Dive into an ocean/beach theme in your speech therapy room to find an incredibly impactful way to address children’s goals! Ocean-themed activities and stories offer a wide range of vocabulary related to marine life, seashells, waves, and beach activities, etc., which can be used to target articulation, vocabulary expansion, sentence structure, and storytelling skills, and so many of our kiddos’ objectives. I love the rich sensory experiences that it can bring to engage kids through visuals, sounds, and tactile sensations associated with the ocean environment. This multisensory approach can help stimulate speech and language development by offering varied stimuli for discussion and exploration. The familiarity and excitement of the beach theme I have found super-motivating for my children! “Water” we waiting for? Let’s check out some fantastic ocean & beach themed activities to use in your speech and language therapy sessions!
BOOKS
Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae (Author), David Wojtowycz (Illustrator) I loved this book for my own boys when they were little; and I love it for my speech kiddos! Each page provides detailed information on different sea creatures, highlighting their vocabulary and associated verbs, all wrapped up with fun rhymes. There are so many opportunities to work on specific speech sounds, so almost all your articulation/phonology students can benefit. The pictures are so cute and colorful, and that is always a plus!
Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea by Jan Peck You see lots of repetitive text in this story, which provides many opportunities for seeing and hearing vocabulary words. Each sea animal is greeted and said goodbye to, offering practice in language associated with greetings.
How to Hide an Octopus and Other Sea Creatures by Ruth Heller This book is great for teaching children about other marine animals outside of those they will typically hear about in stories. It also is a great introduction to camouflage, and how animals protect themselves by doing so. My students love trying to find the animals, and I love how many speech and language goals I can target using this cute story.
Over in the Ocean by Marianne Berkes (Author), Jeanette Canyon (Illustrator) This is such a great book because it’s appropriate for so many ages/levels of kids. Children love rhymes and this story incorporates them into counting practice, vocabulary, sequencing, and lots of other speech-language goals!
What Lives in a Shell by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld (Author), Helen K. Davie (Illustrator) This may be your students’ first introduction to the idea that seashells are actually former homes to crustaceans! I’m sure you’re familiar with the “Let’s Learn and Find Out” series of books. This is just another wonderful example! Tons of new vocabulary, and the hands-on exploration you can use for follow-up activities is endless!
GAMES
Shark Bite A very simple game, which serves as a great reinforcement activity after children complete their target in speech-language therapy.
Pop Up Pirate Is always a favorite for the kiddos in my speech room! I usually have children earn swords by practicing their target, so then we can play without interruption! The kids always love to try to catch the pirate!
Cariboo is an amazing game that I wish they had not stopped producing! I have 2 left over from when my own boys were small that I have used in therapy for many years! I have created a large set of Cariboo cards with many themes/categories that can be switched out for the original cards. These include ocean animals, summer, ocean, and vacation themes plus 20+ more sets!
Polar Adventure has surprised me as a favorite for my kids! I’m not sure if it’s the adorable wooden game pieces, the fact that they get to play defense, or some other factor, but this is a huge ask in my room! While I use it for cold-weather themes, when you have an ocean theme, you just must include this fun game!
Fishing games are a great way to reinforce speech or language tasks! There are so many out there like Let's Go Fishin' and Melissa & Doug's Catch and Count. Go fishing for one & you have a simple lesson plan done!
TABLETOP/FLOOR TASKS
Beach Moon Sand OK, you almost HAVE to pull out some sand when you’re using a beach or ocean theme! I know we might not all love it because it can get a bit messy, but kids are so into it! I use a large plastic tablecloth to protect everything, a large bin to try to contain the sand, and then I let the kiddos dive in! This multi-sensory experience is so amazing, it makes up for a bit of a mess!
Ocean Themed Smash Mat (along with many other themes), are another great tool to include in your speech tool bag! Yay for another multi-sensory opportunity to practice speech and language goals! Break out the Play-Doh!
Color By Numbers Octopus Color-by-Numbers pages are excellent for teaching early preschool concepts like shapes, colors, and numbers. I often incorporate them into reinforcement activities for drills. I created a CBN Octopus that enables maximum repetitions in a short amount of time. Kids can use markers or daubers to create colorful ways to practice their learning targets!
Muffin Tins can provide a table-top version of hide and seek. Allow children to poke through foil wrapped over the top of the pan to reveal cards or objects that you’ve hidden. Use my Ocean and Beach Themed Flashcards or EDX Aquatic Counters for ideas to use in your tins!
Water table (or bin, bucket, etc.) filled with sea animals figurines like Learning Resources Under the Sea Ocean Counters or EDX Aquatic Counters along with shells, boats, rocks, etc. allow for multi-sensory exploration that is highly motivating for my kiddos and provide so many opportunities for work on vocabulary, concepts, and so much more!
LET’S MOVE
Yoga! I use a yoga ball or peanut and have my children roll toward objects (like the Learning Resources Under the Sea Ocean Counters or EDX Aquatic Counters I mentioned above) or Ocean and Beach Themed Flashcards. I have also hidden small figurines in these adorable gift boxes. The kiddos roll toward a picture, and then they have to find the figurine in the boxes!
Color sorting is a really simple task, but there are so many fun ways to incorporate it that can get kiddos moving (= motivated) in your speech-therapy sessions! I use different colored plastic cups or colorful 9" discs to which kiddos can match different colored ocean animals. Have them scoot, run, hop, to make the match after practicing their targets!
Clip It! I use blue yarn, strung around the room, to create waves. Have kiddos clip Ocean and Beach Themed Flashcards with clothespins to the “waves” after successfully completing their targets!
Ocean Exploration: Break out your blue yarn again, stretch across your floor in different directions (blue painter’s tape also works great!). Place Ocean and Beach Themed Flashcards or Learning Resources Under the Sea Ocean Counters or EDX Aquatic Counters randomly amongst the “waves” and allow the children to go on an under the sea adventure!
Shell Steps is another fun way to motivate and move in your speech language sessions! Place Seashells in lines along the floor (you can place cards or hide figurines under them as well). Have children roll dice to find out how many shells (steps) they can take. Perhaps you have a bin of water at the end to throw figurines into or a treasure box in which to place cards.
Using an ocean theme in our speech therapy sessions not only captivates children's imaginations but also provides a fun and engaging context for learning!
What fun Ocean and Beach themed activities do you use in your speech-language sessions?
Jill R. King, M.A., CCC-SLP
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