Today's Tip Tuesday is going to cover something that is probably a no brainer for any school-based SLP! Tissue and shoeboxes are a must have in my therapy! These are my go-to therapy items when I'm conducting articulation drills. Not only does it provide immediate positive reinforcement, but it's also very cheap! Family and teachers know that I am a huge collector of these so called "trash" items. Here are some examples of how I transform my old shoe and tissue boxes into fun animals for treatment!
Some materials that you may need to purchase in order to complete this project include paint, a hot glue gun, styrofoam, and googley eyes!
There are also tons of tissue printables online. I found this printable Old Lady from the story "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" on Making Learning Fun. The kids love feeding the Old Lady!
I have to admit, there are times during the school year when I am just too lazy busy to make another animal box from scratch. So, I found some of these cute pre-made animal tissue boxes at Target for $1.99! There are tons of different animals to choose from. When I tested these out with my pre-schoolers, they really enjoyed "feeding" them their articulation cards. One girl even had her mother go out and buy some to use at home when practicing her sounds (great motivation for generalization)!
I found some other great examples of animals and critters made out of boxes on my beloved Pinterest.
If you want to get creative and really "think outside the box", shoe and tissue boxes can make excellent additions to your play area too. Instruments, stoves, houses, and garages are excellent toys to use during play therapy when working with the little guys!
The possibilities are endless and I can't wait to try some of these out myself! How do you use tissue and shoeboxes in your therapy?
Thanks for reading today's post and please stayed tuned for more tips next Tuesday :)
I've got one good-sized cracker box (from Costco, so it's got heavy cardboard sides - good for holding up to rough handling!). Instead of decorating the whole box in a single theme, I have a bunch of pictures I've laminated and cut out slots in, and I rotate them on top of the cracker box. I leave the rest of the box plain. The (preschool) kids get a kick out of "discovering" that it's really just a cracker box (and asking if there are any crackers inside, even after we've been putting cards in and taking them out!). They also get a kick out of noticing when I change out the pictures, usually related to a monthly theme or a sound most of them are working on. It also means I only need one box - I don't have to keep track of bunches. Very handy when I'm working out of a broom closet. The kids also think it's neat to take the cards out at the end and marvel at how much work we've done (looking at how thick the stack is, even though each kid has only done a third or a quarter of that stack - it's still impressive if I say it in just the right way!).
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a great idea and a very good point! Storing all of these boxes in a small office can be chaotic. Costco, here I come!! Thanks for the post :)
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