Splat was enjoying the perfect dream as candy fish swam by when mom interrupted his sleep, declaring it was time to get up. And oh, by the way, his arch enemy, Spike was coming over for a playdate after school. Splat’s day began to unravel as was ordered to take a bath, was taunted by Spike and learned of impending swimming lessons at school. As the class lined up to jump in the pool, two classmates couldn’t quite get up the nerve to enter–Spike and Splat. Soon their fear of the water united them and friendship was born. This latest addition to the Splat series offers teachers and parents the opportunity to tackle such subjects as bullying, facing your fears, sharing, getting along and building friendships. Each subject is a little language lesson in itself, asking a child to relate their world to Splat’s as he navigates his “not a good day at all!”
Here’s how I’ve used Splish Splash Splat in speech therapy:
- Have children “read” the character’s expressions and tell why they label them as content, happy or frustrated and scared. Contrast Splat dreaming and awakening to the notion that Spike is coming for a playdate, or contrast Plank’s reaction with Spike’s as the swimming lessons are announced.
- Describe how Splat takes a bath. I got some interesting language describing his holding on to the sides of the tub!
- What made it a bad day for Splat?
- Describe what Spike did on the way to school to bully Splat. It isn’t that easy for a language delayed child to describe Spike riding through the puddle in front of Splat and spraying him with water.
- Answer wh-questions like Why did Spike say her forgot something? What did he got get?
- Discuss inferences such as explaining how Splat got Spike into the water. (This gets complicated for kids but is a good challenge)
- How did the playdate go? What changes from the beginning of the story to the end?
- Predict what will happen next, especially at the end–what present is Spike going to give Splat?
