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speech and language teaching concepts for Turkey Goes to School in speech therapy
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/t/ initial
/er/ medial
/k/ medial
/f/ initial
/ar/ medial

Themes:

back to school

Book Details:
Diverse Characters: Yes
Age Recommendation: Early Childhood, Elementary

Turkey Goes to School

By Wendi Silvano

School is starting soon and Turkey can’t wait. Each day, he and his barnyard friends practice their writing and math. But when the school bus rolls up, they are booted off. It turns out that animals aren’t allowed to attend school. Pig calls it “hogwash,” and Turkey agrees. All he has to do is find a way to show the students and the principal that turkeys―and their friends―do belong in school. With a gobble, gobble here; a gobble, gobble there; and a few clever costumes, he just might.

This clever and fun back to school book can be used in speech therapy to address predicting and sequencing. It is also great for noticing character expressions and for targeting figurative language as well as multi-syllabic words! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using Turkey Goes to School in speech therapy below:

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode​

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary        
sequencing​
problem solving        
predicting​
illustration study​
inferencing​
figurative language​
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (present progressive)
verbs (linguistic)
text features​
phonological awareness​ 

Sequencing:

order of attempts the animals try to disguise Turkey

Vocabulary:

approaching, certain, practice, kernels, booted, critters, groaned, convince, allowed, costume, sneak, notice, foolish, moaned, peek, disguise, distraction, paging, bolted, howl, been in, bucked, dinged, brilliant, pilfered, parcel, trudged

Figurative Language:

idioms (get in the game, swallowing that disguise)
puns (page-ing, calf-eteria, farm-tastic)

Grammar:

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

Text Features:

exaggerated vowels
change in text size
ellipses
dashes
italics

Phonological Awareness:

multi-syllabic words

Inferencing:

Why do you think they were excited about the theme?
How do you think Turkey and the animals are doing at practicing?
Why do you think they aren’t allowed at school?
What does Max think about his first attempt?
Why didn’t the first attempt work? What about the second?
What do the kids think about Turkey being in class?
What about the teacher?
How do the other animals feel as they are running away? Why?
Why do they think a ball is a good idea?
How do the animals feel during soccer?
How does the lunch lady feel when she finds Turkey?
How does the teacher feel at the end?

Predicting:

What do you think will happen during “Farm Days” week?
Do you think Turkey and his pals will be invited to Farm Days? Why or why not?
What do you think will happen when they try to go to school?
How do you think they will try to get Turkey in?
What do you think they will try next? And after that?
How do you think he will dress up as a book, ball, lunch lady etc.?
Do you think their plan will work? Why or why not?
How do you think they will be front and center?

Problem Solving:

Turkey and friends come up with a plan to be a part of Farm Days at school.

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