fbpx
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/sh/ initial

Themes:

Valentine’s Day
love

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

Love Matters Most

By Mij Kelly

Perfect for Valentine’s Day and a heartwarming read for the cold winter months, this cozy animal story explores the universal theme of a mother’s love for her child. When a polar bear leaves the safety and warmth of her cave to travel all over a frozen wonderland, she must be looking for something very important. Could it be delicious silver salmon? A view of the swirling winter sky? A bit of gold? Of course, she is in search of the most precious thing of all: her lost little cub. In this touching story, readers will instantly be enamored with the sweeping illustrations of winter landscapes, endearing polar bear characters, and the resonant message that a mother’s love matters most.

This heartfelt Valentine’s Day book can be used in speech therapy to address rhyming. It is great for studying the beautiful illustrations, which also provide clues through as to what mama bear is looking for. It is also great for targeting predicting and discussing love.  Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using Love Matters Most in speech therapy below: 

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

action sequence

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary
character analysis
illustration study
inferencing
social/emotional
predicting
phonological awareness
interactive story

Vocabulary:

staring, wind, frost, lost, important, searching, matters

Character Analysis:

Mama bear searches all over to find her baby bear because she loves him.

Social/Emotional:

love from a caregiver/family

Phonological Awareness:

rhyming

Inferencing:

How do you know that the mama bear loves her baby bear?
How do you think mama bear feels when she finally finds her cub?

Predicting:

Who or what is mama bear looking for?

This story has predicting questions within the book, which makes it great for interaction and engagement with students.
Is mama bear looking for “ruby red berries?”
Is she looking for salmon?
Is she just admiring the stars in the sky?

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