Shark Week Speech Therapy Lesson Plan for Upper Elementary

Shark Week Speech Therapy Lesson Plan for Upper Elementary

by | Jul 19, 2023 | Themed Speech Therapy, Therapy Plans, Uncategorized

It’s late Summer and you turn on the Discovery Channel. What do you find? Dun dun… dun dun… SHARK WEEK! Each summer, Shark Week mesmerizes everyone with wild stories and footage. What If we take shark week from Discovery Channel and make it into Shark Week Speech Therapy? You can use this theme as a lesson plan for upper elementary students and adapt it for small groups and co-teaching (push-in or whole class lessons). To read more about push-in setup, check out this blog post. At first glance, it may seem like this is a one-week kind of theme, but I’ve put together a few of my favorite ideas that will help you plan shark activities for at least 2 weeks.

Amazon affiliate links are included for your convenience in this blog post. When you use my affiliate link, I receive a small comission at no additional charge.

Get Your FREE Themed SLP Planner

Want to keep track of your lesson plans for future years? Use the free editable themed therapy lesson planner and idea guide to help you plan out your themes for the school year. It’s a free download on this blog post.

With a themed speech therapy calendar that is editable and over 100 seasonal and nonseasonal themed ideas, you will have your monthly themes planned out for the school year!

Get your free SLP planner for themed therapy.

Shark Week Book for Speech Therapy

Learn about shark themed books you can use in your speech therapy lesson plnas.

“Shark Lady” by Jess Keating is the perfect book for shark week speech therapy. Buy it on Amazon or watch it a YouTube read aloud by Story Time with Ms. Jay. Get Epic also has an animated Shark Lady book. Use EdPuzzle to listen, too.

The Before: 

  • Review any Tier 2 vocabulary words with your students. Some tier 2 words I found were fearless, doubt, eager, myth, and devise. 
  • Ask your students a big thinking question such as “Have you ever seen an animal that you thought was beautiful but other people thought was scary or ugly?”

The During

  • Stop every couple of pages to ask a think-aloud question. 
  • Point to pictures in the book that represent some of the vocabulary words. 
  • Talk about character traits. How would they describe Eugenie as the story goes on?
  • This EdPuzzle has questions built in with picture choice answers.

 

The After

  • Complete this Quizziz about the story. 
  • Discuss how the word “fearless” relates to this book. How is Eugenie Clark fearless?
  • Create a timeline about Eugenie Clark. What other questions do they have about her?
  • Do a word search like this one from Wordmint.

 

Want a cheat sheet for “Shark Lady”? I have a full lesson plan cheat sheet for this book as part of May’s “Ocean Animals” theme in the SLP Themed Therapy membership.

Use this easy shark week speech therapy lesson plan for upper elementary.

Shark Week Videos

Get shark week speech therapy lesson plan ideas for upper elementary.

Videos are the start to some great shark activities that you can use in small group or whole class instruction.

SciShow on YouTube has great options with Super Sharks or How Sharks Find Food with Electricity. After watching the video, ask comprehension questions. What questions do your students have about sharks?

If you’re using this as a push-in lesson, here are some ideas:

  • Break your students into groups and assign staff members to different groups.
  • Provide whiteboards and dry erase markers for each group.
  • Pause the video after a key point is shared and ask the class a question.
  • Allow each group to write an answer on their white board, and then share it with the class.
  • When the video is finished, you can have the students write out the main idea, supporting details and a summary sentence about the video.
  • Don’t forget to float between groups and ask questions or help keep students engaged.
  • Close your session with: What is one cool thing you learned about sharks?

Some other fun videos to watch are LIVE shark cams!ith these shark themed speech therapy activities. Here are a few I found:

Tips for Using the Shark Videos in Speech Therapy

While watching the live feeds, talk about what the sharks are doing. How many do they see? How are they similar and different? What other fish do they see? Research sharks with your students. 

 

You can also use these as some conversation starters—Have your students been to an aquarium? What did they think of it? Did they see sharks? How do they feel when they think or see sharks?

Lots of great shark speech therapy activities for upper elementary.

More Shark Speech Therapy Activities to Extend the Themed Lesson Plan

Planning for your upper elementary students just got easier with these shark themed speech therapy activities.

