| Batesburg-Leesville Primary and the B-L and Twin City Rotary Clubs will present "Got Book?" on Tuesday, January 31 at 6 p.m. in the BLPS cafeteria. An art show will also be held from 5-7 p.m. and a spaghetti supper sponsored by the school's PTO will be held in the cafeteria beginning at 6:30 p.m. |
| Common Planning/Early Release Day will be held on Wednesday, February 1. There will be no Afterschool Program at Batesburg-Leesville Elementary School on this date. Dismissal times for all schools are as follows: B-L Primary, 12:45 p.m.; B-L Elementary, 1:00 p.m.; B-L Middle, 1:36 p.m; and B-L High, 1:50 p.m. |
Recent ActivityWhat is Speech Therapy?
Speech-language therapy is for students who meet South Carolina State Department of Education eligibility criteria as Speech-Language Impaired. Students enrolled in speech are provided therapy based on their specific speech and/or language needs as outlined in their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Speech students are served for disorders and/or delays in one or more of the following areas: Articulation, Phonology, Language, Fluency, and Voice. In addition, these disorders/delays must negatively impact each student's educational performance. Most students are served in small group settings, although some students require one-on-one sessions with the therapist. Batesburg-Leesville Primary School currently has approximately 90-100 students enrolled in speech-language therapy.
Check This Out
Children who meet eligibility criteria can begin receiving speech-language therapy as early as age 3! If you have concerns about your young child's speech or language, contact the District Office at 532-8005 to schedule a screening appointment at our monthly Lexington Three Preschool Clinic. 2011-2012 Preschool Clinic Dates are as follows:
August 26, 2011
September 30, 2011
November 4, 2011
December 9, 2011
January 27, 2012
March 9, 2010
April 20, 2012
May18, 2012
Help BLPS When You Shop at BiLo
Our school will be collecting BoxTops and CapriSun pouches this year as a way to earn extra mney for our school. Both of these companies have reward programs that actually pay the school per label and pouch that is turned in. Stay tuned to the school newsletter for specific instructions on how these will be collected.
What's Buzzing?  Going Ape for the Zoo!In April, many of our students will be taking a field trip to the zoo. Students who are not going to the zoo with a school group may be visiting the zoo with family or friends. Our speech activities will be based on zoo "sights and sounds" during the month of April. If your family is able to go to the zoo this month, please share some pictures with us! Stay tuned to find out more about our WILD speech time studying the zoo!
 Going on a Bear HuntThis week in Speech Therapy with the preschoolers at BLPS, we will continue our camping theme and practice our speech and language skills while "going on a bear hunt." We will read about a bear hunt and then have fun exploring our school while sharpening our ability to follow auditory directions containing prepositions, building our vocabulary skills, and practicing our speech sounds.
 Camping Out for Good Speech and LanguageWe will begin new theme in the month of March built around "the great outdoors." We will be practicing our speech and language skills while doing activities related to camping. The students should really enjoy this unit and find it exciting to learn about the things you encounter in nature when camping. We will read books about camping and even have a tent set up in the therapy room so that the students can see what camping is all about. I am looking forward to this unit.
Box Tops for EducationDon't forget to continue clipping those BoxTops off of specially marked grocery products. Turn them into your teacher to be entered into a drawing to win a free book from the school Book Fair! What an easy and fun way to earn extra money for our school!
 The Little Red HenWe will be reading The Little Red Hen for the month of November. THe activities for the month will focus on the characters in the story. We will continue to practice answering questions, identifying vocabulary, and describing pictures/objects. We will also read other book during the month that help us address these same skills. Students who have articulation and phonology goals will practice their individual sounds.
 B-L Trick or TreatingJust wanted to make you aware that according to Batesburg-Leesville Town Manager, Joan Taylor, our community will hold trick-or-treating on Sunday, October 31 from 6 – 9 p.m. I would also like to inform you that the town will host a Fall Festival from 4:30 until 8:30 p.m. on October 31 in the Leesville College Park at the end of Main Street. The public is invited and there will be entertainment for the whole family
 The Very Busy SpiderWe have been reading the book The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle during Speech Therapy this month. Many of our activities have centered around spiders and farm animals. The students have really enjoyed making spider webs out of glitter, yarn, and cotton. We have addressed a variety of of language objectives including answering questions, identifying vocabulary, and describing pictures/objects. We have also practiced each student's individual sounds this month. Please ask your child about the book and find out which character they like best in the story.
