MindWing Concepts Blog

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, was born in 1904 on Howard Street in Springfield, Massachusetts – which is right around the corner from MindWing’s office. The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden is located at the Springfield Museums near our office as well. The influence of Ted’s (Dr. Seuss’) memories of Springfield can be seen throughout his work.

Photo courtesy of http://www.holyokeinphotos.com/

In keeping with the spirit of the holiday season, we wanted to share a lesson idea from MindWing’s book: East Meets West for the Holidays by Maryellen Rooney Moreau and Judy K. Montgomery. This lesson is based on one of Dr. Suess’ most beloved holiday stories: How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Below is the view of the neighboring town of Easthampton, MA from the top of Mt. Tom. Perhaps this is the view that inspired Dr. Seuss to write this entertaining, heart-warming tale that has become a holiday tradition and been made into a cartoon, a musical and a movie. It has been thought that “Who-ville” is actually Easthampton and that the Mt. Crumpit, the mountain upon which The Grinch resides, is actually Mt.Tom! Maryellen Rooney Moreau lives in Easthampton and travels over Mt. Tom every day to work.

So, IS Maryellen actually “Maryellen Who?"

Click Here to access this rich lesson on How the Grinch Stole Christmas that filled with narrative development, story sparkle, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, expository text, rare words, cultural aspects. Also, when you watch the movie, you can use the Perspective-Taking Maps from the Story Grammar Marker® Manual to Map and talk about the different perspectives of the Grinch and the Whos.

In the middle of the Grinch’s attempts to carry out his plan to “steal Christmas,” Cindy-Lou Who catches him stealing her Christmas tree. The Grinch has to “trick” Cindy-Lou in order to continue to carry out his plan. The motivations and intentions of the Grinch in this situation may be difficult for children with Social Learning Challenges to comprehend and express. Our new Autism Collection contains a new Critical Thinking Triangle™ Map that can help to elaborate and discuss the Grinch’s plan for trickery as well as Cindy-Lou’s perspective of the situation.

Click thumbnails to Enlarge Images

We also found this website http://www.seussville.com/grinch/activities.html that has some fun activities with The Grinch theme.

We wish you the happiest of holidays and all the best in the new year!

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Using the holidays as a context for language interventions can be tough, as it’s important to be inclusive of all cultures and celebrations. From a technology perspective, there just aren’t many great interactive resources about the Festival of Lights (anyone want to make some)? Gingerbread, however, while associated loosely with Christmas, is probably fair game in the public school setting!

Now, while websites with excessive, distracting ads are often something I rule out as a potential therapy resource, sometimes sites that are actually a giant, yet somehow unobtrusive ad can be great. This can be said for Sprint’s The Gingerbread Man with Everything site, a simple interactive you can use to decorate a fabulous cookie. Its relation to story grammar will become apparent when you click to browse the gallery of characters from fireman to cheerleader to vampire (it may be hard to explain to your students what the emo gingerbread man is all about, but we have faith in you).

You can download Google Sketchup here, and the Gingerbread House Template is here!

Give it a try- Google Sketchup is pretty easy once you get your feet wet. However, if, understandably, you find it a bit daunting, check out Karen Ogen’s list of interactive web-based gingerbread house creators, another nice context to work on description. Have fun and Happy Holidays!

Sean J. Sweeney, M.S., M.Ed., CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and instructional technology specialist working in the public schools and in private practice at The Ely Center in Newton, Massachusetts. He has presented on the topic of technology integration in speech and language at the ASHA convention and is the author of the blog SpeechTechie: Looking at Technology Through a Language Lens.

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