Monkey-ing Around in Speech!

Here in the northeast we are caught in that cold and blah period of time between Valentine's and the first day of spring.  Since I am not yet in the mood for St. Patty's Day activities and my preschoolers don't care much about college basketball, I was struggling to find a theme for therapy this past week!  I enjoy using weekly themes and feel that it really helps to make planning for all my sessions easier.  Plus, it's fun not only for the kids, but for me as well!

I planned to use the story, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow, with one of my tots this week.  When I found these cute little story props to print and laminate for story retell on our magnetic board, it hit me.  I found my theme for this third week of February: Monkeys!  They are just so cute and the kids love them.  Fun and silly, monkeys are the perfect subject matter for filling in my blah week in February.

Here's what I did with one of my 3 year olds this week.  You can find the link to the 5 Little Monkeys printable here or use these other cute printables from DLTK.  After reading the book, we took the little monkeys (which are laminated with a piece of magnetic tape stuck to the back) and placed them on the bed.  My little friend then placed the first monkey victim next to the bed upside down because he "Hit his head!"  So excited to hear that pronoun from my little guy!

You can also use the story Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree, (Thanks Serving Pink Lemonade blog!) using the link here to print the tree, monkeys, and alligator.  I plan to use this, too!

Next, we used the iPad to read this short story about monkeys I found on tarheelreader.  We used it to formulate present progressive sentences about what the monkey was doing.  Afterwards, we decided to feed our own monkey some snacks (created with a monkey face I found online, laminated and stuck to a tissue box).  We asked him "Do you like               " and filled in with the name of the food.  We used some laminated pictures of various food items I found here and took turns feeding him when the monkey answered "yes" and wanted the food!  My little guy just loved feeding the monkey.

We also used the game Jumpin' Monkeys. I often play this with my slightly older students who have better coordination.  The idea is to launch the monkey using a miniature catapult onto the tree and make him catch a branch and hang.  This was too much to ask of my little friend so we just practiced some of his target words and he got to place a monkey in the tree when he said the word.  We targeted some nice action words here too, such as flying, swinging, holding, hanging, falling, and jumping.  We also talked about where the monkey was going to land, using the terms in, on, top, bottom, under, over.  You can target many goals with this cute game.

So, my therapist friends, if you are looking to liven up the boring weeks at the end of February, let the monkey business begin!