The Cars Book

Week 1

  • Visual Spatial: Put Writing Without Tears (WWT) wooden pieces together using big, little,straight and curved pieces to make a person. What else can you make with the WWT pieces?

  • Verbal Language: Verbally model how you feel throughout the day using the car puppets representing self regulation of body movement. Find a spot like the refigerator where they are readily available. Lightning McQueen is too fast; Lizzy is too slow; and Sally and Doc are "just right."

  • Early Literacy Skills: Building early reading and writing skills for your child at home and within the community can be incorporated into everyday activities.

Week 2

  • Fine Motor: Draw a face using multisensory input, such as drawing on the mirror using markers and drawing with shaving cream on the shower wall. Drawing on a vertical surface helps increase wrist extension for an appropriate grasp

  • Visual Spatial/Oral Motor: Create faces out of food with ketchup on hamburgers, syrup on pancakes, half apples with raisins, etc. Use various textures of food for increased oral motor input. Crunchy, cold, and sour foods cause increased awareness of where oral motor structures are within the mouth

  • Literacy: Bring in a favorite food package label from cereals, snacks, and other food items to share at next week's group. We will send home ideas on how to teach environmental print in context of everday activities.

  • Oral Motor: Practice oral motor exercises in front of the mirror paired with speech sounds two times a day for 5 minutes. The speech sounds are listed in order of least to most difficult. Practice speech sounds that your child can produce after the adult says it. Make sure to say the consonant without a vowel following it. To practice the oral movement of putting the tongue behind the upper teeth say the sounds n, t, s, z, and l. Use touching the upper lip with your finger as a visual cue.