I realized that I have gone material mad lately! I love having all of this time to be able to create and cut and paste! Letting my creative juices flow is one of my favorite things to do and summer is the best time to do it, in preparation for the upcoming year. What you may not know is, I do a lot literacy based instruction for therapy. I usually have a book or two that I use to match my theme of the week. Obviously, different books works for different goals. But one that I always love teaching with is The Napping House by Audrey Wood and illustrated by Don Wood.
I like this book because I can target SO many objectives….narrative, listening comprehension, wh questions, size and positional concepts, superlatives and comparatives, adjectives, and synonyms. It also uses great repetitive language and the kids think it's hysterical. It has wonderful illustrations and they love playing find the flea! He is always in a different spot!
This activity is one that I have used over and over. First thing you need are printables for all of the characters…I do not remember where I got mine, but I found some more over at Making Learning Fun. Print, color, cut, and laminate all of the pieces…then add some velcro or magnets to the back.
Then, I took a piece of my ever handy construction paper and made a house, with the title, author and illustrator at the top. After I laminated it, I added a strip of velcro down the middle. You could also leave it as a placemat OR add magnets for a barrier game/whiteboard activity.
Then…have fun! Students can work on narrative and comprehension skills by retelling the story and putting the pieces in order. The pieces also happen to be size order, so you can talk about biggest and smallest. I have taken the pieces off and worked on position concepts and following directions (ex. Put the bed next to the granny, put the boy between the mouse and cat, etc.) I sometimes give students their own copies of the printables and they make their own little book or glue their characters in order to take home for carryover.
Do you ever use The Napping House in therapy? What other ideas do you have for teaching targets? Let me know what you think 🙂
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I love incorporating books into therapy! The ability to add vocab into the mix is always a bonus in my mind! I haven’t used a lot of books in my articulation/language therapy as of yet, but that is definitely on my mind for this year. For my students with multiple disabilities I use interactive story books. I have also discovered a website that has a lot of printable activities/story books that work great for my 30 minute/wk sessions with these kids. Do you work with students with multiple disabilities? My non-verbal students love the stories created by File Folder Heaven at http://www.filefolderheaven.com. Thanks for the blog post! I have never heard of that book before! I will be adding it to my wish list!
Courtney
littlespeechcorner.blogspot.com
I totally agree. They are such a great way to teach lots of things, but vocab is always one. Thanks for the tip on File Folder Heaven…I will check it out! Btw, I can’t believe you have never heard of this book! I remember reading when I was younger lol…maybe that’s why I like it so much 🙂
Do you think this would be a good book for preschoolers? This looks like a good activity!
-Brea
Let’s Talk SLP
http://www.letstalkslp.blogspot.com
Probably! I could see definitely using it with the 4 year olds, maybe even 3’s. I used it with Kindergarten and they loved it. The repetitiveness makes it good for little ones, and it’s pretty silly so they engage in it.
I am enjoying reading all your posts. Great blog! I work a lot with older elementary and two picture books I often reach for are Kat Kong by Dav Pilkey and HeatWave by Helen Ketteman. I use both of these books each year to teach figurative language. I have a lot of kids on my caseload that really struggle with this concept.
Awesome! Thanks 🙂 HeatWave is a great one for working on that skill! I don’t think I know Kat Kong, I will have to check it out. I have another one on the same lines that I use sometimes but I can’t think of it right now! If I do, I will let you know. Figurative language is such a toughie.