Are you brave enough to give a spider theme a try in your speech therapy?
Have you noticed that so many speech therapy theme ideas revolve around holidays and seasons? It’s easy to understand why – holidays are fun for kids and seasons can be functional. But, not all of our kids celebrate all the same holidays. And seasons can be relative: snowmen are fun, but they aren’t functional for our kids in Florida. Plus, who wants to be limited by when they can use certain materials?
That’s why I developed theme units that work any time of year!
This spider is no exception! Now, if you want to talk about holidays, spiders might be a great unit to use during Halloween. And many classrooms talk about bugs, so spiders are a great tie-in to the classroom when that happens!
There are so many advantages to using themed units in speech therapy, including tying in to what’s going on in the classroom!
My Spiders Themed Language Therapy Unit for Speech Therapy includes everything, all the stimulus materials and quality graphic organizers you need for just about your whole caseload!
Simple Ways to Have Fun with Spiders!
Spider Themed Activities
Sometimes when we’re planning, we forget the obvious or don’t want to do the same thing the kids have already seen before. But there’s a reason why some songs and books are classics and kids love repetition! So of course, don’t forget about Eensy Weensy Spider for your musical students.
You can also extend the spider theme into anything bug related – a (plastic!) bug hunt with a magnifying glass or a bug themed sensory bin are sure to be big hits!
Spider Theme Books
If you haven’t used folk tales in your speech therapy sessions, you should give them a try! The best part about folk tales is that they come from different cultures, so you can include some background knowledge about those places too.
Anasi the Spider is a great book and perfect for targeting story grammar, basic wh- questions, and predictions. It’s a picture book, but you could even use it with middle schoolers.
Target Language
There are lots of other simple ways to include the spider theme into your therapy:
- Hide spider rings and other plastic bugs around the room with speech and language targets for a fun scavenger hunt
- Target simple directions and body parts and make toy spiders and bugs go on your head, under your foot, and next to your hand
- Ask simple wh- questions about spiders: Where do spiders live? What do spiders eat?
- Make the spiders do different actions and practicing -ing verbs
- And most importantly: Listen to what your child says and recast and expand!
Spider Theme Language Speech Therapy Unit
If you’re looking for something more comprehensive, with just about everything you’d want to target in your language therapy, my themed language speech therapy unit is for you!
My spider themed language unit includes all the materials you need to target:
- Core vocabulary (up, look)
- Basic concepts (small, many)
- Describing (spiders)
- Tier 2 vocabulary (catch, dangerous, harm, benefit)
- Prefix/suffix (dis-, -ous)
- Inferencing/predicting
- Sentence combining
- Comprehending narrative texts
- Comprehending non-fiction texts
- WH questions
- Comparing and contrasting
- Sharing opinions & opinion writing (spider themed)
We’re talking over 100 pages of spider themed goodness, with gorgeous photos, helpful icons, and systematic instructional materials.
Other SLPs absolutely LOVE my spider language therapy unit. Here is some feedback I’ve received:
“This, and other Speechy Musings themed units, are so thorough and target needs and ranges of nearly my entire 55-student caseload. I used it for 3 weeks in October and still have so many pages of this unit I did not get to. Teachers were impressed seeing the affix lessons attached to the theme. The bonus materials also gave me some ideas to make the lessons into games that the kids loved (such finding the hidden spiders around the room, making a web with tape on the floor to incorporate movement). Very rich and diverse resource for the price & had some great therapy sessions. The visuals are so engaging for the kids.”
— Norah B.
“Shannon’s resources are always top notch. These themed units are fantastic for working on a variety of goals! You can tell that Shannon puts a lot of effort into her products, making them functional, fun, and engaging! I like that I can use this unit anytime of the year. There are activities for my lower and upper elementary students!”
— SLP Roundup
“These units are SO complete, I really should’ve bought the bundle. They are so easy to design sessions that target my kiddos’ goals. There are so many activities to choose from. And I love the range of ages that are included. I you’re thinking of this *at all*, you should get it. I can see myself using this for a long time.”
— Billie H.
Have fun in your therapy sessions and get the work done!
Leave a Comment