Speech Therapy Theme: Dr. Seuss

How can you not celebrate “Read Across America” and Dr. Seuss’s birthday in speech therapy?!  I use books EVERY week in my speech therapy sessions!  I love to hear which Dr. Seuss’s books are favorites of the kids.  I introduced 2 new ones to my lesson plans this year…no, make that THREE new books!!!  Let’s get started on how I used Dr. Seuss books in my speech therapy sessions!

Green Eggs and Ham

This is, by far, my favorite book in the Dr. Seuss collection!  (Maybe because I am a lot like the bitter character who refuses to try the green eggs and ham!)  I like to use this one with my articulation clients.  We read the book and then complete this little drill activity I made.  You can find it here!   The next session is filled with our “Green Eggs in a Skillet” craft activity.  You can cut out a skillet from black paper or you can use a paper plate.  I cut out small green circles and white “egg” shapes.  I write target words on the green circles.

Cat in the Hat

While this is not my favorite, many of my clients do like it.  I like to use this book to discuss good choices/bad choices.   We use the craft to work on requesting and asking questions.  You could easily use this craft for articulation.  Simply write target words on the red stripes…easy enough!  It was pretty easy to prep too!

Directions:  Color the outside edge of a large paper plate.  Cut out a tall hat from white paper.  Then cut red stripes that are the width of the hat.  Glue the stripes on the hat, leaving space for a white stripe.  Glue wiggle eyes and a pompom nose.  Then draw a mouth and you’re finished!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

If you are unfamiliar with this book, it’s not ideal for young kids with low attention/focus.  It is long winded and slightly confusing for little ones with language delays.  But I did love the craft my little ones completed with it!  It was easy and I LOVE handprint crafts!!

Directions: Trace the child’s hand.  Then cut out four fish, each from a different color.  Glue them onto a light blue shade of paper or white paper.  Glue an eye on each fish.  I used little rhinestones to serve as bubbles.  You could easily draw those one.  In keeping with the number theme, I asked the child how many bubbles to give each fish.  Then we counted to make sure we glued the right number above the fish.  I drew some ocean waves just to add a little detail.

To work on the concepts of “one” and “two,” I developed a take home booklet for the kiddos to complete.  You can find it in the interactive set here.

A,B,C,D

This was a new one for me!  I enjoyed it!  “A,B,C,D” was used for my older clients (school age) working on language goals.  After we read the book, we completed the “Seuss Brainstorm.”  (You can grab this freebie by signing up for my FREE resource library!) It’s a great way to get kids thinking.  TRY NOT TO USE GOOGLE!!!  This activity encourages communication between the therapist and client(s), giving the children a natural environment to answer questions, make comments, categorize and think outside the box!

Wacky Wednesday

Another new book to add to the shelf.  I used this book and activity for kindergarten age and up.  We read the book and talked about the absurdities.  We talked about how the absurdities could not possibly be true.  Then we had fun with construction paper and other craft materials!  I instructed my clients to make self-portraits but make them wacky.  So if you have brown hair, use blue paper instead.  If you have green eyes, make them green but a different shape.  After all of the project was finished, we compared/contrasted our wacky selves to our regular selves.  We made sure to write our answers at the bottom of the picture.

Dr. Seuss Inspired Activities for Speech Therapy

For my younger kids, Dr. Seuss books tend to be too long and “wordy.”  So using inspired clipart, I made an interactive book as well as activities!  The interactive book can be used to work on using “I,” answering “what” questions, simple descriptors and matching.  The “make and take” booklet addresses the concepts of “one” and “two.”  The last activity in the set works on sorting fish by color.  You can find the activity set here!  Newly added to the TpT store is this set of vocabulary mats. You can use them with playdough, bingo chips, mini erasers, or even just a dry erase marker. You don’t want to miss out on the open ended articulation activity that is just $1 in my TpT store! Goes perfectly with “Green Eggs and Ham!”

What are some of your favorite Dr. Seuss books to read in your speech therapy session?