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using Arthur's Family Vacation in speech therapy
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/ar/ initial
/er/ final
/d/ initial

Themes:

summer
family
vacation
appreciation
positivity

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

Arthur’s Family Vacation

By Marc Brown

Arthur’s family vacation is all wet-it’s pouring rain! Arthur has to take charge and finds new things for his family to do-like go to Gatorville. Maybe family vacation isn’t so bad after all!

This sweet summer book can be used in speech therapy to address social/emotional issues like appreciating time with family and seeing the bright side when things don’t always go as planned. It is also great for noticing character expressions and for targeting mental state verbs as well as for problem solving, character analysis, and /ar/, /er/ and /d/ sounds! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using Arthur’s Family Vacation in speech therapy below:

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary
theme/message
sequencing​
problem solving
character analysis
illustration study
inferencing
social/emotional
verbs (irregular past tense)
verbs (mental state) ​​​​

Sequencing:

order of events on the family vacation that leads to them having a great time

Vocabulary:

moan, puny, disaster, dream, postcard, field trip, vacation, glorious

Character Analysis:

Arthur learns to make the most of their family vacation while his father seems unsure about how the trip is going and D.W. is sarcastic and is being a pessimist.

Social/Emotional:

Arthur and D.W. learn to appreciate the time spent with their family even if things don’t always go as planned.

facial expressions

Grammar:

verbs (irregular past tense)
verbs (mental state) ​​

Inferencing:

How did the students feel when they heard they were getting their report cards?
What do you think they were hoping for instead?
How does Arthur feel about going on family vacation?
How do Arthur’s parents feel about going on vacation?
How does Arthur feel about Buster being at camp?
What does Arthur’s father think when he doesn’t see the ocean at the Ocean View Motel and when they get into the room?
How does D.W. feel about the room and the pool?
Why do you think they would write postcards?
Why did D.W. write that it was smart her grandma stayed at home?
Why do you think Arthur forgot all about Buster?
What does D.W. keep thinking about?
How did they feel about their vacation in the end?

Problem Solving:

Arthur tries to make the most of their vacation by coming up with a family field trip.