Like I said earlier, there is plenty of opportunity to extend Shark Week into multiple weeks with even more shark week ideas. After you’ve read “Shark Lady” and/or watched some Shark Videos, check out some of these shark activities.

Mystery Doug has some fun videos with some questions your students might have about sharks. Doug answers

Before you watch, ask your students what they think the answer is. After you watch, ask students if their predictions were right. Don’t forget to ask your students what questions they have about sharks!

Brain breaks are always fun with students, especially in whole class instruction! Coach Corey Martin has a great movement break for you to complete. This is a great tool to break up your push-in lessons.

Last but not least, don’t forget about Shark STEM. Learn about shark buoyancy with this YouTube video from the Houston Public Library. You’ll need a plastic bottle, sharpie, 1 balloon, vegetable oil, funnel and a large tub filled with water. While completing this, pause the video and ask your students what they think will happen. After, they can draw a picture of the activity, and verbally explain what happened and why it happened.

Looking for More Shark Week Ideas 

 

Shark Week(s) is a great speech therapy theme for students of all ages. If you’re an SLP serving Prek-5th, Speech Sprouts has some great shark activities for the preschool speech therapy population. What shark activities you are using in therapy?

Planning for your upper elementary students just got easier with these shark themed speech therapy activities.
Sneezy the Snowman Activities

Sneezy the Snowman Activities

by | Jan 1, 2023 | Books for Speech Therapy, Therapy Plans, Uncategorized

When January hits, it’s time to pull out the Sneezy the Snowman book in your speech therapy sessions. You can target synonyms, s-blends, CORE words, sequencing skills, and story elements, to name a few skills! If you are doing a snowman theme with your elementary speech therapy caseload, this blog post will hook you up with Sneezy, the snowman activities you can use across the ages.

Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post for your convenience. When you use an affiliate link, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Where to Find the Sneezy the Snowman Book?

You can head to your local library, Amazon, or find a Sneezy the Snowman read-aloud on YouTube. To have access to the book digitally, Kindle Unlimited has it available when you subscribe as of 01/01/23. Your library may have a digital loaning service with OverDrive or the Libby app to get this book electronically for free!

Sneezy the Snowman Story Retell Props

To turn the sneezy snowman into an engaging story, you need to make a story prop kit! I talk about how to make your own for this book in this blog post. Not only can you use the story retell props for narrative language, but you can also use them for syntax, basic concepts, yes/no questions, and comprehension.

Sneezy the Snowman Sequencing Ideas

If you decide to do the DIY sneezy snowman story kit, you can work on sequencing what happened in the story (blog post link is above.) For your older students, you can use this free Sneezy the Snowman retelling worksheet from Rowdy in Room 300. After working on sequencing with Sneezy the snowman, you can continue to target sequencing with a snowman theme using ideas from this blog post. 

Sneezy the Snowman Activities for Vocabulary

Using this book, you can work on the shades of meaning for the vocabulary cold and hot. On the whiteboard, map out how words can be similar but grow in intensity.

For example, you can discuss the shades of mean for cold such as cool – chilly – cold – freezing.

Discuss with students when you might use those words to help describe a situation or the weather.

To help build depth of knowledge with some tier II vocabulary words in the story, have students fill out a personal dictionary, write the synonyms, and antonyms, use them in a sentence, state a kid-friendly definition, and draw a picture of the word.

Here are some of the vocabulary from the book that would be good for the personal dictionary: gigantic, shiver, new, build, melt, swirl, scoop, and surprise.

For category skills, you can work on winter clothing and sorting hot and cold items. Check out the snowman-themed language lesson plans if you need some hot and cold sorting. 

Sneezy the Snowman Crafts

If you need some Sneezy the Snowman activities using crafts, this blog post from Kindergarten Works has some easy ones!

Check out this template in my TPT store for a snowman craft to use with mixed groups. 

You can also use this free Snowman paper plate craft with your younger-aged students. 

Join the Themed Therapy SLP Membership

Join the Themed Therapy SLP membership if you want more themed therapy ideas like these Sneezy the Snowman activities. We provide 2-3 monthly themed units for your Prek-5th grade caseload, including book cheat sheets, no print materials, Google Slides, visual crafts, a toy guide, newsletters for parents, and MORE! You have access to over 24 themes simultaneously when you join the annual membership.

