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speech and language teaching concepts for How to Catch a Dragon in speech therapy​
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/dr/ initial
/g/ medial
/k/ initial and final
/ch/ final
/tr/ initial
/p/ final
/er/ medial

Themes:

Chinese/Lunar New Year

Book Details:
Diverse Characters: Yes
Age Recommendation: Elementary, Late Elementary

How to Catch a Dragon

By Adam Wallace

Do you have what it takes to snag a dragon? The How to Catch kids are off again, this time trying to catch a dragon as they chase him through Chinese New Year celebrations! Set in China during the Spring Festival, otherwise known as Chinese New Year, the wily dragon will have to avoid trap after trap as the kids run through paper lanterns, red lunar envelopes, fireworks, and more!

This fun Luna New Year book can be used in speech therapy to address rich vocabulary. It is also great for sequencing and for discussing New Year traditions and various cultures. Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using How to Catch a Dragon in speech therapy below: 

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary
sequencing
illustration study
inferencing
phonological awareness

Sequencing:

order of traps tried to catch the dragon

Vocabulary:

luck, fortune, Lunar, Fai Chun, lantern, control, tacos, noodles, sticky rice, Inn, thundering, beat, defeat, massive, bait, resist, fell through, tradition, culture, resolution 

Social/Emotional:

In the end, they realize that spending time and celebrating with one another makes them the luckiest of all.

Text Features:

Chinese text
change in text color
exclamation marks
question marks
dashes
ellipses
capitals
bonus educational content and Mandarin translations in the back

Phonological Awareness:

rhyming

Inferencing:

What does a dragon symbolize in their culture?
How can the dragon control the water?
Why would the dragon want noodles and sticky rice not tacos?
How do they feel when the traps don’t work?
Why the mom say she loved “this dragon best, right here”?

Predicting:

How do you think they will catch the dragon?