One of the MOST fun themes ever includes squirrels! During the fall season, your students will see squirrels scampering about, darting, and scurrying around outside anywhere there are trees or plants.
They are some of the silliest creatures to watch, so why not incorporate squirrels into your play-based speech therapy sessions?
I want to share a fun squirrel play-based speech therapy activity that you can pair with your favorite squirrel book!
Many of my sessions are structured with a book and then a play-based activity to allow for direct teaching, incorporating literacy, and allowing the child to explore concepts while playing.
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What You Need For The Squirrel Play-Based Speech Therapy Activity
To have your squirrel take over, you need any toy set, but the one that would be best is the treehouse toy set from Fisher-Price. You can also use this fun treehouse from Calico Critters or Li’l Woodzeez.
You need these mini squirrel figurines, and if you want verb and vocabulary flashcards related to squirrels, you can find those in the Themed Therapy SLP membership. The squirrel theme is part of the September month, but when you get an annual subscription, you have access to all the themes throughout the year, so you can pick the theme you need for your caseload!
Goals to Target with the Squirrel Play Therapy Activity
You can hide different verb and vocabulary flashcards throughout the play set when doing your squirrel takeaway.
Have your squirrels gather all the cards that are hidden around the set. As your student’s squirrels find cards, you can target speech and language goals.
You can also work on verb actions for the squirrels, target pretend play schemes such as preparing for winter, or work on basic concepts with the squirrels.
With your students working on speech sounds, give them words to practice related to squirrels that have their sounds. Or, have some sound-loaded phrases to use while playing.
For example, if you are working on s-blends, you can naturally target scamper, scurry, squirrel or snack. For students working on /l/, you can have them say “look” every time they find a squirrel or flashcard.
Or, if the squirrels are searching for acorns and nuts, they can “munch” or “chew.”
How would you use this squirrel-themed play-based speech therapy activity to cover goals on your caseload?
Need more Squirrel Speech Therapy Ideas?
If you are sold on using a squirrel theme with your entire caseload, you need to check out this blog post for more ideas!
This is a very underrated theme because every time I use it, kids LOVE it. To help you rock a squirrel theme longer than a week, check out this squirrel language lesson plan guide in my store!
You can also find a sneaky snacky squirrel toy cheat sheet in this resource.