Blogiversary Guest Post #5 from Carrie's Speech Corner on Fun Fall Themes For Therapy!!!

Hello.  It's Friday!! Yay!  The three big giveaways have just ended a few minutes ago and soon we will be picking the winners from the hundreds of entries via Rafflecopter.  Please look forward to the posting discussing the documents and who won them within a day or two!  In the meantime, we have another WONDERFUL guest post for you to read and to enjoy today.  It is all about fall and the themes that can be used during it. We simply just love this post!  It is filled with a ton of great ideas and links to books and free documents.  There's a ton of information that you can use to incorporate a great fall themed therapy session into your speech room right away!  This post is perfect and timely for all of us busy planning for therapy next week. 

Thank you for all of your hard work Carrie.  We really appreciate it a lot!  It was so kind of you to contribute to our blogiversary week and your post helps to make it extra special.  Fall is such a great theme.  It's super fun to incorporate all of the apple, leaf and pumpkin themed activities into the speech therapy room.  

Please visit Carrie over at Carrie's Speech Corner and also at her great TpT store.  She has 38 terrific and useful documents for sale over there!!  You'll have to go check them out right away! She is such a good writer and super creative too. 

Sincerely,
Manda & Shanda, SLP's

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Before I begin, I want to wish Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy a very happy First Bloggiversary! I enjoy following Manda & Shanda and wish them continued success in years to come! :)

When Manda & Shanda told me that their "theme" for their celebration this week was "themes," I was excited!  I ALWAYS plan my therapy around themes, especially in my preschool classes.  I find it gives me a focus and direction when I'm planning my activities.  If you're new to themes, you can find a theme calendar at Crazy Speech World.  Our school year starts/ends at different times than Jenn's, so my themes tend to be different.  I typically use the same themes that our teachers use in their English Language Arts curriculum.  This supports what is going on in the classroom and provides the students with additional opportunities to learn and practice thematic vocabulary.  

Today I'm going to share with you some of my favorite books and activities for my Fun Fall Themes!

September:

1.  School:

My first week of therapy, I usually do a "school" theme while collecting baseline data.  I wrote a blog post on the activities I use, which you can read HERE.  I've also searched Teachers Pay Teachers for you and found some school-themed freebies for you!  Here they are:

• School Items Cut and Paste Activity by Jennifer Hanson
• School Supply Match-Up by Whitneyslp
• Back to School WH Question Bingo by your truly
• Back to School Possessives by Rachel Jones

And here are some of my favorite school-themed books:

2.  All About Me:
This is a theme I just started using this year.  It's part of our district's English Language Arts curriculum for PK and K.

• All About Me Freebie (I wrote a Book of the Week post on "I Like Myself" and the freebie is attached)
• All About Me - An Activity for the First Day of School/Speech by Carly Fowler
• All About Me Introduction Activity by Heather P

I had to ask my Facebook friends for some suggestions for books on this theme, but here's what I ended up using:

3.  Apples:
September is a perfect time for apple picking...especially in New England!  Also, apples have become forever associated with school teachers.  So I can't think of  a better September theme!

A few Apple-themed freebies:

• Open Ended Wormy Apple Game by me 
• Apple Themed Open-Ended Games by Figuratively Speeching
• Antonym Apples by the Speech Bubble
• Auditory Apples by Little Speech Corner

My favorite Apple books:

PS, I love "Apple Trouble" so much that I wrote a blog post on it last year, created a book companion on Teachers Pay Teachers, and plan to write about it again next week!  Also, I can't use food in my sessions any more.  If you can, here's a fun apple tree themed snack I made with my son (read the post HERE).

October:

1.  Leaves:

"Autumn Leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down. Autumn Leaves are falling down, down to the ground." (Tune: London Bridge). Take a trip outside, gather some leaves (and acorns/pinecones) with your students, grab a parachute and sing this fun little song!  My kids also loved this fall leaves craftivity that I adapted from Crazy Speech World's original.

Here are some other fun leaf-themed freebies:

• Fall Tree Activity by Mia McDaniel
• Falling Leaves Prepositions by thedabblingspeechie
• Falling Leaves Board Game by Taylor Rodgers
• Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves Printables by 3Dinosaurs

My favorite leaf books:

2.  Pumpkins:
You can find pumpkins pretty much everywhere you go in October.  Many of my kids do not understand the difference between pumpkins and Jack O'Lanterns, so I use this time to explain the difference!

