Olivia
This precocious pig is endearing and reminds us all of a child we know and love. In this book we are introduced to Olivia, the big sister and official “wearer-outer” of the family. The author/illustrator uses simple illustrations on white backgrounds with a great use of color: black, white, red.
Speech Therapy ideas:
1. Describe all the things that Olivia is doing on the action-filled pages. For younger children uses present tense sentences, “She is kicking. She is jumping. She is mixing.” For older children, use past tense sentences, especially focusing on irregular verbs, “She ran. She hammered. She kicked. She fell down”
2. Describe all the types of clothes Olivia is wearing. Name them. Talk about when she might wear that clothing item (season, event, time of day, etc.).
3. What does this sentence on the beach page mean, “She feels it’s important to come prepared”?
4. Make some inferences. Why is Olivia pink after going to the beach? What is the “you-know-what”? What is Olivia thinking after looking at the Degas painting? How does her mother feel after Olivia tries paining at home? Why does she get a time out?
5. Describe the use of red in the story. What things are red on each page? Make some guesses as to why.
6. Even if your child cannot pronounce all the sounds in “Olivia”, it is a good multisyllabic word to practice.
Thanks for the great ideas!
Your blog is a great model for a blog I have waiting in the wings. I’m going back to finish grad school this Fall and I plan on blogging about the therapy ideas I find useful.
And in other news…you’ve been tagged! Come on over to my place for the details!
We LOVE the Olivia books. Thank you for your great suggestions. I have a question for you. My one year old son has started doing this high pitched scream every time he has a want or a don’t want. It is nerve shattering. Any suggestions?
Sounds like another great book and good teaching ideas!!
Hi, I just linked here through Chrissy’s blog. I am a severe special education teacher, and I somehow feel very at home here – lots of things I recognize, like boardmaker, etc. I really like the Children’s Book Monday idea, with speech therapy ideas included! All of my students are non-verbal, and I do a lot of reading to them. It’ll be fun to see what kinds of books you recommend!
These are all great ideas, although my son hates it if I try to do anything like this the first time through a book. I think it’s partly because it’s just too much to take in what I am reading and what else I am saying all at once.
When we go back again, I can usually start to slowly add some of these types of things.