It’s fall and that means it’s apple season (and pear and grape season too!) Looking for something to make with all those wonderful fall fruits?? If you are permitted to use foods in your therapy sessions, this simple, healthful, and multi-sensory snacktivity will be a fantastic way to address sequencing, direction following, generating vocabulary for fruits, modes of transportation and conversation skills!
Today we are making fruit-mobiles! (and since I threw in a cucumber…veggie-mobiles too!!)
To make your “fruit (or veggie) mobile”:
(Picture 1, 2, 3): Slice an apple, pear, or cucumber in half lengthwise. This is a good time to talk about concepts like half, whole, length, width. Then cut the fruit into sections that look similar to the ones shown above.
Picture 4. Place a toothpick through the center of a grape, but be careful not to push it all the way through to the other side.
Picture 5. Push one end of the toothpick through the fruit slice and add a second grape onto the other end.
Picture 6. Repeat the grape/toothpick step for a second “set of wheels.”
Picture 7, 8, 9. Complete this simple process with the other fruit and veggie slices to create your own fleet of fruit and veggie mobiles! Admire your creations, then proceed to eat!!
To address language skills:
- COMPARE the various mobiles and discuss how they are ALIKE and DIFFERENT (in size, color, shape, taste).
- SEQUENCE the steps in making the snack and DESCRIBE what you are doing as you complete each part.
- Make up a story about edible vehicles and WHERE they are going….WHAT they will do when they get there…..HOW fast and HOW long it will take to reach their destination.
This treat is geared toward your younger students, but I haven’t forgotten about the big kiddos! I have created a new product that you can find in my TpT store made primarily with middle and high school students in mind: Voc “apple” ary Building for Older Students {Strategies for Improving Knowledge and Use of Tier 2 Vocabulary}.
This item is apple-themed for the fall season and focuses on ways to develop a rich vocabulary through specific strategies. I was inspired to create this item after revisiting a wonderful resource, the book “Bringing Words to Life” by Isabelle L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan. The book brings to light the importance of teaching vocabulary through strategies that reach far beyond the basic dictionary definition of a word. I have utilized some of the basic concepts found in this book to my latest TpT product. Check out the complete packet in my TpT store!
This packet contains :
1–Six vocabulary strategy cards (to use as a reference for this product or any new vocabulary that you may address) that provide specific ways to support tier-2 vocabulary development
2–Eight apple-themed reading passages containing key tier -2 words in bold and 24 vocabulary-building strategy cards. I have placed the codes S1, S2, S3, S4., etc next to each item to represent “Strategy 1, Strategy 2, etc. The SLP should read the passage aloud, (allowing the student to see the words highlighted in bold) or Tier-2 words can also be written on a whiteboard so that students can make reference to them as they are asked to answer the strategy card questions.
***Sample responses /answers are included in BOLD for many of the strategy questions***
3– comprehension questions related to each story.
Also included—a fun and motivating game to play as students respond to questions. All students get a tree, an apple basket, and a set of 10 apples. Start by placing all 10 apples of the same color on the tree. Follow the directions on the game cards for adding apples to your basket, passing them off to another player, or placing them all back onto the tree. The player to fill their barrel with all 10 apples first is the winner!
I hope you find this product to be a helpful and effective way of addressing new vocabulary with all your students!
Thank you so much for sharing this for Smart Speech Therapy’s Birthday Celebration! I was lucky enough to win. This is a great packet of practical vocabulary and very helpful strategies to teach vocabulary so that it is meaning to students- not only to build their vocabulary, but to increase their comprehension and to improve their expressive communication!!! Easy enough to share with parents at IEPs or parent teacher conferences how they can incorporate these strategies at home. Love the apple and fruit cars! So will my students.
Julie, I am so glad that you are the winner of this packet! You are always so thoughtful and complimentary to all of us SLP’s when you leave comments! Great idea to share the strategies at IEP meetings—you can easily make quick reference to the strategy cards. I hope you and your students find this activity fun and helpful…and delicious!