Ocean Activities for Speech Therapy

By the end of the school year, we’re all exhausted. And coming off of three weeks of state testing, we’re all really bored. I spend the last few weeks of the school year on a beach and ocean theme, complete with a room transformation, because it’s just what my students need to get some pep back in their step for the end of school. Take a look below at many ocean activities for speech therapy! Welcome to the Speech Beach!

The Room Transformation

The first thing I do is decorate my speech room. Though I don’t always decorate for themes, I do when I have the time. Room transformations give me life, but if it’s not your thing, DON’T DO IT! Please hear me when I say this: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO ALL OUT FOR ROOM TRANSFORMATIONS FOR YOUR STUDENTS TO LEARN. I sometimes do them because I have the time and it brings me and my students joy. But if you don’t have the time or don’t enjoy doing it, JUST DON’T! I release you!

I will say this though: if you’re going to do it, it doesn’t have to be complicated. My friend Amanda at A Perfect Blend Teaching has an adorable door decorating kit on TpT that I used for parts of my decor….it made it super easy, and you can laminate and use year after year.

The How-To:

I covered my book cases for the ocean backdrop and just used bulletin board paper to make the scenes. Streamers for the seaweed and the inflatable flamingo ring-toss game from the dollar spot at Target added to the decor. I found shovel and pail sets at the Dollar Tree, and brought in real seashells from my collection. It took about 3 hours of work after school, but it was worth it….I had some of the best engagement all year! Finally, I used the aforementioned Summer Door Decor kit from Amanda for the lettering, and I printed fish on Astrobright paper so I didn’t have to use any colored ink!

The Activities:

Feed the Crab:

This adorable “Feed the Crab” activity came from Ms. Gardenia’s Speech Room.  It’s editable, and the students loved picking a piece of seaweed, practicing the target sound in words (my language students made sentences or described the word), and feeding it to the cab. (PS: Keurig cup boxes make the best boxes for these animal feeding activities.)

Of course we used plastic ocean animals for the little ones. We pretended the blue speech rug was the ocean and practiced prepositions such as in/out, over/under, near/far, and more!

I found a new game recently that my students have loved! It’s called Shark Bait by Melissa and Doug. Affiliate link included.

If you’re looking for digital activities, these Initial Sounds Articulation BOOM Cards are great! I use them for progress monitoring at the beginning and ending of each session, and the kids love them! Feed the Octopus, Feed the Beach Pail, and Feed the Shark are all available!

These Beach/Ocean Following Directions BOOM Cards are also awesome for practicing spatial concepts, basic concepts, and following auditory directions!

Ocean Books:

We used tons of Ocean and Beach books as well! Here’s a post of my favorites!

Some of our favorites are shown below with the corresponding book companions linked:

Pout Pout Fish: Prep Companion and NO Prep Available

Rainbow Fish Prep and No Prep Companions available:

What Lives in a Shell and An Octopus Is Amazing are two books and companions perfect for including nonfiction!

The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark is a new favorite! It works great for an ocean theme or with fairy tales! The giant companion includes color, no prep, and boom card activities!

Finally, what’s a good theme without FREEBIES! There are TWO FREEBIES available for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Shell. One is a Boom Card set, and one is a subscriber-exclusive mini companion freebie available in my Free Resource Library.

Language Skills Galore:

We used my Ocean-Themed Language Bundle to target an array of language skills, including inferences, categories, idioms, analogies, and much more!

We also used my Ocean No Prep Speech and Language Unit and my Ocean Vocabulary and Comprehension Units to target comprehension, vocabulary, basic concepts, and so much more. There are activities included for every single student on my caseload!

I added two new interactive activities recently that left my students begging for more: Fishy Adjectives and Seashell Search! I used magnetic fishing poles from Melissa and Doug with the Fishy Adjectives and cut sticky magnets for the backs of the cards. When I called out an adjective, the students had to find a picture that fit the description and “catch” it! For the Seashell Search, they went looking for the seashells with their target sounds and placed them in their plastic buckets. Both activities allowed for movement all around the room and kept the students engaged the entire time!

Finally, we worked on grammar with my Guppy Grammar pack.

And what’s a good theme without crafts, right? You can find some awesome Ocean craft ideas that are super quick and easy HERE.

Have any other suggestions for ocean activities for speech therapy? I’d love to hear! If you’re looking for additional ideas for an ocean theme, check out these blog posts on Ocean Books for Speech Therapy and Ocean Crafts for Speech Therapy!