Sign up here.

sneezy-the-snowman-book-cheat-sheet-speech-therapy
snowman-speech-therapy-activities-sneezy-the-snowman

Reinforcer Speech Therapy Activities to Pair with the Book

Throughout the book, Sneezy drinks something hot and then melts and has to be made brand new. You can play the Build a Snowman game and have kids make their Sneezy “brand new” again. 

Similarly, students can use the snowman file folder activity from my language lesson plans to rebuild Sneezy. You can target any goal with the build-a-snowman file folder activity! Check out the blog post about snowman toys because there are other types of toys you can use for a build-the-snowman activity.

What Activities Do You Do With Your Students?

Do you have a particular activity you pair with the book, Sneezy the Snowman? Share in the comments the activity and how you use it to target speech and language goals. 

Preschool Leaf Lesson Plan for Co-Teaching

Preschool Leaf Lesson Plan for Co-Teaching

by | Oct 1, 2022 | Collaborative Services, Themed Speech Therapy, Therapy Plans, Uncategorized

Working with the Prek-2nd grade population can be hard to plan your co-teaching lessons because there are a LOT of goals to juggle. That’s why you can format your themed co-teaching sessions in a way that gets the adults in the room to participate. Check out this blog post for ideas on structuring your push-in or co-teaching lessons.

Today, I wanted to help you with a leaves preschool lesson plan that you can adapt for small groups and your whole class lessons.

Although the leaves lesson plan is for your preschool-aged students, you can also adapt the activities with K-2 grade, especially with your self-contained classrooms.

Books for Your Leaves Preschool Lesson Plan

Have a preschool leaf lesson plan for your small groups and whole class speech therapy sessions!

On the carpet, you will want to do a leaf-themed book. Here are some of my favorites (Amazon affiliate links are provided for your convenience):

We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger (has repetitive text)
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
Leaves by David Ezra Stein
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro

As you read the leaf book, pair verbs with iconic gestures to help increase engagement. An iconic gesture is a movement that resembles the word.

Visual supports for language and story retelling goals are super handy in your sessions. I created this easy-to-prep story retell visuals resource for the old lady series. You have a printable or digital option! Check it out HERE.

Themed Therapy SLP Membership Makes Planning Lessons Easier

When planning themed therapy activities for your Prek-5th grade caseload, overwhelm immediately sets in as you try to find engaging materials to use with your students.

You either become burnt out trying to prepare lessons or feel lost with how to cover all the speech and language goals.

To make themed therapy planning easier, join the Themed Therapy SLP membership. We take lesson planning off your plate so you can enjoy doing therapy. Check out the October months with a fall, spider, and pumpkin theme for your elementary caseload. 

Movement Activities for the Carpet Time

Don't stress about planning a preschool leaf lesson plan for your speech therapy groups! This one is done for y ou.

If you co-teach in a classroom with a SMARTboard, you can do a leaf song. Here are a few fun songs:

Season Song for Kids by The Learning Station
The Leaves on the Trees by The Kiboomers
Why Do Leaves Change Color by Super Simple Songs
Autumn Leaves are Falling Down by The Kiboomers

Check out this video from Miss Nina for some movement ideas to use with the Autumn Leaves are Falling Down.

During carpet time, you can also play Simon Says fall-themed verb charades.

Station Activities for Your Leaves Preschool Lesson Plan

When co-teaching, you want to utilize all the adults in the room to maximize small group instruction.

If you have instructional aides, you can break students into three groups and have one to two teachers as floater teachers.

Otherwise, you can do one tabletop activity and have students at tables with similar goals, students who get along or based on levels of scaffolding.

Here are three leaf-themed language activities you can plan:

Make a leaf sensory bin and throw in your favorite mini trinkets for students to find under the leaves. You can add a mini rake to make it feel like you are raking leaves. I tend to put mini trinkets with my students’ speech sounds related to their language goals. You can read more about dinkydoodads on the blog HERE.

