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5 Literacy-based Halloween Circle Times

With so many Halloween books out there- how do you narrow it down?!

Truth be told, I’m still struggling with that (my husband and the friends we had in town visiting pretty much had to peel me away from the Halloween kids’ book section at Target last weekend- but it’s fine. Everything’s fine.)

I have narrowed down some of my favorite books to use at circle, though, and thought I’d do a round-up for you!



Each of these books has their own blog post, so I’ll do a photo and quick synopsis of the areas you can target, and if you want to read more in-depth about how we used it at circle, you can read the individual blog posts!

1. 5 Little Pumpkins


Targets:
-Motor imitation
-Fill-ins
-Descriptive concepts
-Size concepts
-Preposition “on”

AAC:
-Core vocabulary: model “on” (especially with the activity at the end, placing all the pumpkins ‘on’ the gate) and “go” with ‘ready set go’ as you make the pumpkins roll off the gate

-PECS: Have your student request a pumpkin when it’s their turn, and they can come and choose which one they want.  OR, if you’re working on attributes with PECS, work on big/small, colors, etc..

-Big Mack switch: Program whichever line from the book the student who needs a switch, will be saying.

Read more in the 5 Little Pumpkins blog post here.



2. Little Blue Truck’s Halloween

One of my all-time favorites!

Speech/Language Targets:
-WHO questions
-Halloween vocabulary
-Animal names
-Animal sounds (also great for speech if you have littles working on CV or CVCV syllables)
-Preposition “in”

Incorporating AAC:
Core vocabulary words to model: in, go in/get in, who, like (“I like this animal”)

PECS: If you’re at the phase where you’re working on “I hear” or “I see”, you can use “I see” to name the animals on each page

Big Mack switch: Program the repetitive line, “It’s me! It’s me!” onto the switch and have the student using the switch hit the button when that line comes up

Read more in the “Little Blue Truck’s Halloween” blog post here.

3. “It’s Pumpkin Time!”

This one touches on the life cycle of a pumpkin, carving pumpkins, and wearing costumes, so it has lots of great October themes!

Targets:
-Pumpkin Life Cycle vocabulary
-Verbs (raking, planting, watering, growing, cutting, pushing, carving, dressing up, trick or treating)
-Following Directions
-Body parts (eyes, nose, mouth/teeth)

Read more in the “It’s Pumpkin Time!” blog post here.

4. “What is Halloween?“

This is a really simple lift-the-flap book, and is great for introducing some basic concepts surrounding Halloween!

Targets:
-Halloween vocabulary
-Pronouns (He is a… She is a….)
-WHO questions
-Matching

AAC:
-Core vocabulary: “who”
-PECS: Request which costume piece they want for trick or treating
-Big Mack switch: Program “Trick or treat” or “thank you” (or both if you have more than one big mack switch or a button that can record 2 messages)

Read more in the “What is Halloween?” blog post here.

5. Room on the Broom

Targets:
-Animal/object vocabulary
-Motor imitation
-Fill-ins
-Following directions
-Asking questions
-Answering “yes” questions

AAC:
-Core vocabulary: model “on” “go” “down” and “in” for single words; for phrases, model “I get on?” “Can I get on?” or “Can I go?”

-Big Mack switch: program “Is there room for me?” or “Down!” onto a Big Mack switch.

Read more in the Room on the Broom blog post here.


What are your favorite Halloween books for preschool?

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3rd time’s a charm trying to post this 😆😅 3rd time’s a charm trying to post this 😆😅 Loving 10 Lucky Leprechauns for a St Patrick’s Day book for the littles— my own 2 year old has loved it and so did a lot of my preschoolers last week! 

Super similar in style to “10 Fat Turkeys” — each page adds a leprechaun doing a different action (great for -ing verb practice!) and has a fun repetitive line (“Fiddle de fizz, tis magic it is”) 

Use this book for /l/ and /f/ sound practice too, with your speech sound kids! 

For an easy no prep activity, have a character swing from a vine (pipe cleaner, ruler, string, etc) to a target card like one of the leprechauns in the book! We worked in s-blends too with “swing” and telling the leprechaun to “stop” 💚🍀
❄️ It’s the most wonderful time… of the ye ❄️ It’s the most wonderful time… of the year! ❄️ 
“Turkey Claus” is the best way to transition from Thanksgiving to a Christmas theme and no one will ever prove to me otherwise 😂 🦃 🎅 

And not to get ahead of ourselves, but… Did you know there’s a Valentine’s version coming out in a couple weeks, too?!
Turn your @learningresources sorting houses into s Turn your @learningresources sorting houses into spooky houses for trick or treating!

