As Halloween approaches, be sure to review the vocabulary your language therapy kids will need. Remember, they don’t need mnemonic cues for everything! Since retrieval is impacted largely by frequency of use and recency of use, it is helpful to use the words NOW that they will be needing in the next few days.
Ask the kids what their costumes will be. Review words like wig, web, cauldron, potion, vampire, jack-o-lantern. Will they have a classroom party? What games might they play? Even though the vocabulary is easy, these are words they probably haven’t used since last year. Prime those neurons...practice the words aloud.
Here are some phonemic or mnemonic cues for the vocabulary that is common to most elementary trick-or-treaters. Be sure to help the kids come up with cues for their particular costumes or props (wig? suspenders? light saber? Stormtrooper? Dracula? ). What cues have you come up with? Please share!
word cues picture or explanation
| holiday | hall/day | decorations in school hall | |||
| skeleton | yell/a/ton | [we yell a ton when we see a scarey skeleton] | |||
| cauldron | call | witch on cell phone (call) | |||
| coffin | coughin’ | mummy coughin’ in the coffin | |||
| pumpkin | pump in | pumping gas in car | |||
| Halloween | hello, wind | ||||
| Frankenstein | Frank and Stan | ||||
| mummy | mommy | ||||
| harvest | heart vest | pic of a heart on a vest | |||