

This is the making 3/4 inch cookie dough balls for the inside of the cupcakes. My balls were a little big because I eyeballed it, but it still worked. I would be more careful next time.



This is what the cupcakes looked like when I put them in the oven. The balls were sticking out but the cupcake baked up and around it, leaving a flat surface in the end, perfect for decorating. The chocolate cake was super moist and so was the cookie. Many of my co-workers who I bake for, don't realize anything is gluten free until I take a bite. They were also really surprised by the addition when they bit into the cupcake.

I used a canned vanilla frosting from Cherrybrook Farms to frost these cupcakes. I'm not sure if the can had been around a while, but it seemed like more of a glaze and was super sweet. It is not a product I would buy again.

To make these cupcakes:

-preheat the oven to 350 degrees
-place cupcake liners in a cupcake pan
-make cookie dough balls- approximately 3/4 inch in size
-put cake ingredients in an electric mixer and mix on medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until blended- I used the electric mixer because it said to (the first time I tend to follow the recipe), but im sure it would have worked the same with a hand mixer or a fork.
-spoon 2 tablespoons of batter into each cupcake liner, add cookie dough ball into the center, cover balls with another spoon of batter.
-bake for 28-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
-frost with choice of frosting and toppings or follow the recipe for the frosting and mini chocolate chip cookie.


Although the recipe says it makes 12 cupcakes, I got 18 in my batch. It might have been because my cookie dough balls were too big so I used less batter. I had enough cookie dough to put a surprise in all 18 cupcakes. I would make these cupcakes again and recommend them to you for a sweet treat.

Breana

October Love it and List it Linky Party

Jenna over at Speech Room News has done another Love it and List it Linky party. The month of October is to share Language apps. Below are a list of my favorite apps to be used for language.

Syntax City by Smarty Ears
     This app helps student work on a variety of different syntax skills such as do-does, irregular past tense, have-has, plurals (regular and irregular), 3rd person singular, he-she, was-were, and is-are in a variety of different fun settings. This app allows student to fill in the blank with two or three choices of answers.

Wh Question Pro by Super Duper Inc.
     I love all of Super Duper's products but this app is awesome. Each student selected to play can work on Who, What, When, Where, and/or Why questions. Based on the level the student needs to work on the app can work on multiple choice (3 answer choices are provided), decode the answer (the student uses their finger to use the decoder to identify the correct answer), matching the question to the answer (a matching fame where the app can be set to show 4 pairs, 9 pairs, 16 pairs, or 25 pairs), and drag 'n match (students match the question on the top line with the answer on the bottom line). These cards are similar if not the same as the physical card decks but easier to handle for those providers who travel, like me.

Action Words by Innovative Mobile Apps
     All of my students love this app. When you open the app there are 4 pictures that depict different actions. I use the app for a variety of targets including describing, teaching actions words, and sentence structure. The app is meant to be used as an identification game (a voice names an action and the student is to touch that action), but I turn off the sound and talk about the pictures.


These are just a few of my favorite language apps. Feel free to check out Speech Room News for other bloggers who have provided their favorite apps. Plan ahead for next months linky party which is about articulation apps. I have some good apps for that one.

Breana

Rhyming with Technology

I spent last weekend working really hard to get a new activity done. Rhyming with Technology has 390 rhyming words from 54 word families (6-9 words per family).

Pages 2-7 are blue, purple, green, and grayscale iPhones with blank icons. These iPhones are mats for the rhyming word icons to sit on. There are a maximum of nine rhyming words per word family.

 

Page 8 contains a chart with all of the word families in the activity. These word endings can be cut out and placed at the top of each iPhone as a reminder or to help organize the icons. 

Pages 9-28 contain icons like the ones below with words and pictures for students at different levels.

There is also a page of blank icons (pg. 29). Students can write their own words and add them to the list. With laminated blank sheets of icons student can write and erase extra word choices.

 

 

This activity can be used in many different ways.

- as a matching activity

- as an identification activity

- present a few words and have students provide more words for that word family

 

Breana

Find this activity in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here.

Beef Stew: My Favorite Dinner!!!!

Doesn't that BEEF STEW look amazing? This is one of my favorite meals, not only because it is easy to make, but because it is super tasty and there are always tons of left overs.

To make this recipe you need:
2 lbs beef stew meat
3 tablespoons flour (I use King Arthur's for everything I do, but any gluten free flour will do)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon thyme or marjoram
1/4 teaspoon ground black peper
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) beef broth
4 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks (i love the potatoes so much so i use more than  potatoes)
1 large onion, cut into chunks
2 celery ribs, cut into 1 inch pieces

Directions:
-coat beef with flour- put flour into a zip lock bag with beef and shake until coated
-heat oil in a large saucepan or Dutch Oven on medium-high heat. Add 1/2 of the beef, brown on all sides. Repeat with the remaining beef.
-stir in seasonings and beef broth, bring to boil, reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours.
-stir in vegetables and cover
-simmer 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender
-add additional water as necessary.

This meal is better the longer it sits, the earlier you make it the better it is.

Breana