Play-Based Speech Therapy, Speech Therapy Themes

3 Fun & Easy St. Patrick’s Day Preschool Activity for Play-Based Speech Therapy

I don’t know a student who doesn’t get excited about hiding items in things or going on hunts to discover something sneaky. You’ve come to the right blog post if you need a play-based speech therapy St. Patrick’s Day preschool activity. Your students will love finding gold and hunting sneaky leprechauns. I found these wooden buildings at the Target Dollar Spot a few years ago and knew I needed them. I originally got them for my community helpers and transportation-themed units, but now I can theme smash them with a fun St. Patrick’s Day preschool activity.

St. Patrick’s Day Preschool Activity Speech Therapy Materials You Need

To have some sneaky leprechauns invade the town, you need the wooden buildings from the Target Dollar Spot. I don’t think the wooden buildings are available anymore at Target, but I found some alternatives that I will link below. For your St. Patrick’s preschool play activity, you will need the following:

Gold coins – You can find these at Dollar Tree
Mini pots – Usually, these are at the Dollar Tree during Halloween and St. Patrick’s season
Wooden buildings: Found at Target Dollar Spot, you can also find them on eBay, Poshmark, or try these Melissa and Doug blocks.
Leprechaun printables – You can get them in the St. Patrick’s Day Grammar and Vocabulary set
Leprechaun and St. Patrick’s Day props – I always look in the dog toy section at TJ Maxx. Here is another version like the one in the pictures in the blog post.
Binder clips to attach your leprechauns

St. Patrick’s Day Preschool Activity Incorporating Play Skills

For a St. Patrick’s Day preschool activity that incorporates play skills, hide some leprechauns under the wooden buildings. Tell your students that some sneaky leprechauns are in our town! We must find them.

Grab your favorite toy car or vehicle and look ‘under’ the buildings around the town. While you drive around, target AAC CORE vocabulary, ‘go’, ‘stop’, ‘look’, ‘where’, and ‘around.’

Because this St. Patrick’s Day preschool activity involves a community, you can work on categories for places, buildings, transportation, and community jobs.

Have your students share three things they might see at each building. So, if you stop at the school, they can name school supplies.

Give your students inference clues about ‘where’ the leprechaun could be hiding and target ‘where’ questions during this entire activity!

How would you use this activity in your mixed groups? Share in the comments.

St. Patrick’s Day Preschool Play-Based Speech Therapy Activity

Most often, Dollar Tree carries gold and mini pots around February and March. You can also find mini cauldrons during October during the Halloween season. For this St. Patrick’s Day preschool activity, have student’s drive their vehicle around the town looking for gold. Here are some St. Patrick’s Day speech and language activity ideas to pair with these props and toys:

With a permanent marker, you can write different numbers on the coins. Whatever number it says, that’s how many times your student has to practice their speech sound.
Or, you can put different amounts of coins under the buildings to work on none, more, less, and a plural noun marker.
What’s great about this activity is you can also work on ‘where’ questions and category items that would belong at each building!

How would you adapt this activity for your students? Share in the comments.

St. Patrick’s Day Preschool Activity for Circle Time

It can be tough to engage your young students during your co-teaching lessons! They want to wiggle and move, so keeping them excited at the carpet time activity can be challenging.

But, if you make it feel like a fun game, they will stay excited during circle time. And in the process, you can target waiting, turn-taking, functional communication, and language skills. Here is an engaging St. Patrick’s Day preschool activity for circle time:

With your gold coins, leprechaun printables, or St. Patrick’s themed props like shamrocks, or rainbows, you can tell your students that SOMEONE took the gold coins from the leprechaun’s pot.

To see these therapy ideas in action, head to my Instagram.

Have all your students close their eyes while you give some students a gold coin. Tell them ahead of time that if they get a gold coin, they have to hide it with their hands. Then, everyone opens their eyes and has to ask different friends in the group if they stole a gold coin.

You target yes/no questions, ‘who’ questions, initiation of questions, waiting, and turn-taking!

If you have a leprechaun prop, you can also play “Who did the leprechaun sneaky upon?” to target the basic concept behind it.

More St. Patrick’s Day Preschool Ideas for Co-Teaching and Small Groups

Pocket of Preschool has some more St. Patrick’s Day preschool ideas and you can use my St. Patrick’s Day language lesson plan guides to plan preschool activities for co-teaching or small groups.

Need More St. Patrick’s Day Speech Therapy Ideas?

I would love it for SLPs on social media if you tagged me @thedabblingspeechie to share how you used these St. Patrick’s preschool play therapy ideas in your sessions with students.

Don’t stress about St. Patrick’s Day for your elementary caseload. There are a LOT more engaging therapy ideas on this blog post to help you with planning. The key to planning theme-based preschool play activities is having seasonal props and incorporating toy sets you already own.