Another variation to this bin is putting fall-themed vocabulary words hidden in the leaves and going on an “I spy” hunt. The fall vocabulary printables are included in the fall-themed push-in language lesson plan guides.

At another station, students can make a falling leaves craft. It’s super easy to prep, and you can do it with any craft supplies you have on hand. You can do it with pieces of construction paper, tissue paper, or paint with Q-tip. If you love easy prep crafts, I have a blog post specifically with fall ideas!

Gather some leaves outside at your home or school and use them to make a leaf rub with crayons. You can also use the leaves to discuss attributes such as color, size, texture, shape, function, etc. With a ruler, you can talk about length, work on quantity of more, less, or equal, and explain why leaves fall off trees during the fall season. 

Want more themed co-teaching lesson plan ideas?

I often share co-teaching lesson plans on my Instagram @thedabblingspeechie

You can look at the highlight reel to find the most seasonal ones!
And if you need some more themed lesson plan ideas, here are a few that you can check out:

Apple Theme Preschool Co-Teaching Lesson Plan

All About Me – Likes and Dislikes

Sound Push-In Lesson Plan

Sneezy the Snowman Story Retell Prop Kit

Sneezy the Snowman Story Retell Prop Kit

by | Jan 18, 2022 | Books for Speech Therapy, Therapy Plans

When it comes to choosing a snowman book for your caseload, you want a book that has great pictures, and LOTS of language concepts to target. Plus, you have a lot of students working on comprehension and oral narration, you want a snowman book that targets story elements. Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright ticks off all those boxes for me. It’s a great story that kids LOVE to hear. Today, I am going to share how you can make a Sneezy the Snowman story retell kit to make your sessions more engaging when working on speech or language goals. If you need more snowman-themed book ideas, head to this blog post! Amazon affiliate links are included in this post for your convenience, this means I get a small commission when you purchase anything from Amazon.

What is a Story Prop Kit?

Story prop kits are items related to the book that help children stay engaged during the story. They can be felt characters and vocabulary items for a storyboard or manipulatives related to the story.

Research has shown that students’ comprehension improves when children retell the story in their own words. The two strategies that worked best were children verbally recounting the story and enacting the story given props.

Creating a story prop kit allows you to implement both of these strategies with Sneezy the Snowman!

Can you think of a few kids on your caseload that would love this while working on narration? These stories retell kits can be great for students with shortened attention spans! Or, your kids who love to touch items. Your students will enjoy the activity when it feels more like play!

Make a Sneezy the Snowman story retell prop kit to make working on language concepts and story elements more engaging in your speech therapy sessions.

Dempsey, L. (2021). Examining the validity of three methods of measuring pre-readers’ knowledge of storybook events. Child Language Teaching and Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0265659021995545 

Make a Sneezy the Snowman story retell prop kit to make working on language concepts and story elements more engaging in your speech therapy sessions.

Where Can I Find the Sneezy the Snowman Story Retell Props?

For your Sneezy the Snowman story retell kit, you definitely want a snowman, fire, green mug, hot tub, hot chocolate, and ice cream! Having some kid figurines could be great too.

You can always ask your family and friends on Facebook to see if they have any old toys they would want to donate to you and your caseload. Another way to acquire these toys on a budget is by asking parents on your caseload. There is always the Goodwill and garage sale hunt too! If you need some tips for planning themed therapy lessons on a budget, listen to episode 47 on the Real Talk SLP podcast for more tips. Fortunately, I had most of the items in other playsets!

For my story retell kit, I wanted a plush snowman and found it on Oriental Trading company. But, right now, it is not in stock, so you can find one on Amazon.

Grab a fire from Melissa and Doug camping set or this fisher price version on Amazon.

Use a coffee mug from your house or a cup from one of your tea sets.

Look for a metal tin can from Target, or Dollar Tree to be the hot tub.

If you own the Melissa and Doug ice cream set, just borrow the ice cream cones.

For kids, you can grab the little people sets or just borrow Lego people.

During the story, Sneezy melts and needs to be built again. You can find some felt snowmen kits like this one on Amazon (it’s really big) or you can use the build a snowman file folder printables from my snowman-themed language lesson plan guides.

