Sweet Southern Speech

Engaging ideas and activities for busy Speech Therapists!

using Fletcher and the Falling Leaves in speech therapy

Frequent Speech Sounds:

/s/ initial and medial (summer, sick, save, icicles)
/s/ blends (swishing, nest, swirled, squirrel, stealing, smiled, sky, sleep, stay)
/r/ initial (rough, round, rolling, right)
/r/ blends (brown, green, tree, grass, branch, free, promise, cried, friendly, crawled

)
/r/ vocalic (favorite, summer, Fletcher, better, turned, forest, bare, warm, fluttered)
/f/ initial (fletcher, feeling, fall, falling, leaf, fly, flock, flag)
/l/ initial, medial and final (leaves, little, leaf, help, believe, gulped, holding, steal)

Themes:

fall
leaves
friendship
coping with change
empathy
changing seasons

Book Details:

Diverse Characters: N/A
Age Recommendation: Early Childhood, Elementary
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Fletcher and the Falling Leaves

By Julia Rawlinson

As the leaves fall from his favorite tree, Fletcher worries that something is wrong. He works really hard to help his favorite tree. But then winter comes and with it a wonderful surprises.

This sweet fall and leaves book can be used in speech therapy to address social/emotional issues like coping with change, empathy and caring for others. It is also great for problem solving, inferencing and for targeting grammar and figurative language as well as for describing! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using Fletcher and the Falling Leaves in speech therapy below:

Key Teaching concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode
Narrative Concepts:

theme/message
problem solving ​
character analysis   
inferencing​
social/emotional 
figurative language
adjectives
adverbs
verbs (action)
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (irregular past tense)
verbs (present progressive)
verbs (linguistic)
contractions
prepositional phrases
complex sentence structure
text features​
phonological awareness​
Vocabulary:

bounded, den, glimmer, gust, shivered, promise, etc.
Character Analysis:

Fletcher is a caring friend and spends his time comforting and helping his favorite tree as it is changing.
Social/Emotional:

Fletcher worries about the tree and is concerned when his plans don’t work. He also shows empathy by caring about it and treats it like a loved one.
Figurative Language:

similes (fluttered like a little flag)
onomatopoeias (plip)
personification (branches danced/shivered, leaves shivered, etc.)
Grammar:

adjectives
adverbs
verbs (action)
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (irregular past tense)
verbs (present progressive)
verbs (linguistic)
contractions
prepositional phrases
complex sentence structure
Text Features:

dialogue
exclamation marks
italics
Phonological Awareness:

alliterations
multi-syllabic words
Inferencing:

How do you know the season is changing?
Why do you think Fletcher is worried?
Why do you think he patted the tree?
Why do you think Fletcher was catching the leaves?
How does Fletcher feel when the animals start taking the leaves?
Why did the leaf rustle in reply?
How does he feel when the birds help him?
How does he feel when he wakes up?
How does he feel when he is climbing up the tree?
What do you think he realized in the end?
Problem Solving:

Fletcher’s favorite tree is sick and he tries to save its leaves.

If you are interested in using Fletcher and the Falling Leaves in speech therapy, then check out the book companion with the full lesson plans and activities.

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