Using Books to Develop Language and Literacy: Gregory, the Terrible Eater

Here is another post that links up with another blogger - Life Long Learning for Book Talk Thursday.

If you follow my blog you've already heard how much I like using kids' books to develop language and literacy skills. I'm a huge fan of good shared reading sessions.

Gregory, the Terrible Eater (ages 4-8) has always been one of my favorite books to use in intervention with kids with language disorders. It’s a fun story that kids get a kick out of, and offers lots of opportunities for working on some basic language skills.

The story is about a little goat who worries his parents because he likes healthy food. Real people food. He won’t touch old tires or pants or tin cans. Not a good eating goat at all. They take Gregory to the doctor, who comes up with a plan that, of course, works for everyone.

The story has a fairly simple story line, which makes it good for having kids develop a simple story frame or Somebody-Wanted-But-So organizer.

There are lots of opportunities to discuss categorization - health foods vs junk or edible vs non edible, things Gregory puts in a sandwich vs what you put in a sandwich, where you find different foods in the grocery store, you can even categorize the ‘junk’ that goats eat into recyclable categories.

I am always encouraging teachers in special education and SLPs to use literature in their classrooms and sessions with special ed kids. There are so many ways you can build language skills through shared book reading (you might remember my previous posts about shared reading) that make the skill building activities meaningful and encourage enjoyment of reading.

Here is a link to one of my companion resources - for Gregory, the Terrible Eater - that demonstrates the kind of activities, the multiple days’ of purposeful readings, and the use of the Four Blocks reading strategy that have been demonstrated to be effective strategies for kids with special needs.

And here is a sample activity from the resource: