Thanksgiving marks a big turning point in the year as we head into the holiday season. Books often allow us to expose kids to ideas and environments they may not encounter on a daily basis. That is why I love using these Thanksgiving books to support my clients in speech therapy during this time of transition.
In general, exposure to books provides countless benefits such as: learning new vocabulary, organizing thoughts and ideas, learning new sentence structures, building narrative language skills, developing inferencing and problem-solving skills, fostering imagination, social-emotional development, promoting attention to tasks, and strengthening listening comprehension.
My Favorite Thanksgiving Books
Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson & Jane Chapman
You cannot deny that the Bear stories are great and full of fun. For Thanksgiving enjoy a big dinner with Bear and his friends. This book is packed with engaging vocabulary and repetitive text. When Bear finds his cupboards bare, his friends show up one by one with gifts of food for the party. The themes of friendship, sharing, and gratitude make this a great read-aloud. There is also great rhyming and colorful illustrations.
Turkey Trouble by Wendy Silvano
Turkey Trouble is a cute story about a turkey who sets out to find a disguise as to not end up becoming the main course at Thanksgiving dinner. You’ll find opportunities to work on inferencing, sequencing, and story recall in this book. There are also some puns thrown in such as, “quit horsing around,” that will allow you to discuss figurative language too.
Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet
This is the true story of the man who created the large balloons and puppets for the big Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Balloons Over Broadway is a non-fiction story written like a picture book so it’s incredibly engaging. I love pairing this book with a drawing activity where the kids get to draw/design their own balloon for the parade and discuss why they chose their particular character or creature.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey by Lucille Colandro
The “Old Lady” series are a must-have in any kid’s library or your speech rooms. I love using these books to work on sequencing and story retell, but they always have a fun and unexpected ending. You won’t believe why this old lady swallowed a turkey, a ball, a hat, a balloon, a boat, some wheels, and a horn of plenty!
While Texas Speech Mom’s book companion for this series does not YET include the turkey, I’d recommend buying it if you love these books.
10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston
Kids love this book about ten silly turkeys who do tricks and take turns falling off the fence. They love repeating the phrase “gobble gobble, wibble wobble!” and you will too! This repetitive text is perfect for our early communicators or kids with childhood apraxia of speech.
Did your favorite Thanksgiving books make my list? Remember that books are the perfect activity for Playing With Purpose, so if you would like more ideas on you can use books year-round for building a child’s speech and language skills with books then check out this post in my series!
Hope your November gets off to a great start and you enjoy a meaningful Thanksgiving.
Start Playing With Purpose
Learn how to purposefully and intentionally interact with your child during play and help them increase opportunities for speech and language development with our Playing with Purpose book!
