We were so excited to visit the Wing Lake Developmental Center for our first visit since the "before times!" Our new Assistant DH, Lauren, and I updated a previous story time plan from 3 years ago and presented this sensory story time for Wing Lake's Fall Open House in late October, and we are thrilled to have monthly visits scheduled there in the coming months.
Here's the plan:
1. Hello (Talk about the visual schedule)
2. Talk about theme: "Today we are having fun with things that we experience in the fall! What do you like about fall? (Colorful leaves, apples and cider mills, Halloween) For their Fall Open House, students and their families were invited to wear costumes for some Halloween activities throughout the evening. So we also talked about our costumes and what we find around Halloween time (scarecrows, pumpkins, trick or treaters).
3. Story: Scarecrow, Scarecrow, What Do You See? by Lisa Erwin, SLP
This is an adapted book with interactive images. I enlarged this book and interactive image pieces to poster-size, looped ring clips through the top and attached it to our portable easel to flip through.
(source: My Speech Tools)
In addition to putting flannel apples in red, green, and yellow on our board, Lauren and I also brought in red, green, and yellow apples to pass around for students and their families to see, feel, and smell.
Apples juicy, apples round,
On the tree or on the ground.
Apples yellow, green, and red,
Give us pie and juice and bread.
Apples juicy, apples sweet,
Apples are so good to eat!
(source: unknown)
5. Sensory Story: Full of Fall by April Pulley Sayre
Another fantastic picture book from Sayre with beautiful photograph illustrations of outdoor fall scenes and simple narrative. We projected the eBook version on a large screen for better visual accessibility and also passed around different colorful leaves, twigs, and bark to better experience the story and illustrations with our senses of sight, touch (the different textures of the leaves and bark), smell, and hearing (the crinkle of the leaves).
6. Goodbye Song: "If You're a Monster and You Know It" (tune: If You're Happy and You Know It)
If you're a monster and you know it,
wave your arms.
If you're a monster and you know it,
wave your arms.
If you're a monster and you know it,
then your arms will surely show it.
If you're a monster and you know it,
wave your arms.
Additional verses: show your teeth, roar out loud
(source: preschooleducation.com)
7. Craft activity: Apple Trees (blue construction paper, green circle, strip of brown construction paper, glue sticks, and bingo dauber markers)
