If you are working during the summer months planning a 4th of July themed unit for your speech therapy groups can be easy with all the ideas in this podcast episode! Your students probably celebrated so it’s fresh on their minds. Today, you will get some great 4th of July speech therapy activities that you can use with preschool to middle school students.
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Take the Free Themed Therapy SLP Quiz
Before I jump into lesson plan ideas for a 4th of July theme, I wanted to let you know about a free Themed Therapy SLP quiz I created to help you get information about using a theme-based approach. Whether you are a new to themes, trying to get more organized or need fresh ideas for planning by themes, you will want to take the quiz to get an email with links to podcast episodes, blog posts, and resources to help you with your themed therapy planning.
Fourth of July Speech Therapy Activities
You can read some books that talk about the 4th of July such as The Night Before the Fourth of July by Natasha Wing or Hats Off for the Fourth of July by Harriet Ziefert
Here are some more patriotic picture books you can use with your caseload.
Fourth of July videos for Speech Therapy
To explain about the holiday, use YouTube videos with your students. These work really well to keep students motivated especially with your 4th-8th graders. You can upload these videos into EdPuzzle and add in stimulus items for wh-questions, vocabulary, etc. to pause the video and discuss portions of the activity.
Here are some great YouTube videos for speech therapy about the 4th of July holiday:
- 4th of July Facts Video for Kids by Hey! Guess What
- How it’s made: Fireworks by Science Channel
- How Do Fireworks Work? By Concerning Reality
For your mixed groups, you need to use the Simon’s Cat fireworks YouTube video because you can cover syntax, retelling, figurative language, wh-questions, and more. It’s a lot easier using this wordless short video with my Summer Simon’s Cat cheat sheets.
Show your students a clip of real-life fireworks show to demonstrate tier II vocabulary such as gleaming, fascinating, crowd, shimmering, dazzling, flashy, burst, blast, blaring, or deafening
4th of July Crafts for Speech Therapy
Using crafts in speech therapy can help keep your students engaged while working on speech and language goals. Plus, with certain goals, you can naturally target skills without your student knowing they are even working! Here are some crafts you can do:
- Fireworks or watermelon print n’ paint or print n’ glue tissue paper crafts in my summer themed push-in lesson plan.
- Fireworks popsicle craft
- Thumbprint craft that you can also do with dot markers
Additional Speech and Language Activities for 4th of July
Use the song Fireworks by Katy Perry to discuss synonyms, antonyms, etc.
Brainstorm a word association map about the Fourth of July holiday. You can talk about the foods people eat, the activities we participate in, the clothes we wear, when the holiday happens, etc.
Need some funny jokes? These jokes from Simply Speech are great for articulation sounds, answering questions, icebreakers, and explaining why it’s funny!
Use some of your leftover 4th of July-themed props from the day’s festivities to work on spatial concepts in speech therapy.
For pretend play, you could use your Little People and have students plan out a parade, BBQ 4th of July party, or going to watch fireworks.
Check Bamboozle or Quizizz for games that work on answering wh-questions, vocabulary, and grammar with a 4th of July theme.
Ep 102 4th of July Speech therapy Activityies
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