Join the Themed Therapy SLP Membership

Join the Themed Therapy SLP membership if you want more themed therapy ideas like this snowman story prop kit. We provide 2-3 monthly themed units for your Prek-5th grade caseload including book cheat sheets, no print materials, Google Slides, visual crafts, a toy guide, newsletters for parents and MORE!

Sign up here. 

Speech Therapy Activities for Sneezy the Snowman

Make a Sneezy the Snowman story retell prop kit to make working on language concepts and story elements more engaging in your speech therapy sessions.

This book is great for story elements, but there are some other great ways you can use this book!

For your students working on CORE words, you can target “like, “put,” “you,” and “more.”

Thre are examples of hot and cold throughout Sneezy the Snowman. You can describe the shades of meaning for hot and cold. 

If you have students with s-blend goals, this is a great book to target consonant clusters.

Practice naming items that would go in the hot and cold category group.

Target “where” questions focusing on prepositions for the location of Sneezy throughout the book.

How Would You Use Sneezy the Snowman in Speech Therapy?

Do your students love Sneezy the Snowman? What goals or activities would you do with this story prop kit? I would love to hear your ideas! Whenever I can find new ways to use a set of materials, therapy planning is easier. If you can use this one-story prop kit with a bulk of your caseload, you are saving LOTS of hours of prep work.

Share in the comments your therapy ideas for using Sneezy the snowman!

Need some more snowman ideas? Here are some blog posts to help you plan a snowman-themed therapy unit:

 

Make your own Sneezy the Snowman Story Retell Prop Kit to work on oral narration as a hands-on speech therapy activity.
Turkey Speech Therapy Activity Ideas

Turkey Speech Therapy Activity Ideas

by | Nov 7, 2021 | Themed Speech Therapy, Therapy Materials, Therapy Plans

During the month of November, a great theme to plan is a turkey theme! There are lots of ways you can adapt a turkey theme to cover younger and older students. Plus, it lines up with the Thanksgiving holiday feast but can be easily adapted if you have students that do not celebrate the holiday. AND, if you did a farm theme recently, this is a great way to theme smash a bit because turkeys can live on farms. So, if you need some turkey speech therapy ideas for your caseload, you’ve come to the right blog post! Let’s do this…..gobble, gobble. 

Turkey-Themed Books for Speech Therapy

The best way to come up with turkey speech therapy ideas is to pick a book to use with your students. You can easily target grammar, vocabulary, story retell, wh-questions, describing pictures/characters, perspective taking, and more!

Here are my favorite turkey-themed books by age:

Prek-1st – Run, Turkey, Run! by Diane Mayr

2nd-3rd – Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano

4th-6th – No Turkey for Thanksgiving by Jacqueline Jules

How to Catch a Turkey by Adam Wallace is also a great book and on GetEpic!

 

Need some turkey speech therapy ideas to cover your elementary caseload? This blog post as all the best ideas to implement a turkey-theme in speech therap.

Join the Themed Therapy SLP Membership

If you love planning by themes for your Prek-5th grade caseload but don’t have the time or energy to find activities and materials, this membership is for you!

You can let someone else take lesson planning off your plate so you can focus on enjoying therapy with your students.

Between word lists, Google Slides, No Print resources, printables, book cheat sheets, and more, you will have engaging-themed therapy activities with less stress!

When you get the annual membership, you can access over 24 themed units including the Thanksgiving theme!

Turkey Videos for Speech Therapy

Need some turkey speech therapy ideas to cover your elementary caseload? This blog post has all the best ideas to implement a turkey-theme in speech therapy.

There are LOTs of turkey videos you can use on YouTube to cover goals. I especially love the turkey songs and non-fiction fact videos. To see all my faves, go to this BLOG post for the best turkey videos.

I recently found this FUN turkey videos that show silly things happening with turkeys. Make sure to preview the clips to make sure there isn’t anything inappropriate like cussing. You can use the video clips to create grammatically correct sentences, identifying emotions, name verb actions, answer wh-questions, and allow students to see a real turkey to help them with learning descriptive vocabulary.