Here are some fun pumpkin freebies:

• Multiple Meaning Pumpkins by Peas and Sprouts
• Orange Pumpkin, Orange Pumpkin What do you See? by Let's Talk Speech-Language Pathology
• Pumpkin Patch Antonyms by Arielle Gawron

My reading list...

*Click HERE to read my blog post on "Pumpkin Patch" by Margaret McNamara.

3.  Monsters:
This is such a fun week that I sometimes skip pumpkins and do monsters for 2 weeks!  The kids love monsters, especially the not-so-scary kind!

Here are some adorable Monster Freebies:

• Monster Under my Bed by the Speech Bubble
• Yes and No Monsters and Monster WH Questions by Schoolhouse Talk
• Monster Mash Synonyms & Antonyms by Kay Rose
• Shape Monster Book by Pam Dahm (Chit Chat & Small Talk)...one of my favorite monster activities!

And some friendly monster stories:

PS, You can catch my post on "Go Away, Big, Green Monster!" HERE. Also, I need to give a big shout out to Danielle of Sublime Speech for her Monster Questions, which has been a huge hit in my therapy sessions and at my son's birthday party:

We used the Monster Mouths for his Monster Themed Party!

4.  Halloween:

I love Halloween.  I guess a lot of people do because there really is SOOO much out there for this holiday!

Some cute freebies for you to check out:

• Halloween Memory Match and I Have, Who Has by me.
• Halloween Idioms by Jenna Rayburn
• Halloween Artic Mad Libs by CC, If Only I Had Superpowers
• Halloween Open Ended Card Game by Dean Trout's Little Shop of SLP

Here are my favorite Halloween themed books:

"The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything" was featured as my Book of the Week last year and you can read that post HERE.

November:

1.  Scarecrows:

During the first week of November, many kids have a hard time "giving up" Halloween.  Because of this, I like to move on to Scarecrows this week.  They still incorporate some elements of Halloween (especially when they have a pumpkin head!), but you see them throughout the fall!

Some scarecrow activities:

• Scarecrow Phonics Center by Alison Hage
• Scarecrow Plate Craft (that can be adapted for therapy sessions) by Rachelle Smith
• Scarecrow Glyph by Cindy Conley
• Scarecrow Roll & Cover by Shelley Lovett

And a few stories featuring scarecrows:

*Read more about Scarecrow's Friends HERE on my blog.

2.  Popcorn:
I started using a popcorn theme a few years ago.  Who doesn't love popcorn!  When I started using this theme, serving food wasn't as much of an issue. I would bring in my air popper and we would measure and scoop the kernels and listen to the sound of them popping. I could target verb +ing (scooping, pouring, popping, eating), descriptors (salty, crunchy, sweet, warm, delicious), sequencing, etc.

• Popcorn Five Senses Mini Unit by A Primary Owl
• Popcorn Word Bingo by School is Fun (easily adaptable to any artic/language target)
• Popcorn, Popcorn Letter/Number/Shape/Color Game by Preschool Unplugged

There aren't a lot of popcorn books out there...so here are a few, plus a fun game:

3.  Family:
Depending on the timing of Thanksgiving, I may swap 3 and 4.  However, since Thanksgiving is a time when people get together as a family, it's a great time to talk about the people in our families!

Here are some family-centered activities:

• Family Matters by Fun in First
• Family Tree Worksheet by Dynelle Dunn
• Family Freebie by First Grade Hip Hip Hooray

And some family themed books:

4.  Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving is another theme of which there is an abundance of materials!  Here are just a few:

• Thanksgiving Compare and Contrast by Maggie Lewis
• Pilgrim Possessive Pronouns by Miss Speechie
• Thanksgiving Artic Word Search by CC, If Only I had Superpowers
• Thanksgiving Bingo and Articulation Turkeys, by me 

And my favorite Thanksgiving books:

Phew!  That was a lot of information, but now you have books and activities to get you through the months of the fall!  I hope you enjoyed this post!

Happy Bloggiversary Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy!

Carrie Manchester is an ASHA certified speech and language pathologist and is a Certified Early Intervention Specialist in the state of Massachusetts. She currently provides speech and language services in a public school setting, working primarily at the early childhood level (preschool and kindergarten). Prior to transitioning to the schools, she has spent many years working in early intervention settings and providing trainings to childcare professionals. Carrie is the author of the speech and language blog: Carrie’s Speech Corner. She can also be found on Facebook, Pinterest, and Teachers Pay Teachers.