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Happy Halloween, witches, ghouls, & SLPs! Oh my gourd do we have a spooky line up of Halloween speech and language activities for you this week! From yummy mummy dogs to a haunted speech house to a slimy ghost sensory experience, you will be creepin’ it real all week long with your speech and language students. Also be sure to scroll down and trick or treat yo’ self with a Halloween freebie below!
Themed Week of Halloween Activities
Each summer I pick nine different themes. Each theme is broken down by day of the week. Then every day has a focused activity to encourage vocabulary development, language in natural contexts, and create hands-on experiences. Here is the daily schedule we followed for the entire summer regardless of the theme! We have continued the fun into the school year this fall!
- Make It Monday
- Take A Trip Tuesday
- Water Wednesday
- Thinking Thursday
- Foodie Friday
- Scavenger Hunt Saturday
- Sensory Sunday
Too many other things going on this fall? Don’t stress! Pick only a couple of activities, or do it all. Incorporating vocabulary and language into even just one activity can help increase your child’s retention and application of concepts. Most importantly, just have fun together! For all the SLPs out there, these activities can call be modified to target a variety of goals!
Make It Monday
This week we made spooky houses to target speech sounds! I might love this project just as much as the kids do! All you need is some black and yellow construction paper plus either an orange or purple background, your student’s speech or language targets, and a glue stick. Print and cut out the target sound and glue the pictures behind each window/door. Once done, open the windows and door to practice. Such a cute speech activity for this Halloween!
At home, we made the windows open to pictures of our family members (which my son thought was beyond hilarious!). This was a fun activity to do together and he enjoyed deciding which lucky relative got to go in the “attic”…haha it ended up being Daddy since “he is brave”. Once he finished, we hung his architectural masterpiece on the fridge for a some cute Halloween decor!
Take A Trip Tuesday
For our trip this week, we practiced trick or treating with our students! For some students (and their parents) interacting with unfamiliar conversation partners can be anxiety inducing and overwhelming. We were able to role play a typical trick or treating exchange to help prepare them for the big night. I was able to double check that those with devices had the proper phrases as well. In addition, we made trick or treating AAC visual bracelets for all of them! Equipped with these free trick or treat visuals from The AAC for ALL, our students rocked it!
Our own kids of course wanted in on the action so we dressed up and went trick or treating too! This was the perfect way to practice how to politely ask for candy and say thank you. In addition, we were able to explain you might only get one piece or candy or a piece that may not be your favorite. Lots of opportunities to practice flexibility, but still have a great time!
Water Wednesday
This week’s water activity was more of a home activity, but my son certainly didn’t mind being the test subject. We had a great time with some orange glow sticks, ping pong eyeballs, and plastic spiders in a spooky Halloween bath! First we filled the tub with bubbles and then added the Halloween items. He enjoyed pretending to make a special potion with his creepy ingredients.
For more of a school appropriate activity, I fill a bin sans water with the items for a little Halloween sensory bin. I used the vocabulary cards from our Halloween Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt and had students choose words to identify and label. You could always add water to the bin for more of a unique experience, but we just enjoyed touching and moving around the Halloween items for a fun speech activity instead!
Also read: How To Make Bathtime Fun (While Targeting Basic Language Concepts!)
Thinking Thursday
For this week’s book we did one of my favs!!! I love Go Away Big Green Monster for individual sessions and a large group speech and language lesson. I have fond memories of being introduced to this book in graduate school from my supervisor so it has been in my repertoire for a long time!
This book targets so many skills including sequencing, adjective + noun phrases, color identification, and call and response. While there are many awesome companion activities out there, be sure to grab our Freebie Monster Builder so your students can follow along during the story or practice retelling afterwards. Since this freebie is not specific to the book, it is perfect to use for speech sound reinforcement or other language targets!
Just click the image below to instantly download your copy of our Halloween Build A Monster Freebie!
Foodie Friday
Mmmmm mummy dogs! We promise they are much more delicious than they sound! All you need are hot dogs, crescent rolls, black olives, and condiments of choice. Simply roll out the crescent roll into a long, skinny snake then wrap around the hot dog. Add the olives for eyes if desired. Bake per the directions on the crescent roll package. Once done, enjoy with some ketchup and mustard!
Sadly, we are no longer able to use food in school due to post-COVID protocols, but we are hoping that will change soon! But for those of you lucky enough to cook in school, we hope you and your students enjoy this fun Halloween recipe during your speech and language sessions. We certainly did at home! So many opportunities to work on direction following, life skills, sequencing, and more.
Scavenger Hunt Saturday
We have another awesome vocabulary scavenger hunt perfect for your Halloween speech and language sessions! We love this Halloween Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt because it can be used so many ways!
First, use the checklist while out and about actually trick or treating! Perfect to send home with students to practice with parents. Second, print the colorful scene to search for Halloween themed items during your small group speech sessions. Third, project the colorful scene onto the Smartboard to search for items as a large group. Lastly, hide the vocabulary cards around the speech office or classroom to go on a fun adventure!
Like what you see? Trick or treat yourself by grabbing your copy of our Halloween Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt here!
Sensory Sunday
For our spooky speech and language sensory activity this week Mandy made ghost slime with her girls and students! Just grab some glue, shaving cream, saline solution, baking soda, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and these free cute little ghosts from Bunny On A Cloud.
Mix 3 c. of shaving cup with 1/2 c. of glue, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, and 1 tbs. of saline solution in a bowl until well combined. Once mixed, have your students add pipe cleaners or googly eyes to make their ghost slime come to life! We love these types of activities because they are not only fun, but also target direction following, life skills, and more.
So that brings us to the end of our spooktacular Halloween week of speech and language fun! We hope you enjoyed all of these activities and found some useful ideas too. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Pinterest as we will be posting all of these activities in action this coming week.
Happy Halloween, SLPs!
Talking Mama Bears