Thanksgiving Dinner in Speech!

I have done this craft for the past couple of years.  Each year, I change it up a little but have never been completely happy with it...UNTIL THIS YEAR!!!!  You know how you do a craft with your clients (or your own kids) and you think, "That turned out cute but it would look better if I did..."?  That's how this craft is for me.  I really liked it but always wanted to do more.  I gathered my materials just as I do every year for this craft but it hit me on the way to the first client this morning.  MAKE THEM LIKE THE OLD LADY!!  Hello!!  After the first few kiddos, it has been a HUGE hit!!  The kids laugh and think they will get as big as the old lady in the story.  Here's what we did:

I gathered brown and white construction paper to make the turkey leg and dinner roll.  I used 4 cotton balls as mashed potatoes with a small yellow square as the butter.  I glued yellow pony beads as corn kernels and green pony beads as peas.  Of course, what's a good dinner roll without butter?  So I cut a small yellow square for butter on it too.  We sprinkle just a touch of poultry seasoning (which none of the kids think it smells good!) on the turkey leg.  Everything was glued onto a small paper plate.  The small paper plate was glued a 9x12 piece of orange construction paper.

To address articulation:  I still drilled the kiddos with their target words if they were at word level.  To get a food on their plate, they had to say their target 5x.  Some of my kids are at phrase/sentence level so this is where we used the sentence above the food.  The kids would say their sentence 3x correctly after we glued the food onto the plate.  The sentence was "I know a little boy/girl who swallowed (corn.)"  Only at the very end did we read the entire sentence with all the foods listed.

To address language:  We worked answering "what" questions such as "what do you want?" and using 3-4 word phrases to answer those questions like "I want corn please."  If you are working in a group setting, you could easily work on table manners at this time.  Kids would have to say "Please pass the (potatoes)."  You could even put the different "foods" in plastic serving dishes and prepare the table as if it were a real Thanksgiving dinner!!  (Man, times I wished I worked in a school setting!!)   Spatial concepts are easily addressed.  "Where do you want the corn?"  Answers could be "beside the turkey," or "between the peas and potatoes." 

Sorry I had to take a break from the regular "Wee One Wednesday" post.  This activity deserved it's own post!!!  It is so much fun!!  You can change up the foods too.  One year we used elbow noodles as macaroni.  You could cut strips of green paper to make a salad.  Get creative with it!!  Then come back and tell what you did!!

Until next time, keep 'em talking!!
Melissa