Books to Read in December AND Links!

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

During the holidays, add one or more of these wonderful books to your therapy sessions. 

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff is my favorite holiday book. Find many links to activities in two of my 2012 posts, Taking the Mouse to the Movies and Taking Mouse to the Movies: Why Questions, Pronouns, and more. 

Read Llama Llama Holiday Drama, by Anna Dewdney, on your computer or whiteboard at We Give Books.org. This book gives you a lot of opportunities to talk about action words, work on verb tense, and ask and answer questions. At Teachers pay Teachers, Llama Llama Holiday Drama Activities Free! includes an adjective search and comprehension questions. Find vocabulary and other language activities in the Llama Llama Activity Kit from Penguin Young Readers Group.






Cookies are always a good topic for December. Kizclub has story props for the book, Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?, illustrated by Jane Manning and you can view the version by Christine Schneider at Vimeo. Find a rhyming activity at Cinjoella and, at YouTube, Kim Taylor-DiLeva explains how to use the rhyme with a group of students along with adding some sign language. 

Find story props for Bear Stays Up at 1+1+1=1 and a free sequencing activity for readers at Teachers Pay Teachers (Happily Ever After Education).  

OR, for a little less than a Grande Caffe Latte, you can purchase Bear Stays Up For Christmas: Speech and Language Activities by Jenn Alcorn of Crazy Speech World. Included in the 18 pages are activities for rhyming, synonyms, comprehension questions, wh questions, story retelling, and articulation word lists for /r/, /s/, and /l/. 

The other book companion by an SLP at Teachers pay Teachers is only a little more than that Grande Caffe Latte.  The 37 page Bear Stays Up For Christmas – Speech and Language Activities (Book Companion) by Mindy Stenger of The Speech Bucket targets sequencing, story retelling, comprehension, basic language concepts, following directions, written expression, and more.

The Easy Reader at Heidisongs.com is perfect for retelling, sequencing, syntax or to increase sentence length after reading Pete the Cat Saves Christmas. Use Parent Magazine's Christmas Addition with Pete the Cat and The Christmas Pup as carrier phrases for articulation practice. Addition facts are perfect for the phoneme /s/ and for practicing /l/blends - Seven plus one equals nine. Use the blank sheet to write your own facts and incorporate other phonemes. 



Find preschool activity suggestions for Snowballs by Lois Ehlert at Wannabwestern. 

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett is another favorite. Find another book companion at TpT by Mindy Stenger of The Speech Bucket. And, this one is free. Twelve pages of activities target sequencing, story retelling, comprehension, basic language concepts, early print awareness, and oral and written expression. 


Create a Gingerbread Baby House at JanBrett.com. All kinds of opportunities for speech and language production can occur as students give directions while one student creates the house.  Make several different houses, print, and use for barrier games. Practice articulation carry-over, basic positional words, syntax, turn taking, and more! 

Listen to Jan Brett read her story. Print masks from Jan Brett's site and students can wear them as they retell the story. Or, use them as story props.

I hope that these book suggestions and links save you a little time as you plan your December sessions. I will be taking a break from blogging this month and will be back in January!

Best wishes to you during this holiday season! 

Diana

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