The fall season seriously has all the best speech therapy books, don’t you agree?
A lot of people will post their favorite fall books on IG and send them in newsletters, so I am hoping to share some books with you that maybe you have haven’t seen yet. I also want to tell you why I love them! They will all be linked to Amazon so you can grab them if they look intriguing to you. Let’s go!
Here we go, my favorite fall books and activities for speech therapy!
Full of Fall by April Pulley Sayre-good for: upper elementary students working on vocabulary, describing pictures, discussing fall
There are two reasons I am recommending this book. The first is the pictures. They hug your soul and make you feel like you are hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, not just reading a book. The second is the vocabulary. She uses very simple sentence structure, but gracefully weaves in unusual vocabulary. This a perfect way to scaffold learning new words for those students who have difficulty learning language.
Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish- good for: mid-upper elementary, idioms, figurative language, describing words, story elements, story retell, multiple meaning words.
Oh this book makes my SLP heart so happy! First of all, it is STUFFED with idioms and figurative language. The author also uses interesting vocabulary and bright pictures. I could literally make this book last an entire month if I wanted to. However, none of that is my favorite thing about this book.
The BEST THING about this book is…HAVING A PIE PARTY with your students!!! When I read this book for the first time, I learned many of my students had never eaten the heavenly concoction that is pie! I HAD to remedy that. When I do this, I bring an apple and a pumpkin pie. Each student gets a sliver of each. We use describing words, we compare/contrast, we draw, we write, we graph…but most importantly we have FUN while I get the pleasure of sharing a new life experience with many of my students. I know COVID might make this a little bit tricky this year, but maybe you can get creative and figure out a way to make this work. Or at least tuck this idea away in your toolbox to use another time!
Pumpkin themed books…
Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman- good for: younger students, Halloween themed vocabulary, story retell, predicting, having fun!
This is a peppy Halloween themed book. This book is perfect for students with language difficulties because it is full of repetitive text that builds on itself. We all know that repetition is the key to learning! It has a catchy flow that it makes it enjoyable for your students to listen to and keeps it fun for you to read, even after the 1000th time… . There is also a companion song which you can listen to here.
Where is Baby’s Pumpkin/ Where Is Baby’s Turkey by Karen Katz- good for: preschool and toddler students, targeting location words, answering “what” and “where” questions, thematic vocabulary.
These books are perfect for the littlest ones on your caseload. They are short, have lift-the-flaps, and use simple vocabulary. They are a fun way to introduce holiday vocab and target “where” questions and prepositions.
When I teach this, I introduce/reinforce the vocab from the book with real pictures and then after we read the story, we “hide” a pumpkin/turkey around the classroom. So fun. So perfect for those friends that need to get those wiggles out! You can check out the book companion I created for “Where Is Baby’s Pumpkin”, here.
How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow? by Wendall Minor- good for: elementary age (maybe middle school), synonyms, creative thinking/writing, learning about our world.
This book will pull creativity and imagination out of your students while they learn synonyms for the word “big” and discover new places around the world. In this story, the author has the reader imagine how big a pumpkin could grow. Then, the vivid pictures depict a giant pumpkin as it travels around the U.S.
When I teach this, we read the book and discuss all of the different synonyms for the word big. (I have some worksheets to help you with this, if you are interested.) Then, the next session, we go back through the book and use YouTube videos to explore and discuss all of the places that the pumpkin traveled in the book. Our favorites were always the pumpkin regatta and hot air balloon festival! Then, for the last session, we get creative! We draw/write/discuss a fun place to imagine a giant pumpkin.
If you loved these ideas, be sure to check out this page for more of my unique speech therapy book recommendations!
I would love to know, do you use these fall themed books in speech therapy already? What are your favorite books to use in the fall? Drop me a comment below and let’s talk about it!