 Welcome Back to School 2010-2011 Welcome back to school for the 2010-2011 school year! This is an exciting time of the year-the teachers are refreshed and the students are eager to learn. This year's therapy sessions will focus on improving the students' communication skills by addressing each individual student's IEP goals and objectives. We will use a theme-based delivery model with a variety of strategies and activities to work on these skills. This year's speech therapy room theme is bugs! We have bugs on the bulleting board, door, and walls. The students will be choosing which bug they want to have hung on the wall with their name on it. I think that the students are really enjoying seeing the different colorful bug pictures that we have. We even have two bug puppets named Larry the Ladybug and Beatrice the Butterfly that will join us periodically for Speech Therapy. I look forward to working with you all this year to facilitate your child's speech and language skills. Please contact me with any questions or comments.  BLPS Rules and ExpectationsSpeech RulesOur school has a behavioral program in place called Positive Behavior Supports. As a part of this program, all of our faculty and staff work together to follow the same behavior system allowing our students consistency throughout their school day. The same rules apply in the hallway, in homeroom class, in art, music, P.E., in speech class, on the playground etc. Our system focuses on reinforcing students for making good choices. While there are consequences in place for negative choices, those are only pursued after attempts for positive reinforcement have been put into place. We have 3 simple rules for the entire school:
 Meet Mrs. SawyerHello! I am Stephanie Sawyer and I am the itinerant speech-language pathologist (SLP) in Lexington District #3, which means that I work in more than one of our schools, but I am based out of the Primary School. I currently serve students at B-L Primary, B-L Middle, B-L High, and GLEAMNS Head Start. I also teach students in our community who qualify for speech services, but are not enrolled in school. This is my tenth year as a school SLP. I truly feel honored to be able to work in B-L because this is my home. I am a 1995 graduate of B-L High and believe that there is no place like home. I received my Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College in 1999 and my Masters of Speech Pathology from the University of South Carolina in 2001. I am a nationally certified speech-language pathologist through the American Speech and Hearing Association. I am married to Grig Sawyer, from Saluda. My husband and I live in Batesburg-Leesville with our three wonderful children: Ella, John, and James. Ella is in K5 at BLPS, John is 3, and James is 4 months. They bring so much joy to our lives. My husband also works in Lexington #3 as a Social Studies teacher, football coach, and weight room coordinator. My hobbies are working in my yard and garden, reading, cooking, and watching football. I absolutely love spending time with my family and watching the waves roll in on the Isle of Palms. I am looking forward to a fun year in Speech Therapy! Go Panthers!
 Speech Homework and Grades Homework activities will be sent home with students on a regular basis. These are meant to be a guide for parents as they help their children practice. Home practice is very important in helping children generalize correct sound productions and language skills into the home environment.
Parents can always help reinforce their child's speech work at home through simple daily events. Here are a few suggestions: 1. model correct sound productions for your child 2. play "word games" to think of words that start with the target sounds 3. read with your child and ask questions to check comprehension skills 4. play rhyming games to have your child think of rhyming word pairs 5. keep a running list of new words your child learns and review them periodically to boost vocabulary development. Students will address the goals and objectives stated in their Individualized Educational Program (IEP). Progress reports are sent home each nine weeks. Progress will be reported as follows: NI= Needs Improvement JUST IN CASE YOU ARE WONDERING |
Cool Computer Links  Box Tops for EducationParents can sign up to support our school @ www.boxtops4education.com . Please make sure to clip the boxtop icons off all participating products. The school earns money for each boxtop collected. We also have a drawing each month for neat prizes. Make sure to put your child's name on the back of each box top if they want to participate in the monthly drawings. First drawing will be during Open House. |
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