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speech and language teaching concepts for Little Blue Truck Makes a Friend in speech therapy
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/k/ final
/tr/ initial
/l/ initial and final
/bl/ initial
/h/ initial (who, he)

Themes:

friendship
being welcoming
non-seasonal

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

Little Blue Truck Makes a Friend

By Alice Schertle

Beep! Beep! Have you heard the news? There is someone new on the farm! All the animals are nervous and excited about meeting a new friend—what will he be like? Does he neigh like a horse or oink like a pig? Does he have fur or feathers? Does he swim? Does he fly? Making new friends can be scary at first but being kind and helping others feel welcome is always the right move. Luckily, Blue knows just the thing to help his friends, old and new, feel at home! Little Blue’s “Beep!” was loud and clear: We are very glad you’re here!

This sweet friendship book can be used in speech therapy to address social/emotional issues like meeting new friends and making others feel welcomed. It is also great for describing and for noticing text features and onomatopoeias as well as for targeting /k/, /tr/, /l/ and /bl/ sounds! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using Little Blue Truck Makes a Friend in speech therapy below: 

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

theme/message​
figurative language​
social/emotional​
predicting​
prepositional phrases​
sequencing
vocabulary

text features​
phonological awareness​
compare and contrast (farm animal living and woodchuck living)

Sequencing:

order of animals who tell Little Blue Truck that someone new has moved into the neighborhood

Vocabulary:

different, gallop, hooves, meadow, neighbor, shy, scrambled

Social/Emotional:

The animals are excited but also afraid of meeting the new and different neighbor, only to find out that Woodchuck was also being shy. In the end, they are all glad they stopped by.

What would you do if there was someone new in your class?
How can we introduce ourselves?
What can we do to make someone feel welcomed?

Figurative Language:

onomatopoeia (beep, cluck, honk etc.)

Grammar:

adjectives
verbs (linguistic)
verbs (regular past tense)
prepositional phrases
compare/contrast where the animals live vs. Woodchuck’s House
asking questions

Text Features:

capitals
enlarged text for emphasis
change in text color
exclamation marks
dashes
ellipses

Phonological Awareness:

rhyming

Predicting:

What do you think Hen’s news is?
Who do you think moved in?
What do you think the animals will do when they their new neighbor?
What do you think Little Blue will do?