Looking for fun activities to use in speech therapy for St. Patrick’s Day? I have your planning covered with this collection of activities that are quick and easy to set up and implement!
BOOK: 10 LUCKY LEPRECHAUNS
First up, of course, is a book recommendation (my SLP love language). I discovered 10 Lucky Leprechauns last year and it’s now one of my go-to St. Patrick’s Day books. It’s very similar to the Thanksgiving book “10 Fat Turkeys” (which I also love), with each page adding a leprechaun doing a different action (great for -ing verb practice!).
Verbs depicted include:
-playing a kazoo
-painting a tree
-romps (I just use ‘dancing around’ or ‘skipping around’ for this one based on the picture in the book)
-splashing/diving/swimming
-juggling
-riding (a bike or motorcycle)
-balancing on a gate
-swinging on a vine
-hunting/looking for treasure
All of these are easy enough to act out– have your students act out the story to get some movement in as you read! This is one of the best ways I’ve found to keep kids engaged during whole group/circle time– they really benefit from adding actions/movement!
Speech Sounds: The book has a fun repetitive line (“Fiddle de fizz, tis magic it is”) which is perfect for working on initial /f/ or final /z/. (Read more here about why I love repetitive line books for speech therapy). “Leprechaun” is also repeated throughout the book to work on initial /l/, too!
For an easy no prep activity to work on speech sounds, I made a ‘leprechaun’ out of one of my Little People characters by adding a leprechaun hat to him that I had as sensory bin filler. (A green pom pom taped to their head works, too!).
Have your leprechaun ‘swing from a vine’ like one of the leprechauns in the book (use a pipe cleaner, ruler, string, etc). “Swing” to a target card and practice your target word! We worked in s-blends, too, (because when are you not working on blends in preschool?!) with “swing” and telling the leprechaun to “stop.”
To work this activity in to a mixed group with language goals, ask WH questions about the picture landed on, or ask a question/describe something about one of the targets and have the leprechaun swing to the correct answer/picture.
Amazon should be able to get the book to you quickly, but, in a pinch, if you don’t mind digital and want it ASAP, you can buy the Kindle version ($1.99 at the time of this posting) and use the free Kindle app on your iPad to read it. You can also use YouTube read alouds, but I like Kindle versions better if I’m going digital (and if it’s cheap!) because it’s easier to go at the pace I need with a static, digital version of the book versus a read aloud video.
INTERACTIVE BOOK: ST. PATRICK’S FARM
Along the lines of book recommendations– my St. Patrick’s Day Interactive Book is another favorite of mine! It’s the same format as my popular Valentine’s Day Pets interactive book, and incorporates a farm theme, which is a nice transition into your farm theme for the Spring!
The premise of the book is that children are going out to St. Patrick’s farm to catch a leprechaun, and they keep thinking they found a leprechaun, but really, it’s different farm animals dressed in green St. Patrick’s Day attire like green hats.
Every other page gives clues about farm animals with actions and their sounds (e.g. eating hay and making a ‘neigh’ sound, or rolling in the mud and hearing an ‘oink’), uses visual clues to support the verbal clues read in the book for each animal, and has rhyming and predictable/repeated line text.
Each page after that is a picture of the animal that students can use to see if they guessed right, and match the picture icon to the page.
Goals you can target with this book:
1- Simple Inferences (Guess the animal based on the clues)
2- Labeling animal vocabulary
3- “Who” questions (“Who did they find?”)
4- “What” questions (“What was the horse eating?” “What’s on the pig’s head?” “What do chickens lay?” etc…)
5- Matching (icon to picture)
6- Core vocabulary “turn” (turn the page), “on” (put the icon on), “not” (“That’s not what leprechauns say”)
7- Imitating animal sounds (great for those transitioning to first words, or those with significant speech difficulties— modify to CV or CVCV syllable shapes as needed (“kee kee” for “squeak squeak” “neigh” “moo” “baa baa” )
8- Yes/No questions (“Is this a leprechaun?” “Is this a (name an animal)?”)
Pair it with farm animal toys for even more fun! Grab it here.
SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS:
One of my favorite ways to work on following directions and simple sequencing/retelling of events is through simple science experiments.
For St. Patrick’s Day, I like to use my black cauldrons that I use as ‘pots of gold’ for St. Patrick’s Day and use as cauldrons around Halloween. We mix different colors of food coloring (or you can use a few drops of washable paint, since most preschool classrooms have that available) into baking soda and then pour vinegar into the pots and watch them bubble over!
The visuals for these (step-by-step visual instructions, picture icons for ingredients, target goal areas, and sequencing/retelling picture cards) are available in my year-round simple science experiments for preschoolers pack on TPT.
SENSORY BINS:
This first one shown above just uses any filler you want with gold coins hidden in it (Use yellow circles if you don’t have coins). Label gold coins with numbers 1 through 4 (I’ve put Scotch tape on the coins and then written a number in Sharpie on the tape, which is an option if you don’t want numbers on them permanently).
Next, make a chart labeled 1 through 4 at the top, with space below to place target cards (or, as seen in the photo above, you can DIY it by drawing pictures if you don’t have picture cards available for whatever reason!).
Put any target cards in each column on your chart, and when you pull out a coin, find the corresponding number on the chart and practice that target.
Alternatively, if you want some pre-made ‘charts’ with a ton of different language goals already done for you that you can use throughout the Spring (and any other time of year), you can check out these No Prep Language Sheets, and mark numbers in the circles at the top to correspond with the coins you’re using. When I worked for a school district, these sheets were a lifesaver for me in the Spring when I was drowning in IEPs with no time to plan/prep!
As another option, you can use sensory bin fillers as the chart toppers with the done-for-you sheets, and when you pull out an item from the bin, match it to a picture in the corresponding column to practice the target.
The second sensory bin, seen in the photo above, is one I made with lots of different fillers (shamrocks, sparkly coins, and hats were from Michael’s), but used it more as an actual play-based therapy activity with targets embedded into the sensory bin itself. You can read all the details of this particular St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin in this blog post!
PARTY TIME!
Party-themed therapy is one of my favorite play-based activities, whether it’s a tea party, pizza party, birthday party, or, even a St. Patrick’s Day party! Read all about my St. Patrick’s Day party for therapy and all the goals I was able to target.
THEMED VOCABULARY:
Within my Year-Round Cariboo Vocabulary Cards set, I have a set of cards for St. Patrick’s Day that targets common vocabulary surrounding the holiday, as well as just general items that are green, too, to go with the theme. I use Cariboo vocabulary cards for labeling, functions, simple inferences, and WH questions.
You can always print 2 sets of cards and use one for a ‘draw’ pile if you want, but I generally like to give clues or ask a question and have them find the picture that corresponds/answers the question to open the box, or, have students pick a box and they have to answer a question about the picture before opening it.
Cariboo cards are also perfect for sensory bins if you want to change it up, or don’t own a Cariboo yourself!
There you have it– I hope these ideas were helpful in saving you planning and prep time for your St. Patrick’s Day themed speech and language therapy!
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