{Guest Blog} Thrifty SLP Ideas by Speechy Musings!

I am so excited to share this AMAZING guest blog post created by Speechy Musings!  She has come up with great ideas to use in therapy while not spending a ton of money!!  What can get better than that?!  Read on to hear all of her great ideas....
How many of you are on a tight budget when it comes to materials for your speech room? I don’t yet have my own speech room, but I’m in graduate school I definitely understand the need to plan creative, motivating therapy with a small budget! Below are some of the ideas I’ve used to save money!

1) Save old containers!
Then, go out and buy acetone nail polish. Soak an old rag in acetone nail polish and wrap it around the old container. Leave for ~5 minutes. Then, scrub, scrub, scrub! And voila: you have a plain, white container!

You can use these to store game cards, boardmaker pictures, popsicle sticks, etc... I also love sending these containers home with students! That way, if they never make their way back, I can just clean off another container.

2) If you plan on using a worksheet often, with a small group of kids each time, consider laminating it and using dry erase markers! By doing this, you won't need to print copies for each group! If the dry erase marker sticks, drop a SMALL drop of hand sanitizer on it, and wipe clean with a tissue!

3) Save toilet paper rolls! And paper towel rolls too!
Start with 2 toilet paper rolls. Cut one of them into thirds, and cut a slit down each of those pieces (see picture below).

Wrap each of the smaller pieces around the tube. They can spin around the tube!

This can be adapted for articulation words, reading sight words, phonological awareness activities or phonemic awareness activities!

OR use a paper towel roll for even more options. This can be adapted to match items of the same color, categories, words that start or end or contain an articulation sound, or so many other goals! My students used the roll below to spin each segment and match up all of the words that begin with ‘B’.

Below are other things to do with toilet paper rolls:
Heart Stamping
Toilet Paper Roll Caddy
Toilet Paper Roll Alphabet Crafts
Roll a Word (great for phonological awareness)
Pull Tab Books
Penguin Puppets

4) Save recyclables.
For Sorting: You can sort recyclables you might normally throw away into categories like paper, plastic, glass, or metal. This could be a great functional activity for some of your older students as well! Below are some examples of how easy finding each of these materials might be:
Paper: Any things that print wrong, junk mail, magazines, brochures, cardboard food packaging
Plastic: Water bottles, plastic food containers (sour cream, yogurt) or bottle caps
Glass: Pasta sauce containers or bottled drinks like Snapple
Metal: Caps from bottles like Snapple or cans (food or soda)
For Functional Therapy: See a great post here from Major Speech Pathology Fun by a Minor Girl on how to incorporate business cards and brochures in your speech room!

5) Last, if you have an iPad and purchase products on TpT, try using some of the products on your iPad instead of printing, cutting, and laminating all of the pages! This will not only save you money, but valuable time as well!

I hope some of those ideas helped! If you are interested in seeing more ideas on another great website, click here.

Always take advantage of Goodwill, websites like Teachers Pay Teachers, and dollar bins in Walmart and Target! Stay creative and craft on!

Be sure to head over to Speechy Musings Facebook page and TpT store!
https://www.facebook.com/speechymusingsblog
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Speechy-Musings

Thanks everyone!!!
Kristine
Live Love Speech