speech and language teaching concepts for The Rainbow Fish in speech therapy
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/r/ initial
/f/ initial
/sh/ initial and final
/sk/ initial

Themes:

ocean
kindness
friendship

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

The Rainbow Fish

By Marcus Pfister

The Rainbow Fish with its iridescent scales is the most beautiful fish in the whole ocean. But since he is also vain and proud, he becomes more and more lonely over time. Then he realizes that you can’t win friends through beauty. He overcomes his pride and begins to distribute his glitter scales to the other fish.

This classic ocean themed book can be used in speech therapy to address social/emotional issues like pride, sharing, and friendship. It is also great for targeting describing, inferencing, and the /r/, /f/, /sh/ and /sk/ sounds.  Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using Rainbow Fish in speech therapy below: 

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary
theme/message
social/emotional
character analysis
text features
inferencing
predicting
adjectives
adjectives (compound phrases)
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (irregular past tense)

Vocabulary:

ordinary, amazed, beauty, glide, proud, scales, shocked, loneliest, emerged, advice, peculiar

Character Analysis:

The Rainbow Fish struggles with pride because he is so beautiful and learns about humility when he gives his scales to the other fish. He also learns that friendship is not gained through outward appearance, but through actions of the heart.

Social/Emotional:

pride
humility
sharing

How is Rainbow Fish prideful?
Is it ok to be proud of who you are and what you have?
If it’s ok to be proud of who you are and what you have, then why was the fish’s feelings hurt by Rainbow Fish?
How do the fish feel when Rainbow Fish refuses to share?
Why is Rainbow Fish lonely?
What makes Rainbow Fish decide to share?
How do all the fish feel at the end of the story?
How do you feel about sharing?

Grammar:

adjectives (compound phrases)
adjectives
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (irregular past tense)

Text Features:

dialogue
ellipses
question marks
exclamation points

Inferencing:

How does the Rainbow Fish feel about sharing in the beginning?
How will sharing make Rainbow Fish happy?
How did sharing help him feel at home with the fish?
Why was Rainbow Fish so happy in the end?

Predicting:

Do you think the wise octopus will be able to help Rainbow Fish? How?
Will the Rainbow Fish share his scales?
Do you think Rainbow Fish will be happy if he shares his scales?

Problem Solving:

Rainbow Fish cannot figure out why he is all alone and how to make friends. He finally realizes the true meaning of friendship.

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