How to use The Cool Bean in Your Speech Therapy Sessions

The Cool Bean is a great story to use in speech therapy, it has a clear plot, great vocabulary, and an awesome lesson for all kids. Here are some of my favorite interactive and hands-on activities to go with the story that your students will love!

Story Props

I love using story props with books and the kids really like getting their hands on something! You can make copies of the characters from the book, draw your own, or use clip art to create your props. I always include them in my book companions because they can be used for so many things.

You can use a background and recreate the story on paper. I also like to put the characters in a sensory bin and have students retell or describe the story. You could also assign each student a character and then do a recreation of the story with each student playing a part. The possibilities are endless!

Craft

This is an easy craft that won't take much time! You can precut some circles for beans, I did lots of different colors and let the kids choose which ones they wanted to use. You can also have them cut out their own.

Give each student 5 bean shapes and have them write a nice thing to do for someone else on each one. Then they can glue them onto a bowl shape or just on a piece of paper. This would be cool to put on a bulletin board, wall display or to share with classmates!

Vocabulary

Vocabulary for this book is full of opportunities to learn about social interaction. You can use premade activities or choose words that are best for your students.

You can do this cut and glue match up or cut them all apart and play memory. If you want to use your own words, you can do the same thing with index cards. Then, you can mix them all up and ask the students to use the words in their own examples and non-examples, think of synonyms and antonyms, or add them to a vocabulary journal.

Boom Cards

Boom Cards can be super fun whether you're in person or doing teletherapy! In person, I liked to use them on the iPad or Smartboard so that they are interactive. This deck includes 8 different activities to work on skills like comprehension and vocabulary.