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using Olive, the Other Reindeer in speech therapy
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/l/ medial
/v/ final
/r/ initial
/ear/ final
/s/ initial

Themes:

Christmas
acceptance
friendship

Book Details:
Diverse Characters: N/A
Age Recommendation: Early Childhood, Elementary, Late Elementary

Olive, the Other Reindeer

By Vivian Walsh

Olive is merrily preparing for Christmas when suddenly she realizes “Olive… the other Reindeer… I thought I was a dog. Hmmm, I must be a Reindeer!” So she quickly hops aboard the polar express and heads to the North Pole. And while Santa and the other reindeer are a bit surprised that a dog wants to join the their team, in the end Olive and her unusual reindeer skills are just what Santa and his veteran reindeer team need.

This adorable Christmas book can be used in speech therapy to address sequencing. It is also great for illustration study and for targeting sounds including: /l/ medial, /v/ final, /r/ initial, and /r/ vocalic! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using Olive, the Other Reindeer in speech therapy below: 

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary
sequencing
illustration study
verbs (present progressive)
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (mental state)
complex sentence structure
text features
predicting

Sequencing:

order of events Olive takes to show Santa she can be a helpful “reindeer”

Vocabulary:

reported, for instance, curious, clung, twitch, patching, dreaded

Character Analysis:

Olive is a dog who thinks that she is the other reindeer, so she heads to the North Pole to fulfill her duty as a reindeer. Her dog skills come in handy on Christmas eve.

What made Olive think she was a reindeer?

Figurative Language:

onomatopoeias
metaphors
simile

Grammar:

verbs (present progressive)
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (mental state)
complex sentence structure

Text Features:

bold text
ellipses
dashes
large font

Inferencing:

What does Santa think about Olive when he first sees her in line?
Why do you think the other reindeer were staring at Olive?
How did Santa know what to do when Olive barked?

Predicting:

What skills do you think Olive has that will make a good reindeer?
What kind of gift do you think Olive is going to get from Santa?
What do you think might happen next Christmas?

If you are interested in seeing other Christmas books to use in therapy, then check out the Seasonal Teaching Points Book List for a printable copy.