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Monday, June 29, 2015

Book of the Week: Happy 4th of July, Jenny Sweeney!

Happy 4th of July Jenny Sweeney! by Leslie Kimmelman


Summary: This book is cliche, but it is a short read for younger children and helps to paint a picture of a traditional Fourth of July celebration.  From parades to barbecues and flags to fireworks, the pictures provide a great opportunity to focus on descriptive language, work on grammatical structures (i.e. pronouns and verbs), and variety of concepts.

This books lends itself well to comparing and contrasting Jenny's Fourth of July celebration to your kids'.   They may also sequence events of their Fourth of July and provide a short narrative using sequential markers.  

Instead of focusing on specific vocabulary from this book, I think it's the perfect opportunity to expand on vocabulary for children who are a bit older.  Here are just a few ideas:
  • freedom 
  • independence
  • patriotic/patriotism
  • Constitution
  • Declaration of Independence
  • liberty
  • anthem
  • Old Glory
  • Uncle Sam
  • "stars and stripes"

There are countless activities for you do with your kids to encourage their learning.  Here are a few of our favorites and the links to them:

Listen to patriotic music - This is a great opportunity for kids to learn to stand when the national anthem is played out of respect for our country.

Create a flag - Talk about the significance of the colors, stars, and stripes of the flag.


Make jewelry - These ideas are great for patterning for younger kids and following directions for older kids.




Make your own fireworks (in a bottle) - This is a perfect activity to use any extra crafting materials you have around your house.  It is a great activity for working on descriptive vocabulary.


Create stars streamers - This is a great activity for following directions.


Go on a scavenger hunt - Practice Fourth of July vocabulary using this easy activity that gets the kids moving around!


We are having plenty of fun in therapy this week!  Keep checking back to see what the kids are doing!




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