Thunder Cake!

Welcome to Wild About Books Wednesday! If you're new around here.. I highlight a book each Wednesday that can be used during speech/language therapy. Please stop by often! If you're a fellow blogger, please consider joining the weekly linky party! Just link up with a new or recent post about how you use a specific book in therapy and use the picture below to link back to me.

As I was sitting in my speech room today hovering over medicaid logs, I heard thunder booming all around me. It was a very stormy day in Cincinnati and well... it reflected my mood. I hate medicaid logs haha... But the continuous booming reminded me of one of my favorite books - Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco.

I adore this book. I mean c'mon the book opens with "On sultry summer days...." Polacco creates the most beautiful imagery with her words. Every time I read this book, I feel like I'm on Babushka's farm in Michigan. The imagery lends itself very well to a visualization lesson! I've used this book to model think alouds and visualization sooo many times! I just love it.

Here are a some therapy ideas:

1) Directions: This book is perfect for targeting directions. Throughout this story the narrator follows her grandmother's directions as she gathers ingredients for thunder cake. She has to get eggs from Nellie Peck Hen and milk from Old Kick Cow. The book also features a recipe at the end of the book. How much fun would it be to actually make a thunder cake in therapy?! A tasty real world application for following directions.

2) Sequencing: This is a lovely book to practice sequencing. You could create a story stick (check out my previous post about how to create a story stick) and put all the events in order. (ex. first she collected eggs, then she collected milk, etc). 

3) Dramatic Play: You could set up different stations in your room with the ingredients and students can reenact the story! Students can walk around the room collecting ingredients as if they are the narrator. They could stop by a corner that contains a stuffed cow and a bottle of milk, they could open up a creaky old closet door (shed) to gather flour, and stop by a stuffed hen (Nellie Peck Hen) and gather toy eggs. It would be so much fun!

4) /th/: Students can make a crafty construction paper thunder cake and decorate it with /th/ words!

Have you used this book in therapy? Please leave a comment below and share your ideas!

Also, don't forget to check out The School SLP's link below! She is sharing ideas about how to use wordless books in therapy this week!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!