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speech and language teaching concepts for The Apple Orchard Riddle in speech therapy​ ​
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/t/ initial
/air/ medial
/st/ initial
/r/ initial, medial and final

Themes:

apples

Book Details:
Diverse Characters: Yes
Age Recommendation: Elementary

The Apple Orchard Riddle

By Margaret McNamara

Mr. Tiffin and his students from the perennially popular How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? are back in this picture book about a school trip to an apple orchard! In this playful, humorous, and child-friendly classroom story, the students learn a lot about apples and apple orchards—including how apples are harvested, how cider is made, and what the different varieties of apples are—while trying to solve a riddle. The book also celebrates how some children learn differently than others.

This clever apples book can be used in speech therapy to address problem solving. It is also great for inferencing and sequencing as well as for targeting mental state verbs! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using The Apple Orchard Riddle in speech therapy below:

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

problem solving​
sequencing​
inferencing​
predicting​
verbs (mental state)
text features

Sequencing:

order of how cider is made

Vocabulary:

​orchard, varieties, pulp, sterilized

Grammar:

verbs (mental state)

Text Features:

facts
dialogue
riddle

Inferencing:

How did the students feel about the riddle?
Why do you think Tara was’t picking apples?
Why do you think Tara wasn’t done with her apple yet?
What do you think Tara noticed about the apple when she was done with it?
How do you think Tara felt about visiting the orchard?
What inferences can you make about Tara’s personality and the way she learns and/or interacts with the world?

Predicting:

What do you think Tara is thinking about?
Where do you think they are going?
What do you think the answer is?
How do you think Tara will show everyone the star?

Problem Solving:

Tara and the class try to solve the riddle in different ways (hands on vs. thinking through it).

If you are interested in seeing other apple-themed books to use in therapy, then check out the Themed Narrative Key Teaching Points Book List for a printable copy.