During Presidents week, I modify my speech therapy lessons so that I can use {ALMOST} the same theme all week long. I connect presidents to money for my younger clients. For my older clients, we talk about presidents and money. The little ones don’t quite understand elections, voting and Presidents. But they know what money is! So using money makes it a little easier to talk about presidents. The older clients that are in school talk about all the election and voting stuff…which saves me from explaining it during my speech therapy sessions.
Books
“Duck for President” by Doreen Cornin is definitely a favorite! The kids recognize Duck from the other story I read during my farm theme (“Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type”). This is the story of Duck climbing his way to the top of the leadership ladder. But as President, Duck realizes life was easier on the farm.
The other picture book I like to use is “A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln.” This book is better for elementary kiddos who have at least heard of Abraham Lincoln and know a little about him. It is a simplified story of his life.
Now, since I work with a lot of preschool clients, neither of these books are appropriate for them. So, I made an interactive book about money that is simple. I like to use it for matching and answering simple “what” questions. The book comes with a sorting activity (quarters and pennies) and a spatial concept booklet for the kids to make. You can also find another simple book in my TpT store as a freebie. “Copper Penny, Copper Penny” is a simple text booklet that follows the rhythm of “Brown Bear.” It also can be used to introduce coin amounts in the simplest form.
Activities for Speech Therapy
Most of the activities used this week will be with the money theme. The kids can sort the plastic coins I have. The set of fake money I have is from Melissa and Doug. Besides the interactive book set, I have a set of vocabulary mats and an articulation packet of activities in my TpT store.
I have a toy similar to this one below. The kids love it! We can work on the concepts “in” and “out,” requesting “more” and “open,” colors, animals and following direction…just to name a few targets.
The last activity I am sharing with you today is the cherry tree craft. All you need is a brown lunch sack, green construction paper and this freebie of cherries! Print the cherries on red paper or have the students color them red…totally up to you! Write target words on the cherries. As the student says a word correctly 5x, he can place (NOT GLUE) the cherry on the tree. After all the words have been said, take the cherries off and place them inside the bag. Instant homework!!
What other activities do you like to celebrate President’s Day?
