Take a Deep Dive into Shark Week
July has arrived and that means one thing to my three boys… SHARK WEEK! It’s the perfect hook for your summer sessions. A shark theme is a fun and engaging way to add a splash of excitement to your speech therapy plans. Whether you’re reading shark books, playing shark games, or making shark crafts, your students will love diving into these speech and language activities. Let’s dive in!
Shark Themed Books
*This post contains Amazon Affiliate links*
Summer is a great time to chill out with a good book. Books are perfect for building vocabulary, improving listening skills, and supporting story comprehension during your sessions. Speech and language targets might include:
- Answering WH questions
- Sequencing and Retelling the story
- Story elements (character, setting, problem, solution)
- Vocabulary building
- Social skills (perspective taking, feelings, understanding social cues)
- Making predictions and inferences
Here are a few shark-themed favorites:
- Clark the Shark by Bruce Hale – Clark is a very enthusiastic shark who needs a little help learning appropriate classroom behaviors. Clark the Shark books are perfect for talking about character traits, social cues, self-control, perspective taking, and social skills. This book has a fun rhythm and rhyme that your students will love!
- Nugget and Fang by Tammi Sauer – Nugget is a minnow and Fang is a shark but that doesn’t stop them from being friends! When Nugget goes to school, he learns that sharks can’t be trusted. In this sweet story, Fang earns back Nugget’s trust by rescuing the minnows. This book is all about friendships. It is perfect for teaching social language skills, making predictions/inferences and problem solving.
- The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist – This fractured fairy tale is a fun summer spin on the Three Little Pigs: “Little fish, Little fish, let me come in. Not by the skin of my finny fin fin!” It is great for sequencing events, making predictions, and teaching story elements (character, setting, problem, solution). It has a fun story line for predictions and retell. You can compare and contrast with the original story. This naturally leads to higher-level thinking with a discussion about how changing the setting changes the story.
- That’s Not My Shark by Fiona Watt – This “not my…” book from Usborne is engaging and fun for our littlest learners. Each book features a repetitive text and colorful touch and feel textures. This book is ideal for introducing qualitative concepts like “shiny”, “smooth”, and “bumpy”. It’s also great for developing “yes” and “no” and teaching negation (“not”).
Shark Themed Toys and Games
- Sharky’s Diner (pictured above): This game is hard to find but you can sometimes find it on ebay. My students love feeding this shark printable articulation cards from our Feed the Ocean Animals activity.
- Shark Dentist Game: If you like crocodile dentist, you’ll love this summer alternative! Players take turns pressing the shark’s teeth, if you press the trick tooth, the shark will close its mouth and “bite” you. Use this game along with any stimulus cards to reinforce speech and language skills.
- Shark Bite Game: Players take turns rolling the die and fishing for the colorful sea creatures using the fishing rod. Watch out – you never know when the shark will bite!
- Wind up sharks: Another fun idea is to set up a water sensory bin with shark toys. Wind up water toys are always fun and they are perfect for hot summer days. Just like regular wind up toys, you can target a variety of early communication skills with them such as joint attention, cause/effect, vocabulary, requesting, answering ?s, commenting, and core words (e.g., GO, STOP, TURN, ON, HELP, MORE, etc).
Shark Craft
Are you looking for a fun and interactive summer craftivity for your speech and language students? This shark-themed articulation and language resource is designed to keep students engaged while practicing essential skills! This Shark Wheel Craftivity includes practice for articulation (K, G, F, V, S, Z, SH, CH, TH, L, & R (including vocalic R and blends) in all positions), syllable shapes (CV, CVC, CVCV, multisyllabic words), and vocabulary skills (ocean animals, summer words, and action verbs). Crafts are great for practicing sequencing and requesting specific school supplies. I also love that you can send them home for additional home practice!
Shark Themed Boom Cards
- Feed the Shark What Doesn’t Belong Boom Cards: Students will practice category exclusion skills by selecting the item that does not belong and then feeding it to the shark.
- Feed the Shark Articulation Activity Boom Cards: This activity includes practice for all of the following speech sounds: M, N, P, B, T, D, K, G, F, V, S, Z, SH, CH, TH, L, & R (including vocalic ER, AR, OR, AIR, EAR/IRE), L blends, R blends, and S blends.
Shark Songs and Movement Activities
- Sing, dance, and move! Songs are perfect for early language learners. Use familiar shark tunes or make up your own shark-themed rhymes! These activities build early phonological awareness in a fun and playful way.
Examples:
- I must mention the infamous Baby Shark song because it is so popular with our little ones. Warning: This song will be stuck in your head for DAYS!
- Five Little Sharks is a fun countdown song like the Five Little Ducks nursery rhyme.
- Going on a Shark Hunt by Kiboomers Songs is a variation of Going on a Bear Hunt. Practice ocean vocabulary, prepositions (over, under, through, around, into,), and verbs (splish splash, swish, tiptoe). This would also make a fun obstacle course!
- Shark Says: Get the wiggles out and practice following directions with a round of “Shark Says”. It’s like “Simon Says,” but with a shark twist! (“Shark says swim fast!”, “Shark says touch your toes!”
- Clap the Syllables: Practice clapping out the syllables in ocean words: shark, jellyfish, octopus, starfish, etc.
- Rhyme Time: Find words that rhyme with “shark” (bark, dark, park)
FREE Feed the Shark Activity
Turn speech sound practice into a game with this free “Feed the Shark” activity! Print a shark, cut out a hole for the mouth, and practice targeted skills as you feed the shark your stimulus cards. CLICK HERE to download the free shark activity pictured above.
You also might want to check out our Feed the Ocean Animals activity for a variety of articulation “fish” that you can print and feed your shark.
More Summer Themes
Are you looking for more summer ideas for your speech sessions? Summer therapy doesn’t have to feel like summer school. There are so many fun and engaging summer themes to choose from. 😎 Check out these ULTIMATE summer speech therapy blog posts with exciting themes like camping, mermaids, sharks, and ocean animals. I especially want to highlight the blog post from Allison Fors about Ocean themed Speech therapy activities with fun books, games, and apps. *Don’t miss the free “What Doesn’t Belong?” scenes in her blog post! Click below to learn more:
You might also want to check out my blog posts on summer speech and language activities and summer books!
Do you have a favorite shark activity for speech? Share it in the comments or tag @pinwheelspeech on instagram—I’d love to see your ideas!
