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using The Digger and the Flower in speech therapy
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/d/ initial
/g/ medial
/fl/ initial
/er/ final

Themes:

spring
Earth Day

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

The Digger and the Flower

By Joseph Kuefler

Each day, the big trucks go to work. They scoop and hoist and push. But when Digger discovers something growing in the rubble, he sets in motion a series of events that will change him, and the city, forever.

This powerful spring and Earth Day book can be used in speech therapy to address character analysis, predicting, inferencing, and a variety of verbs. It is also great for noticing character expressions and for targeting comparing and contrasting as well as for sounds including: /d/, /g/, /fl/, and /er/​! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using The Digger and the Flower in speech therapy below:

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary
character analysis
sequencing
illustration study
verbs (action)
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (irregular past tense)
inferencing
predicting
compare/contrast​

Sequencing:

order of events that leads to Digger planting new flowers

Vocabulary:

digger, crane, dozer, hoist, beat, rubble, shielded, tucked

Character Analysis:

When Digger finds a flower on the worksite, he grows close to it and cares for it. Digger is different than the other workers as he sees the beauty in it while the others are solely focused on their job. When Dozer cuts the flower, Digger is sad and comes up with a plan to grow more flowers.

How do you think the characters and settings are similar and different from one another?

Grammar:

verbs (action)
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (irregular past tense)

Inferencing:

How do Crane and Dozer feel? What about Digger?
How does Digger feel when he first sees the flower?
Why do you think Digger keeps coming back to visit flower?
How does Digger feel when Dozer cuts the flower down? How do you know?
How does Digger feel at the end?
What do you think the author is trying to say about cities and the environment?

Predicting:

What do you think Digger will do when Crane and Dozer take a break?
What do you think Digger will do with the flower?
What do you think is going to happen to the space where the flower lives?
What do you think Digger will do with the little seeds?
Where do you think he is going?
What do you think will happen when Digger plants the seeds?

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