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speech and language teaching concepts for The Little Yellow Leaf in speech therapy​ ​
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/n/ initial
/t/ medial and final
/r/ initial
/d/ medial
/l/ initial, medial and final
/y/ initial (yellow)
/f/ final

Themes:

fall
leaves
bravery
friend support
loneliness
fear

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

The Little Yellow Leaf

By Carin Berger

This is a story for anyone who has ever been afraid of facing the unknown—and a celebration of the friends who help us take the leap. As all the other leaves float off and fly past, Little Yellow Leaf thinks, I’m not ready yet. As the seasons change all around, Little Yellow Leaf holds on to the tree. Still not ready. Will Little Yellow Leaf ever be ready?

This sweet fall and leaves book can be used in speech therapy to address social/emotional issues like loneliness, fear, friendship and bravery. It is also great for inferencing and for targeting personification, alliteration, and mental state verbs as well as for describing! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using The Little Yellow Leaf in speech therapy below:

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary​
theme/message​
illustration study​
inferencing​
figurative language​
social/emotional​
predicting​
adjectives
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (irregular past tense)
verbs (mental state)
text features​
phonological awareness​

Vocabulary:

autumn, riot, fiery, beckon, heap, harvest, bare, soar

Social/Emotional:

The Little Yellow Leaf is afraid of jumping and waits day after day until another leaf appears to jump with it so it isn’t so lonely.

Figurative Language:

personification (riot of fiery leaves, afternoon sun beckoned and teased, moon bloomed amber, leaves danced)

Grammar:

adjectives
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (irregular past tense)
verbs (mental state)

Text Features:

italics
ellipses
moving text
change in text size

Phonological Awareness:

alliteration

Inferencing:

Why do you think the yellow leaf was lonely?
Why do you think it clung to the branch?
How do you think the afternoon sun beckoned and teased?
How are the things around it changing?
Why do you think it is still hanging on?
How do you think it is still hanging on?
Why do you think they jumped at the end?

Predicting:

When do you think it will fall to the ground?
What do you think it is waiting for?
What do you think the two leaves will do?

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