It’s been awhile since my last Theme Thursday post! Since summer is almost in full swing, I thought I would share some books and ideas for a baseball theme! Let’s take speech to the ball game! 😉
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First up, let’s talk about another Dice Drills craft hack! If you read my beach ball blog post, then you know it’s super easy to cut out word pieces using my Dice Drills packet!
There are 24 word squares on each page (tons of targets!) that are super easy to cut out! I like to cut them into five long strips and then stack them on top of each other. Once they’re stacked, you can cut on the lines to have 24 pieces in a matter of seconds!
Baseball Craft
Materials Needed:
- Paper Plate (get plates that are pretty flat)
- Scissors
- Glue
- Red Construction Paper
- Word Pieces (my Dice Drills packet works great)
Directions:
- Cut out the word pieces as described above. You’ll need to print out three pages from the Dice Drills packet to have enough pieces. If you’re working on /k/, you can print out the pages for initial, medial, and final positions. This will give you 72 target words and craft pieces! You’ll need approximately 60ish pieces to cover an entire paper plate.
- Glue the word pieces onto the paper plate.
- Cut out two curved lines from red construction paper for the stitching and glue on top of the words.
- Optional: Cut out tiny rectangles to create a stitching effect, but it’s not necessary!
This craft is super easy! It’s a great way to encourage multiple repetitions and students will leave speech with a ton of word targets for home practice!
Baseball Speech Therapy Resources
I have a few different baseball themed resources! I love incorporating thematic units, because they keep speech therapy interesting and fun!
This packet covers sounds in the initial, medial, and final positions. It’s super versatile! You can use these with bingo daubers, students can cover the words with erasers/pom-poms, or you can slip them into dry erase sleeves to create play dough smash mats! They can also be used as simple articulation coloring sheets! This packet can also be found in The Speech is Sweet Club in the May folder. Annual members have access to the entire year, but at the time of this blog post (June) May is currently closed to monthly members.
Baseball apraxia is an exclusive freebie just for my email subscribers! Join my newsletter to gain access to the free resource library. This packet is designed just like my articulation packet, but it features apraxia word targets! It addresses CV, VC, CVC, CVCV, CVCVC, CVCVCV, CCVC, and CVCC! These pages can also be used with students who exhibit final consonant deletion, cluster reduction, etc. When this is paired with the articulation packet, you can target your entire speech caseload!
Sports Themed Interactive Articulation Notebook
My sports themed interactive notebook covers basketball, baseball, football, and soccer! These flap-up mitts are perfect to incorporate into baseball themed speech therapy! Students lift the mitt and write a sentence or phrase that contains their target word!
Baseball Picture Books
Pete the Cat: Play Ball! by James Dean
Pete the Cat is a super popular character! You gotta love him! I love incorporating familiar characters into therapy, because students go into the read aloud with some background knowledge. This is an easy-reader so it has a super simple storyline. Pete’s team the Rocks go up against the Rolls.. haha! Let’s just say Pete isn’t going to be a professional baseball player anytime soon, but hey.. he “tries his best.” You can use this book to work on:
1) Social Skills: This is a great book to use to work on being a good sport. Things don’t go Pete’s way during the game (he strikes out, he gets a walk, he gets out on home plate, etc), but Pete doesn’t get upset. He’s having fun and he tries his best.
2) Vocabulary: You can use this book to introduce students to baseball vocabulary
3) Compare/Contrast: Compare this story with other Pete stories!
My Baseball Book by Gail Gibbons
This is a great non-fiction book to use in speech-language therapy! It outlines all the rules for baseball in an easy way and a great way to introduce students to baseball themed vocabulary. If you live in a baseball town, this is a great book to read before a baseball game field trip! Use this book to target:
1) Sequencing: Students can sequence how the game is played (first a batter goes to the plate, then the pitcher pitches the ball, etc)
2) Vocabulary
3) Who questions: You can ask questions about different players. Who throws the ball to the batter? Who calls the strikes? Who is in the outfield?
Go Out for the Team (A Berenstain Bears Book) by Stan and Jan Berenstain
This is another great book with familiar characters! Brother and Sister Bear love playing baseball in the spring and decide to try out for a local baseball team. It’s a really cute story! This book can be used to address:
1) WH Questions
2) Sequencing
3) Verbs
The baseball craft is also a great companion for a baseball themed book! After you finish the book, you can make the craft!
The William Hoy Story by Nancy Churnin
This is a must-read! It’s about the first deaf baseball player in the major leagues. I love picture book biographies and this is such an inspiring story. William Hoy grew up loving baseball, but his father discouraged him from playing. He overcame many obstacles and was mistreated (for instance, on his first team he got paid less than the other players because he was deaf). He stood up for himself and taught umpires signs for “strike” and “ball” that helped him when he was playing in the outfield. He became a star outfielder and eventually became one of the league’s most popular players! This story will truly make you cry happy tears! You can use this story to address:
1) Social Skills: It’s so important that we have empathy and treat others with respect.
2) Problem Solving: William could not hear the umpires, so he taught them signs. Today, umpires are still using signs and signals are used throughout baseball! Seriously, such an incredible story!
3) Sequencing: You can talk about the timeline of William’s life and his accomplishments!
A Picture Book of Jackie Robinson by David A. Adler
A must-have biography! This is another story of courage. If you’re not familiar with Jackie Robinson, he was the first African American player in the Major Leagues. This biography follows Jackie throughout his life and students will learn so much about this influential figure! Jackie is truly a hero and this book is a wonderful way to weave history into speech-language therapy. You can use this book to work on:
1) Comprehension Questions
2) Sequencing: Biographies are wonderful tools to work on sequencing. You can sequence the major events in Jackie’s life.
H is for Home Run: A Baseball Alphabet by Brad Herzog
Gotta love alphabet books! It goes through the alphabet and explores baseball vocabulary in a sing-songy way! There is a side-bar on each page that gives in-depth information about each vocabulary word too! You can go through the book one day just reading the rhyming parts and on another day students can revisit the words that they want to learn more about! You can use this book to work on:
1) Rhyming
2) Alliteration
3) Vocabulary
Do you have any favorite baseball themed activities for speech therapy?! Leave a comment and let me know!
Want more sports themed ideas? Check out:
Basketball Theme in Speech Therapy
Have a wonderful day!