1️⃣ Decorate them with Halloween stickers (turn it into a speech sound trial reinforcer or following directions activity!)

2️⃣ Put candy mini erasers in the houses (or, make it a silly game and do categories! Put different categories of mini erasers or mini objects in the houses and have them give the trick or treater something from a named category)

3️⃣ Put a person in the house 

4️⃣ Pull up Knock Knock Trick or Treat from @supersimpleofficial on YT

5️⃣ Use Super Simple’s free character printables and use them to go trick or treating at each door! Practice things like predicting who comes next based on the shadow, WH questions, “he/she/they are….” and imitate actions from the characters on the video (steer the ship like a pirate, dance like a ballerina, etc!) 

So easy and minimal prep! Tag an SLP friend below who could use this idea! ⬇️
Who else loves Room on the Broom?! I love it for t Who else loves Room on the Broom?! I love it for the core vocabulary modeling opportunities, rhyming text, repetitive lines, and the great vocabulary used throughout the story! 

ROTB unit with all kinds of story printables is now available on TPT… grab it for your next 2 weeks of Halloween therapy! 🧙‍♀️🎃
🍎🍎 Therapy materials don’t have to have to 🍎🍎 Therapy materials don’t have to have to be fancy!

Grab a cup, stick some apples on, and you have yourself an apple tree for “10 Red Apples” (or any other apple book!)

Some of my kids just aren’t into paper materials so I needed something that would add a “3D”/tangible aspect to the tree besides just sticking paper apples on a paper tree.  This did the trick!

What other books would you use this apple tree with? 
🍎 🍏 🍎
Dressing up book characters is always a fave in pr Dressing up book characters is always a fave in prek! 

“Pirate Jack Gets Dressed” is short and sweet with rhyming text and a focus on clothing and body part vocabulary and colors! All great for the beginning of the year themes like colors, pirates (Talk Like a Pirate Day is on Monday!), and All About Me!

I sent these free story pieces to my email list last week but if you missed them, grab them with the link in my profile! ➡️ @rockchalkspeechtalk
Is this book in your ocean themed collection yet? Is this book in your ocean themed collection yet? I *finally* checked it out this summer and I’ve been using it with almost everyone!

This book works great for…

⭐️sp and sw blends (repeated lines “I spy” and “Swim away”)

⭐️long a sound (“way” is repeated on every page) and I used “hey!” instead of “hello!” on each page

⭐️ Bilabials: I seem to always have 1-2 kids these last few years working on bilabials! “Me” is on every page, and you can use “bye” instead of “see ya later” on each page, too. The last page has tons of bilabials! (up up up, deep, mama (x3), me)

⭐️initial /d/ if you have a backer (down and deep are repeated on each page)

⭐️CV words “hi” and “me” (and “bye” if you use that instead of see ya later

⭐️Core words: down, in, I, see, look, me, go (when I pair with a sensory bin, I also use “like” “get” and “out”

⭐️Repetitive Lines: Makes it more engaging when the kids can chime in and “read” it with you!

⭐️Verbs: I love a book that has actions to act out on each page! Movement always helps keep my kids’ attention in sessions and especially at circle time in a bigger group!

⭐️Describing the ocean animals

⭐️Comparing and Contrasting ocean animals

Literacy based therapy is the easiest way to structure therapy sessions- centering it around a book always sparks ideas for play activities to use with and after the book to work on goals, too!
A Camping Spree with Mr Magee is always one of my A Camping Spree with Mr Magee is always one of my go-to books for a camping theme! 

⭐️ Full of s-blends and initial /k/ opportunities, it’s a great choice for when you have to have mixed speech and language groups (and who doesn’t have kids working on those sounds?!)

⭐️ Lots of opportunities for pronoun + be verb + -ing verb structure sentences, and regular past tense verbs, too!

⭐️ Lots of AAC core word modeling opportunities

⭐️ Multiple opportunities for “why” questions which aren’t always easy to come by!

⭐️ Rhyming text that has a great flow to it— especially love this during whole group!

⭐️ annnnd they make s’mores in the book, which is *obviously* a necessity in any camping theme 😂

Take a look at the mini unit with printables you can use for circle time and small group therapy- I just updated it so redownload from TPT if you already own it! I added ingredient icons and sequencing/retell pictures for the science experiment, 3 sets of Cariboo cards, and basic concept play dough mats for this unit to help you have even more of your goals covered with super easy planning!

We “packed the camper” at circle time this week and it was a hit! Easily adaptable for different language skills, too— Target receptive id or identifying based on descriptors like function, appearance, location, etc! 

Find it on TPT with the link in profile ➡️ @rockchalkspeechtalk

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