The Lorax

As a Speech-Language Pathologist in a Junior and Senior High School, I always try to associate my lessons with functional life activities and/or academic materials.

I have been doing a lesson on The Lorax by Dr. Seuss for many years - way before it became popular again with the movie.  I love Dr. Seuss.  There is some craziness there - don't get me wrong - he was such an amazing author.  I tell my JH/SH students that the reason WHY we read from Dr. Seuss isn't because I think that is where their reading level is; sure it was cute, fun story to read when they were young.  But, no, if you truly listen to Dr. Seuss, every book he wrote had an adult meaning.  It is our job as young adults and adults to analyze his works and recognize the underlying meaning he was presenting.

**FUN FACT** - Did you know that Dr. Seuss used to write 

Political Cartoons before he was a children's author?

In my classroom of 12:1:3 students, we have been enjoying the book The Lorax.  I am partnering with the music teacher, to teach them a song about the book and create a dance, too!  They are being exposed to vocabulary related to The Lorax in the individual, small group, and large group sessions and during music class. Each student has created piece of our Lorax Sensory Tray.  We are using the sensory tray to create Sensory Sentences that have verbs and to retell the story.

Some students I work with use iPads to communicate with.  Below is a picture of the vocabulary for the story that I programmed in.  The cool thing is, I can take a screen shot of what I programmed (on ProLoQuo2Go), email it to myself, and create paper communication boards or visual vocabulary lists for the rest of the class!

Below is the sensory tray and how we created each item.  I raided the art teacher's craft closet to create the pieces - Very crude representations - but I liked that.  We were using our imaginations!!  In my mind, education is about the PROCESS not the PRODUCT.

Swomee Swans - Feathers with Pony Beads
The Lorax - Free hand drawing on foam
Truffula Trees - Sticks with pipe-cleaners on top.  Used play-doh to mold bottom to help stand
Brown Bar-Ba-Loots - Cotton Balls colored brown
Thneed factory - an upside down cup stuffed with yarn
Humming Fish - ribbon cut in the shape of fish
The Onceler - Soft, green fabric to represent his arms
The boy & seed - a puzzle piece and a hole-punch circle




Here is a worksheet I made using Boardmaker to create a verb Truffula Tree.  Here is a PDF of it. On the Smartboard the I used the word randomizer to select a verb.  Then the students had to find the verb and use a Bingo Dabber to mark the verb.  Of course, we practiced using the verbs in sentences!

                                      

Also, we worked on context clues within sentences to find the missing word.  I modified the story and used my document camera to take pictures of the illustrations for our modified book.  I then used Boardmaker, again, to create picture symbol sentences.  The students had a pile of picture symbol vocabulary words to help them as a word bank.  We continued to use this book as we discussed the story and referred back to it as needed. Get the book here.

As a final project, the music teacher and I did a dramatic, musical reading of the story as a presentation to family and staff.  We used our modified story as the basis and each student had a musical instrument to play when the character was discussed.  Then we performed our song "Let it Grow" complete with a dance!  Snack of brown-bar-loots (teddy grahams) and humming fish (gold fish) were served following the show.

All in all - it was a great way to incorporate language, music, and fun!!

Would love to hear from others who do similar types of lessons or incorporate music into your students' learning.