Marker -Miller Orchards in Winchester- http://www.markermillerorchards.com
Crooked Run Orchard in Purcellville- http://crookedrunorchard.com/
Cox Farms in Centreville- http://www.coxfarms.com/
Pumpkinville at Leesburg Animal Park- http://www.leesburganimalpark.com/
Fall festival and pumpkin playground at Burke Nursery and Garden Center- http://www.pumpkinplayground.com/
Heather Hill Gardens in Fairfax Station- http://www.heatherhillgardens.com/
Ticonderoga Farms in Chantilly- http://www.ticonderoga.com/ - (Keira was there today!)

If you have a family favorite, make a comment and share!

1. Read stories to your child!
The following are great Fall and Halloween books: Big Pumpkin, The Little Old Lady Who was Not Afraid of Anything, Clifford’s First Halloween, The Biggest Leaf Pile, Five Little Pumpkins, The Runaway Pumpkin, It’s Pumpkin Time, The Witch on a Windy Night, and The Falling Leaves. This is an example of activities you can do with Big Pumpkin. You can use these activities for any book!

Big Pumpkin
In this story, the witch wants to bake a pumpkin pie so she plants a pumpkin seed. The pumpkin grows so big that when she wants to take it off the vine she can’t. The ghost, vampire, and mummy try to help but none are strong enough. Then the bat has an idea. He’s not strong enough to pull it alone, so he suggests that they all they together, and SNAP! Off the pumpkin rolls. The witch makes her pumpkin pie and shares it with everybody who helped. She then plants another pumpkin seed for next year.

 Talk about things that grow from seeds.
 Shop for the ingredients and bake a pumpkin pie together.
 Label the pictures in the story.
 Work on the story vocabulary (e.g. pumpkin seed, big, pulled, tugged, witch, ghost, vampire, mummy, bat, planted, grew, strong). If your child does not know the meaning of the word, have him/her look it up in the dictionary.
 Take turns making sentences with one, two, or three of the vocabulary words.
 Find words in the story that have the sound/s that your child is practicing. Have him/her practice these words.
 Talk about what happened in the beginning, middle, end of the story
 List the characters. Describe each with at least two adjectives.
 Find five action words in the story and create sentences with those words.
 Pretend you are a character in the story. Describe how you feel about the events in the story.
 Draw a picture about a place in the story. Describe your picture.

2. Engage in sequencing activities!
 Make a pumpkin pie
 Make apple pie
 Talk about the steps in growing a pumpkin
 Make applesauce
 Toast pumpkin seeds

3. Work on prepositions!
Take your children outside and look for leaves. Talk about where you found the leaves… e.g. under a tree, on the grass, under the leaf pile, next to the house.

4. Links for Language Activities
 Click on this link and print off these pictures to work on descriptive language- talk about color, shape, size, texture, category, etc. http://www.speakingofspeech.com/uploads/Fallthemevocab.pdf

 Click on this link to talk about senses. What do you see, hear, smell, touch on Halloween or in the Fall? http://www.speakingofspeech.com/uploads/halloween_Senses.pdf

http://www.babybumblebee.com/downloads/Vol1flashcard.pdf
http://www.babybumblebee.com/downloads/Vol2flashcard.pdf
http://www.babybu…mblebee.com/downloads/Vol3flashcard.pdf
http://www.babybumblebee.com/downloads/flashcards_Vol4_set.pdf
http://www.babybumblebee.com/downloads/Vol5_Flashcard_Set.pdf

It is back to school time for most of our clients! This is a great time to think about coordinating school and private therapy. Debbie and I are always happy to consult with your child’s school teacher or therapist. Doing so can create better outcomes for your child. Let us know if you would like us to speak with another professional who works with your child, and we will ask you to sign an information release. It’s that simple!

We also have some books and articles on this topic in our office. Let us know if you would like to borrow them!

Sit on the floor with your child. Put a pillow and blanket on the floor to make a bed. Tell him you need to feed the baby. Model how to feed the baby and then give the bottle to the baby. Stimulate language by saying “Baby’s drinking baba”. Then hand the baby doll to your child and ask him to give the baby her bottle. Prompt by modeling again or by putting the baby doll in his arms and helping him give the baby a bottle. After giving baby a bottle, tell your child it’s time to put the baby doll to bed. Model how to give the baby doll a hug and then put her on the pillow and cover her up. Stimulate language by saying, “Baby’s sleeping.” Then hand the baby doll to your child and ask him to give the baby a hug. Prompt by modeling again or by putting the baby doll against his chest and helping him put his arms around the baby.

8.  Book

Sit with your child and look at a book (or photos of family members) with him. As you look at the book, point to the pictures. Stimulate language by labeling each picture. To prompt him, tap the picture that you’re talking about.  Let him hold the book if he wants to. The goal is for your child to maintain attention to the pictures that you are labeling.

9.  Mr. Potato Head

This activity is good for teaching your child facial features (e.g., eyes, ears, nose). Have Mr. Potato Head and extra parts lying in front of you and your child. Give him Mr. Potato Head’s body and say, “Here is Mr. Potato Head. He has no eyes. Let’s give him eyes.” Pick up the eyes and demonstrate how to put them into the proper holes. Hopefully he will want to explore the other parts of Mr. Potato Head. After each new Mr. Potato Head piece is introduced, ask him to point to the corresponding body part on himself (e.g., After you put a nose on Mr. Potato Head, ask your child, “Where is your nose?” Then touch his nose and say, “There it is”).

10. Blocks

Sit on the floor by or in front of your child. Stack the blocks. As you are stacking, say “Up, up, up”. When the stack is tall, knock it over. As it falls, be animated and say, “Oooo” or “Uh-oh.” Do it again and be sure to vocalize as it falls. Your child may grab blocks as you stack them, which may make the stack fall. If this happens, just react to it. Prompt by building the tower out of his reach and then pausing before you knock it over. This pause may trigger him to vocalize in order to get you to knock over the stack.

11. Blow bubbles

Sit on the floor with your child or kneel while he is standing. Make sure you are close to eye level. Blow some bubbles and say, “Bubbles.” Say it several times without saying anything else while you continue to blow bubbles. Prompt him to say the word by asking between blows, “What do you want?” or “You want bubbles?” This activity can also be used to stimulate the following words: off, pop, more, all gone, yuck (if he gets bubble mixture on himself), out (as you take the wand out of the container), and all done (when you finish the activity).

12. Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Bring over toy farm animals, sit on the floor with your child and tell him that you are going to sing a song and that you are going to be a cow and that a cow says “moo.” Exaggerate “moo”. Show him the cow and sing “Old MacDonald”. Stop and say, “Let’s do it again.” Repeat the song. Then say, “Now we’re going to be horses. Horses say ‘neigh’ ”. Show him the horse and repeat the song.  Continue on with the other farm animals. The important thing here is the repetition and simply telling your child what to expect.  This song is good for targeting developmental sounds, e.g. “m” for “moo” and “b” for “baa”.

13. Music

Set a CD player on floor and turn it on while using the verbal model “on.” Allow your child to listen to music he enjoys for a short period of time. When he becomes engaged, turn the music off. Allow him to attempt to turn the music on. When he is not able, ask, “What do you want?” or “Do you need help?” Prompt by holding out your hand or reaching toward the CD player. If he becomes frustrated but doesn’t gesture for help, turn on the CD player so he begins to associate coming to an adult for help with obtaining a desired object.