Spring has Sprung!
Spring has arrived and there are so many opportunities for language all around! You may have seen my winter speech and language activities blog post on Itty Bitty Speech. This post highlights a few of my favorite spring speech and language activities for children.
Signs of Spring
After the long Colorado winter (About me), I am always anxious to get outside when the weather warms up. One of my favorite spring activities is looking for signs of spring! You could make this a scavenger hunt with a visual checklist or simply go for a discovery walk together to see what you can find. I always start with a discussion about what we might see to introduce spring vocabulary and practice predicting. We talk about all of our different senses and what we might SEE, HEAR, SMELL, and TOUCH during the walk. During the walk, we look for signs of spring like flowers sprouting, buds blooming, bugs, rabbits, nests/eggs, and other baby animals. You could target commenting, articulation sounds, vocabulary, or using specific carrier phrases (I FOUND…, I SEE..). Don’t forget to retell what you saw after your walk. You could even take pictures during the walk and make a book about the signs of spring! Click on the image below to download two FREE spring scavenger hunts!
Spring Board Games
Children can learn a variety of speech and language skills from board games (taking turns, vocabulary, social phrases, etc). There are so many wonderful spring board games available. Some of my favorite spring games include Honey Bee Tree, Jumping Jack, and Mystery Garden. The game pictured above is called Discovery Garden and it has always been a popular choice among my students. Students peek through the windows and search for spring items in the garden (caterpillar, watering can, ladybug, shovel, etc). It is like a spring sensory bin but without the mess. You could target spring vocabulary, answering questions, taking turns, or expanding utterances with the carrier phrase, “I see….” or “I found….”. I have a similar virtual spring sensory bin activity that you might also enjoy where students search through beans for spring items. I have a variety of spring printables that can be used as game companions with popular games (Speech Bees, Frog Pond, Spring Bundle) in the Pinwheel Speech store, including this FREE SAMPLE Frog activity for /s/ and /z/.
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Get moving!
I always try to get my students up from the table and moving whenever possible and springtime offers so many opportunities for movement. I have also written a blog post about incorporating movement activities. The photo above shows my Frog Hop Lily Pads being used with frog bean bags. You can also have your students hop like frogs on the lily pads! You can also find a similar Bunny Hop Activity in the Pinwheel Speech store! My youngest students enjoy animal movements and spring is the perfect time (bird, rabbit, butterfly, turtle, snake). For school aged students, I have a picture charades activity with spring vocabulary and animals in the Pinwheel Speech store. This activity will get your students moving as they act out different spring activities and animals. Download this spring activity for FREE by clicking below:
Egg Hunts
I always enjoy hiding eggs around the room or even outside for extra (or should I say “eggstra”?) fun in the springtime. You can hide articulation pictures, vocabulary pictures, favorite snacks, or even objects in the eggs. I purchased the Jumbo eggs in this photo on Amazon last year and I love that I can fit so many things inside them! Here are just a few ideas: tops, bubbles, wind up toys, fidgets, suction cup animals, playdough, balloons, legos, etc. Students can practice requesting (“I want the pink egg”), commenting (“I found playdough!), carrier phrases (I FOUND…., I SEE …), and a variety of core words like HELP, MORE, OPEN, CLOSE, IN, and OUT. I love hiding them around the room exploring the different surprises together! It is also the perfect time to practice prepositions as you find the eggs (BEHIND, UNDER, ON TOP, IN FRONT, BESIDE, etc). Students in my social skills groups enjoy this cooperative group activity. At the end, I encourage them to hide the eggs for each other and then ask their peers for hints or assistance finding eggs.
Planting
Finally, one of my favorite spring language activities is planting a seed or sprout together. Students could plant a flower for Mother’s Day or a vegetable plant for Earth Day. Planting is the perfect time to practice sequencing and retelling. In addition, you can target vocabulary (dirt, shovel/spade, pot, seed, stem, petal, etc) and answering questions (“Where should we put the plant?”, “Why should we put it by the window?”, “What does the plant need to grow?”, etc). You could even send the plant home to give them an opportunity to retell the steps again for family members.
Comment below!
There are so many opportunities to practice speech and language skills in the springtime. I would love to hear some of your favorite spring activities too! Please comment below:)
