Are you looking for exciting and engaging speech therapy themes and activities for the summertime? I’ve compiled a list of my favorite summertime themes with some books and activities that you can incorporate into your therapy sessions. Keep reading to find out what they are!
What themes can you do during the springtime?
There are so many different summertime themes that you can do! My favorite themes include:
- Summer
- Beach
- Independece Day
- Toys
- Space
- Rainforest
- Back to School
Summer
This one might be a no brainer, but in summertime, you can always do a summer theme!
Some books that you can use in your therapy sessions include:
- “Summer Days and Nights” by Wong Herbert Yee
- “And Then Comes Summer” by Tom Brenner
- “One Hot Summer Day” by Nina Crews
As far as an activity goes, you can create a sensory bin filled with items representing the essence of summer. Use kinetic sand, seashells, mini beach toys, sunglasses, and other summer-related objects you can think of. You can incorporate the sensory bin by having your kids describe the items they find and practice their other target speech and language skills within the summer themed context.
Beach
Everyone seems to like going to the beach during summer, so this is a great theme to do!
Some awesome beach themed books are:
- “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell!” by Lucille Colandro
- “Pete the Cat: Pete at the Beach” by James Dean
- “Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach” by Mélanie Watt
For an activity, you can do a beach ball articulation toss! You can write target words or phrases on different sections of the beach ball using a permanent marker. The kids can then toss the ball to one another, and when they catch it, they say the word or phrase closest to their thumb.
Independence Day
The month of July happens during summer, and that means we get the 4th of July holiday, so this is a great theme to do!
You can enjoy these books during an Independence Day theme:
- “The Night Before the Fourth of July” by Natasha Wing
- “Hats Off for the Fourth of July!” by Harriet Ziefert
- “Apple Pie 4th of July” by Janet S. Wong
This theme always calls for a firework craft to be done! You can use shredded colored paper pieces, paint, or glitter to create different fireworks. Doing a craft allows you to work on requesting, following directions, descriptions, and so many other goals!
Toys
This is a great theme to use year-round, but I love to do it during the summertime the most! You can incorporate pretty much any toy you have into this theme, too.
Some of my favorite books for this theme include:
- “Toys Go Out” by Emily Jenkins
- “Too Many Toys” by David Shannon
- “The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams
A fun activity would be to print off pictures of different toys online and create your own vocabulary cards. You can use these to work on categories, descriptions, expressive vocabulary, and more!
Space
This is another theme you can do year-round, if you’d like! But something about space during the summer makes it so much better!
Some books you can look into include:
- “There’s No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System” by Tish Rabe
- “Mousetronaut” by Mark Kelly
- “Pete the Cat: Out of this World” by James Dean
You can create a moon sand sensory bin for your kids during this theme. Moon sand can be easily made at home by combining flour and oil! It is very similar to kinetic sand. You can then provide various space themed toys, such as astronauts, rockets, and planets, for your kids to explore and manipulate in the moon sand during their sessions. This 19-piece set from Amazon would be perfect for it!
Rainforest
Summertime always reminds me of rain, which reminds me of the rainforest, so I do this theme a lot during this time!
Some great books to incorporate are:
- “The Umbrella” by Jan Brett
- “The Great Kapok Treet” by Lynne Cherry
- “If I Ran the Rain Forest: All About Tropical Rain Forests” by Bonnie Worth
This is another great theme to create vocabulary cards for! You can easily google and print off pictures that you find online. If you don’t have access to a printer, just save them on your laptop and pull them up, when needed.
Back to School
Of course, towards the end of summer comes back to school, so I cannot forget to have this one on the list.
There are so many different back to school themed books you can use, but here are a few:
- “The Pigeon HAS to Go to School!” by Mo Willems
- “First Day Jitters” by Julie Danneberg
- “Llama Llama Misses Mama” by Anna Dewdney
A great activity to do in the first few sessions of the new school year is to do an all about me collage. You just need to grab some old magazines, colored paper, scissors, and glue. Have your kids find pictures or words that represent their interests, goals, and feelings about starting a new school year. You can even create one, too! This activity would be great with getting to know each other at the start of the year!
Remember, these are just a few examples of the summertime themed speech therapy themes and activities you can explore! There are so many others that can be included. Feel free to adapt and customize these ideas based on the needs and goals of your kids.
Cheers to a great summer!
