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speech and language teaching concepts for The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Vacation in speech therapy
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/p/ initial and medial
/m/ initial and medial
/er/ final

Themes:

summer
family
positivity
memories

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

The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Vacation

By Stan Berenstain

This classic Berenstain Bears story is a perfect way to teach children about making the best out of a bad situation! Papa, Mama, Brother, and Sister are heading to the Great Grizzly Mountains for a relaxing vacation. But a messy cabin, noisy animals, a swarm of mosquitos, and a rainstorm just might dampen all of their fun.

This adventurous summer book can be used in speech therapy to address social/emotional issues like going with the flow and trying to stay positive when it is hard to. It is also great for noticing character expressions and for targeting predicting, problem solving, and character analysis as well as for describing! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Vacation in speech therapy below:

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary
theme/message
problem solving
character analysis
sequencing
illustration study
inferencing
figurative language
social/emotional
predicting
adjectives
verbs (action)
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (present progressive)
verbs (linguistic)
text features

Sequencing:

order of events during their mountain adventure that leads them straight home

Vocabulary:

excitement, adventure, mountains, remember, soft, conveniences, tramp, supreme, steep, objected, survival, scurry, gurgled, discouraged, racket, fierce

Character Analysis:

Papa is very optimistic about their trip while Mama is trying to be more realistic. When things don’t go as planned, they try to keep their hopes up but have a hard time doing so. In the end, they make a plan to go home and laugh about their experience together.

Social/Emotional:

The family works together to make sure that they have a great family vacation even when things don’t go as planned.

Figurative Language:

sensory language

Grammar:

adjectives
verbs (action)
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (present progressive)
verbs (linguistic)

Text Features:

dialogue
italics

Inferencing:

What did Papa think about living in the valley?
Why do you think Mama started taking pictures when she did?
What does Mama think about how this vacation is going to go?
Why do you think Mama warmed up canned beans and dried honeycombs?
Why do you think Mama is still taking pictures when the stew didn’t taste good and then when Papa caught the mudsucker?
How do you think Papa felt when he looked at the breakfast he caught?
Why do you think Mama is shouting?
Why did their tree house never look as good as it did to them that day?
How did they feel when they got home and when Mama developed the pictures?

Predicting:

Where do you think they are going?
What do you think they might do when they get to the cabin?
What do you think the stew will taste like?
What do you think they will do when it starts raining?
What do you think Mama will do when they get home?

Problem Solving:

Mama helps make sure there is a back-up plan for Papa’s mountain adventure.

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