When it comes to speech therapy lesson planning, it can get a big overwhelming because we don’t just serve one specific treatment area. We serve articulation, phonology, language, social pragmatics, fluency, narrative language, etc. So, today I wanted to share how you can use the book If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff to cover a LOT of speech and language goals.
Updates and Resources Mentioned in the Real Talk SLP Podcast:
Join the Themed Therapy SLP membership (doors are opening for the year next week of August 21st)
New sets of the Simon’s Cat Speech Therapy Cheat Sheets Growing Bundle will be added at the end of August or sooner!
Where to Find the Book for Your Literacy-Based Speech Therapy Sessions
Grab the book on Amazon, use the YouTube read aloud, get it on Scholastic, or hunt for a copy at a thrift store! You can also snag a If You Take a Mouse to School story retell prop kit on Amazon as well.
Amazon affiliate links are provided for your convenience. I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Check out more details for how to set up your push-in lesson for If You Take a Mouse to School:
Read the book on the carpet and split your groups into three stations. You can see this REEL with the group activities in action. While reading the book, include iconic gestures and shared book reading strategies.
Station #1:
Mystery Lunch Game, where you put school-related items into a lunchbox or backpack. You can pair with themed mini trinkets, printables (we have school printables in the Themed Therapy SLP membership), or school items around your room and house.
Station #2:
Sorting School Items into Categories with the printables from the back-to-school push-in language lesson plan guide. You can work on sorting playground, lunch food, toys, etc.
Station #3:
Pretend play packing your lunch activity using your play food and a lunch box to work on following directions, sharing opinion, targeting AAC CORE words like/don’t like, modeling spatial concepts, sequencing the steps for packing a lunch, or play “What’s missing?” by giving inference clues for what they need to pack next in their school lunch.
Some more extension speech therapy activities for the book, If You Take a Mouse to School:
Make a story prop kit with items from the story to help with story retell and sequencing. You can also buy this set on Amazon.
Rock Chalk Speech Talk has some really fun ideas to go with this book like some Yoga poses, science experiment, and a DIY story prop kit for this story!
Pair a craft with the story, such as this mouse writing craft, shape mouse craft, or paper bag mouse craft. You can also use a pencil or bus craft in the Themed Therapy SLP membership.
Make up another version if you take a mouse to school and substitute it for a different animal, the child’s pet, or something wild like a lion or dinosaur.
With a plush mouse or the mouse puppet in the prop kit for this book, have the mouse visit different places and workers around the school. Work on where questions, who questions, and explain the jobs of the different school workers.
For students working on syntax and conjunction goals, work on cause and effect with this story. You can teach connecting words such as “then,” “because,” “since,” etc.
Look through your book and write down any key vocabulary or verbs from the book. Grab a die and have students roll to see what number they get. Use the roll-a-word game to have students practice depth of knowledge with vocabulary words from the book.
What Activities Do You Plan with the Book?
If you have any great activities or ways you incorporate speech and language goals using this book, share them in the comments or tag me on social media! Felice Clark (thedabblingspeechie)
Ep 103 If You Take a Mouse to School Speech Therapy Lesson Plan
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This is brilliant! I love using books in my mixed groups. Thank you all these suggestions!