Turkey Activities to Use in Speech Therapy

When it comes to your younger students, you want to have versatile materials that hit a LOT of language goals, so that if you have a mixed group, you can use the same material to cover a lot of goals. That said, it’s great to also have activities that will also cover your whole class lessons. Consider using some of these suggestions for your next whole class lesson. If you want tips for how to set up your push-in lessons, check out this blog post. 

Because some turkeys live on farms, you can use other farm animals to work on “who” questions. Have students answer simple “who” questions about the animal that walked by the turkey. You can use real farm animal figurines and a plush toy turkey (Amazon affiliate link) to make this activity feel like hands-on fun! 

Need some turkey speech therapy ideas to cover your elementary caseload? This blog post has all the best ideas to implement a turkey-theme in speech therapy.

Prepare a Feast for Your Turkey!

Need some turkey speech therapy ideas to cover your elementary caseload? This blog post has all the best ideas to implement a turkey-theme in speech therapy.

Why not make your turkey a feast! You can work on pretend play while making different foods such as soup, sandwiches, hamburgers and whatever else you have on hand in that play food toy set. After you prepare your meal, your students can either gather together with the turkey and pretend to eat the food or your students can feed the turkey different foods. While doing this activity, students can practice answering yes/no questions, if the turkey likes/doesn’t like the food item, work on noun-verb agreement, and building MLU.

Plus, you can squeeze in some theme smashing by naming food items as well as describing those food items by attributes (i.e. category, function, parts, location, size, etc.)

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey Free Printable

If you need a FREE printable for the book, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey by Lucille Collandro, grab this story retell visual support that also comes with a Google Slide presentation. 

Tips for Using Task Cards With a Turkey

Since turkeys have a lot of feathers, why not hide your favorite task cards behind or under the turkey’s feathers. This can be a fun way to make task cards more fun while trying to guess what the turkey could be hiding. If you need some seasonal task cards to use with this, try my fall grammar and vocabulary or turkey grammar and vocabulary sets in my seasonal bundle.

You can also hide items around the room that the turkey is looking for to work on inferencing and basic concepts. 

Need some turkey speech therapy ideas to cover your elementary caseload? This blog post has all the best ideas to implement a turkey-theme in speech therapy.

Turkey Speech Therapy Activities for K-2

If you are on the struggle bus trying to find time to lesson plan, I have a whole turkey-themed language unit that will cover your co-teaching lessons and small groups. Have enough activities to cover at least two weeks of therapy with this unit. Not only do you get lesson plan guides and station activities, you also get a parent newsletter and a Google Slide to use on a SMARTboard or teletherapy. Grab it by clicking the photos below. 

Need some turkey speech therapy ideas to cover your elementary caseload? This blog post has all the best ideas to implement a turkey-theme in speech therapy.
Need some turkey speech therapy ideas to cover your elementary caseload? This blog post has all the best ideas to implement a turkey-theme in speech therapy.

Turkey Activities for Older Students

For your older students, you can do a LOT with turkeys. First off, you can watch some turkey non-fiction videos to learn more about them while working on vocabulary, summarizing, and main idea. This will allow you to plan follow-up lessons where students compare/contrast a turkey to other animals such as chickens while working on conjunctions, feature matching, and grammar!

If you are looking for non-fiction type resources, Mystery Doug has a great video all about why people eat turkey for Thanksgiving. There is also a great video about the turkey’s wattle from Mystery Doug. Similarly, Wonderopolis has a reading article you can use in your next speech session.

Simon’s Cat has a video for Thanskgiving that is great for emotions, and perspective taking. National Geographic also has a great to discuss why some people may see turkey’s running around their neighborhoods!

Need some turkey speech therapy ideas to cover your elementary caseload? This blog post has all the best ideas to implement a turkey-theme in speech therapy.

What Turkey Activities Do You Love to Use?

What turkey activities or materials have you found to be beneficial for your students? I would love to know what tools and resources you are using with your turkey theme. Please comment below or reach out via social media @thedabblingspeechie to share your therapy finds! I never pass up a new therapy find.

DIY Apple Trouble Story Prop Kit

DIY Apple Trouble Story Prop Kit

by | Sep 13, 2021 | Books for Speech Therapy, Language, Therapy Plans

Using books in speech therapy can be a great way to plan therapy because you can adapt the book to cover a wide range of goals, including story comprehension, oral narration, grammar, vocabulary, and perspective-taking. Plus, you can have students working on fluency or articulation carryover to summarize or retell the story while working on their strategies or sounds.

