Children love working on auditory memory and phonological awareness when they can do it with this Orange is Carrot activity!
Plus there is no prep work involved once the materials are printed and laminated. Here are some of the many areas you can target in speech therapy, or even a regular education or SPED classroom:
- Rhyming
- Word Recall (basic word recall, word recall with attributes added, and remembering a series of words)
- 1:1 correspondence of spoken to written words or spoken words to physical movement
- Sentence Recall
- Prepositions
- Categories
What you'll get:
- Orange Is A Carrot Song Sheet
- 12 cards to use in therapy
How to Use
Using the picture cards to aid memory, recall the second rhyming word in each couplet. Generate even more words that rhyme with “bear, pear” and so forth. Make up your own rhyming couplets—“I saw a bear eating a pear” or “The cat wore a hat.”
Lay the picture cards in a row and practice naming them. Start with a small number of cards and add more as the child’s capability grows. Four is a good number, as it matches one stanza of the poem.
Practice naming the attribute plus the noun, e.g. “orange carrot” and “yellow pear.”
Turn the cards face down and work on recalling a series of words without visual cues.
Use the song sheet and point to each word as you sing/recite it, or as you listen to the recorded song.
Working with one line of the poem at a time, put a corresponding number of markers on the floor and show the child how to step on one marker for one word. Change the number of markers as needed and point out how some lines have four words and other lines have five words. This is a great way to call attention to the individuality of small words such as “a” and “the.” Put a whole stanza together when they are ready! Use the picture cards as needed, either on the floor or on a board.
Place the cards over, under, between, in and on things and play hide and seek.
Choose a color in the song and find items in the room that are the same color. Then think of items NOT visible that are that color.
Using all of the strategies above, help them memorize the poem. The printable song sheet is great to send home for this purpose.
All of these activities work well in both individual and group settings.
Please email [email protected] with any questions. Also, see my Simple Tools video demonstrating how to use Orange is a Carrot https://www.thespeechumbrella.com/blog/simple-poem-six-ways