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speech and language teaching concepts for how to catch a witch in speech therapy
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/ch/ medial (creature) and final (witch)
/kr/ initial (creature)

Themes:

Halloween

Book Details:
Diverse Characters: Yes
Age Recommendation: Early Childhood, Elementary

How to Catch a Witch

By Alice Walstead

It’s Halloween night and something doesn’t seem quite right… When the Catch Club Kids head out to trick-or-treat, there are ghosts, goblins, and ghouls everywhere! Our heroes discover a witch on a broom has opened a magical portal that let out spooky creatures all over the neighborhood. Follow along in this frightfully fun story as they set zany traps for the witch to close the portal and save Halloween before all the candy is gone!

This fun Halloween book can be used in speech therapy for studying its elaborate illustrations. It is also great for inferring and predicting! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using How to Catch a Witch in speech therapy below: 

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary
phonological awareness
sequencing
text features
predicting
inferencing
illustration study

Sequencing:

order of traps set for the witch

Vocabulary:

mischief, costumes, fright, carved, lit, crisp, notice, account, creatures, features, wise, rebristling, serious, summons, finale, portal, clever, guide

Social/Emotional:

Notice facial expressions and body language.

Text Features:

ellipsis
ALL CAPS
change in font colors
change in font size
animated text
text in illustrations

Phonological Awareness:

rhyming

Inferencing:

Discuss why the kids present with different facial expressions and body language.
Discuss what the children were trying to figure out- whether the creatures were real vs. whether the creatures were actually kids wearing costumes.
Why would the witch want her broom rebristled?
Why do the kids think the witch may want to dance on the dance floor?
Why can’t they work to catch all of the creatures?
Why would the witch like the Tunnel of Tricks?
Why does the witch send the bat into the tunnel first?
Why is the witch welcome whenever?

Predicting:

Who else do you think has a plan for tonight?
Why do you think the witch is bringing creatures to town?
How will they try to catch the witch?
How will the witch avoid the trap?
How will catching the witch fix the problem of having all of the creatures around town?
Do you think they will catch the witch?
What do you think will happen to the kids?
What do you think will happen to all of the creatures?

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