CYBER SALE! ➔
As school-based SLP’s, we’re going to be working with so many different grade levels throughout the day. Especially if you’re like me and you love to push-in to multiple classrooms throughout your day or week. The more grade levels you see, the more time you’re going to be putting into speech therapy lesson planning. It’s simply the nature of school SLP-ing. However, taking a single theme and modifying it across grade levels has been a life saver when it comes to my planning time. You will learn about themes for speech therapy and tips for how to plan out your whole speech therapy lessons for the school year with 30 engaging themes!
First things first, you will need to select your theme. Once you’ve selected your theme, planning for each of your grade levels will be easy. I like to start off with a story that goes along with the theme I’ve chosen. Beginning with a story helps students build background knowledge and get exposure to the thematic vocabulary. Epic! or ReadWorks are great for finding grade specific stories and books. If I have a story in mind, but can’t find the books, YouTube read-alouds are always a great go-to.
YouTube videos that go along with your theme are also fun and engaging for your student. Starting off with a song using my theme with my younger elementary students is always a fun way to start our session. For older elementary students, I try to show a video with more narration and vocabulary.
Any theme you’ve picked can be incorporated into a variety of hands-on activities that can be adapted for the grade levels you work with. For my PK-1st grade students, I use a coloring/drawing worksheet, a simple craft or a themed sensory bin. For my 2nd-3rd grade students, I start incorporating a sequencing/story-retell activity or a vocabulary and comprehension activity based on the story or video I used. With the 4th-5th grade students, I select “higher level” activities. This may be creating word webs with our thematic vocabulary or making a list of the figurative language we find in the story we read together.
Here is a quick look at what my therapy plans will include using a “Back-to-School” theme with my students:
Story Selections:
Movement Based Activity:
Hands-On Activity:
Ready to transform your evidence-based service delivery, reduce your planning time, get organized, and spend more time thinking about supporting student success?
The Themed SLP Membership is going to be exactly what you need! Get access to themed materials every month for all of the grade levels and goals on your caseload. Along with these materials, you will be supported by an SLP community committed to delivering theme-based activities! 🤯 🤯 You won’t want to miss out!
Click here for access to the Themed SLP Membership.
Not sure what theme to use? Here is a list of my favorite themes for speech therapy activities:
If you’re looking for more ideas or themed speech therapy activities, make sure to check out some of my previous blog posts:
What are your favorite themed activities to use in speech therapy? Let me know in the comments below!
