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If you’re looking for July speech therapy themes to use with your preschool and elementary students, you’re in the right place! Whether you’re working Extended School Year (ESY), supporting students in a year-round program, running a summer camp, or simply planning ahead for next school year, using themes can make therapy feel more organized and engaging.
Summer is the perfect time to lean into hands-on activities, seasonal books, crafts, outdoor play, and fun learning experiences that keep students motivated while still targeting their speech and language goals.
This post is filled with July speech therapy theme ideas to inspire your lesson planning. Pick one theme for a few weeks or mix and match based on your students’ interests.
This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience. I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.
If you’re new to planning therapy by themes or wondering why so many SLPs love this approach, check out my post about using a theme-based approach in speech therapy.
Using one theme for 2 to 4 weeks can save planning time while giving students repeated opportunities to build vocabulary, practice language concepts, and generalize speech and language skills across multiple activities. Instead of constantly searching for new materials, you can simply swap out books, games, crafts, or movement activities while keeping the same engaging topic. I talk all about how to use a theme longer than a week in episode 45 of the Real Talk SLP podcast.
If you love using themes but don’t want to spend hours planning each month, check out the Themed Therapy SLP Membership. Every month includes three complete therapy themes plus mini themes that are ready to use with PreK through 5th grade students.
Some of the July themes inside the membership include:
With an annual membership, you’ll have instant access to all 36 monthly themes plus over a dozen mini-theme units so you can easily plan your entire year.
Need help deciding which themes to use throughout the year?
Download my free themed therapy planner to organize your yearly lesson plans. It includes over 100 seasonal and evergreen theme ideas, plus an editable speech therapy lesson planning template so you can easily map out your therapy schedule.
Planning July speech therapy themes doesn’t have to be complicated. Whether you’re providing ESY services, working in a year-round school, or seeing students in a summer camp or private practice setting, choosing one engaging theme can simplify lesson planning while keeping students motivated.
I recommend picking one theme and using it for two to four weeks. Then, change the activities instead of the theme. You might pair books, crafts, sensory bins, videos, movement activities, and games around the same topic while targeting each student’s individual speech and language goals.
Below you’ll find a variety of July speech therapy themes that work well for preschool and elementary students. Choose the ideas that best fit your caseload, or bookmark this post to come back to it throughout the summer. I share some other great themes for June and August that can also be used in July!
Nothing says July like water play! This is one of my favorite summer themes because it’s easy to adapt for every age group. For younger students you can do lots of hands on water play activities, and with older students you can learn about the water cycle, how water slides work, or Why water going up your nose when you are swimming hurts!
Target lots of speech and language goals:
The Water Activities unit is included inside the Themed Therapy SLP Membership, making it easy to pair books, crafts, vocabulary activities, and language lessons around one engaging topic.
A pool party theme naturally works on so many language concepts, plus most or all of your students are probably going to the pool regularly in the summer months.
Ideas include:
You can also use pretend play with beach towels, goggles, floaties, and pool toys for younger students. There are lots of fun, pretend-play, pool-themed activities you can plan for your speech therapy groups.
Celebrate Independence Day while working on speech and language goals with crafts, books, and themed activities.
Helpful resources:
Summer cookouts make an easy, functional theme.
Practice:
Students can also compare picnic foods, favorite barbecue meals, and healthy versus unhealthy choices. Melissa and Doug have a fun BBQ grill barbecue play food set or you can make your DIY BBQ toy.
If your students love Shark Week, this theme is always a hit in July.
You can teach:
Check out my complete Shark Week Speech Therapy lesson plan for books, videos, and activity ideas.
Camping is one of those themes that work year after year because there are endless opportunities for language learning. Even if your students don’t go camping with their families, you can build their background knowledge about camping. Or, focus more on hiking and being out in nature.
Speech and language goals you can target:
Find more ideas on what to plan for a camping theme and a list of my favorite camping books; check out my Camping Speech Therapy Activities post.
Whether students enjoy baseball, swimming, soccer, gymnastics, or basketball, sports are highly motivating for many elementary students. Plus, you can do specific sports themes for the Summer Olympics or the World Cup soccer tournament during July.
You can work on:
The sports-themed unit is included in the Themed Therapy SLP Membership.
Instead of choosing one specific topic, spend the month talking about everything students enjoy during summer.
Ideas include:
You could even choose one summer activity each week while keeping your overall July theme focused on summer fun. If you work with younger students, giving parents summer speech therapy handouts for summer activities is a great way to coach parents with how to work on speech and language goals during summer activities.
Ice cream is always one of my students’ favorite themes. It’s one of those themes you can do any time of year, but it is really fun during the hot summer months. Plus, there are a lot of ice cream-related national holidays in July, so I vote for July!
Target:
The Ice Cream unit is included in the Themed Therapy SLP Membership for July, making it easy to plan several weeks of engaging therapy.
Fresh fruit is everywhere during the summer, making it an easy theme for preschool and elementary students.
Talk about:
Bring real fruit into therapy for describing, categorizing, and practicing sensory vocabulary.
Space is always a high-interest theme, especially for older elementary students.
You can target:
For older elementary students who enjoy chapter books and fantasy, a Harry Potter theme can increase engagement.
Ideas include:
Bubble activities are perfect for preschool and early elementary students. They are affordable, engage kids, and are very versatile for speech and language goals. Plus, you can adapt bubbles for older students too. I share ideas for using bubbles with upper elementary and middle school students in this blog post.
Use bubbles to work on:
The Bubbles mini-theme is also included in the Themed Therapy SLP Membership, with book companions, cheat sheets, play-based lessons, visuals, and more!
A carnival theme is packed with opportunities for pretend play and language learning.
Target:
The Carnival mini-theme is available in the Themed Therapy SLP Membership for July.
A picnic theme helps you incorporate food and parks, making it easy to adapt to many speech and language goals. Pack a pretend picnic and work on:
Students love deciding what belongs in the picnic basket and explaining why. Learning Resources has a picnic toy set on Amazon. What I recommend is to invest in a decent food play set and then just DIY your picnic props with baskets from home, plastic or paper plates, etc.
Grab some sidewalk chalk and head outside if your speech therapy setting allows it.
You can work on:
It’s such an easy material and there are SO many creative ways to incorporate chalk into your sessions. For more speech therapy ideas for using chalk, head to this Real Talk SLP episode 98. For older students, you can learn how chalk was made, by making chalk from eggshells, the history of chalk, or cool science experiments.
If you like tying therapy into fun national holidays, here are a few ideas to spark your planning.
You don’t have to build an entire week around these holidays. Sometimes using one as a conversation starter, book theme, sensory bin, or craft is all you need for an engaging therapy session.
Books are an easy way to build an entire July speech therapy session around a theme. Whether you’re targeting vocabulary, story retell, inferencing, grammar, or articulation carryover, pairing a great read-aloud with a craft, game, or hands-on activity can keep students engaged as they work toward their goals.
Here are a few book lists and lesson ideas to get you started:
Need more ideas for planning themes throughout the year? Browse these monthly speech therapy theme roundups for seasonal inspiration, book recommendations, activity ideas, and lesson planning tips. Whether you’re planning for preschool or elementary students, you’ll find plenty of ideas to keep therapy engaging all year long.
I’d love to hear which July speech therapy themes your students enjoy the most! Do you stick with one summer theme all month or switch things up each week?
Share your favorite July therapy themes in the comments below or tag me @themedtherapyslp on social media. I always love seeing how other SLPs bring themed therapy to life!