For the younger students, one way to get increased engagement with a book is to create story prop kits. Using story props allows students to kinesthetically get involved with the story. Today, I want to show you how to make an Apple Trouble Story Prop Kit to use in speech therapy. 

How to make an Apple Trouble Story Prop Kit to use in speech therapy

Where to Get the Book Apple Trouble by Ragnhild Samell

If you are looking for a great fall book that works on story comprehension and story retell, you will want to check out Apple Trouble by Ragnhild Scamell. It was originally called Ouch!, so you may be able to find it at your local library under that name. Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post for your convenience.

When I don’t have a book on hand, I will use a YouTube book read aloud and just mute the reader, so that I can read the book to the students. I always love having the real book, but when you are in a jam, this works well too. Today, I am going to share how you can make a storybook prop kit for Apple Trouble!

To help your students recall the details and vocabulary from the story, it’s nice to have hands-on materials to bring the story to life.

Making an Apple Trouble Story Prop Kit to increase engagement in your language therapy sessions

Invest in the Mini Animals and Reuse for Future Theme-Based Lessons

Apple Trouble Story Prop Kit to use in speech therapy

Plus, you can use the elements from this story prop kit for future theme-based lessons when working on forest animals, farm themes, hedgehog books, or apple themes. Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post for your convenience. When you use the affiliate link, I get a small commission with no expense from you.

Join the Themed Therapy SLP Membership for Prek-5th Grade Elementary Caseloads

If you love planning by themes for your elementary caseload but don’t have the time or creative energy to find all the activities for your themed therapy, join the Themed Therapy SLP membership. We take lesson planning off your plate so you can focus on enjoying therapy with your students.

You can access over 24 themed units for Prek-5th grade when you join the annual subscription. There are also monthly options, but you only get access for two months at a time. Sign up HERE. See a sample of the apple-themed unit below.

Items you will need to make your story prop kit

 Forest animals figurines: has a mini hedgehog, frog, squirrel 

Plush or mini hedgehog: The mini hedgehog is included in the forest animals figurines. You can find a plush hedgehog on Amazon. 

Farm Toobs: This set has a pig, and goat. You can get this set on Amazon or at Michael’s. 

Hedgehog’s nest is made from cut up cardboard and green moss hot glued that I found at the Dollar Tree. You could always buy some decorative leaves from the Dollar Tree or craft store and stick them in a box as the hedgehog’s nest.

Fake mini apples: You can find mini and large-sized fake apples on Amazon or at Michael’s. I got mine at Michael’s.

For the other items that get stuck in the hedgehog’s fir, you will need a pear, a blue piece of paper. 

Make a DIY Apple Trouble Story Prop Kit to target speech and language goals

How to Make the Apple Tree in the Story

You can easily make an apple tree using toilet paper rolls and cutting out a green piece of construction paper to look like leaves and branches. Color red apples on the tree. Then, cut two slits in the toilet paper roll on one side. Slide the green tree into the toilet paper roll and now you have an apple tree.

Use this apple tree for a future apple-themed unit to use when talking about apple trees and orchards. You can make an apple orchard sensory bin like the one I share on Instagram. 

Speech Therapy Goals You Can Cover With the Story Prop Kit

With your story props you can target the goals as follows:

  • Story comprehension and oral narration – act out what happened throughout the story
  • Work on basic concepts with the characters and props from the story
  • Describe the character’s by attributes and look for text to support answers
  • Build grammatically correct sentences using the characters and actions from the story
  • Add the props to a sensory bin and allow students to pretend play while working on initiation, commenting, vocabulary, etc.
  • Work on conversation dialogue with the characters
  • Have students practice summarizing or retelling while using transition words. This can also be a skill to work on articulation carryover. 

How Do You Use the Book Apple Trouble in Speech Therapy?

I would love to know how you would use this Apple Trouble story prop kit to target goals with your speech therapy caseload. Share in the comments or tag me on social media @thedabblingspeechie

Need more tips on how to use books to cover language goals? Check out this post with some book reading strategies.

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