Halloween Activities for Speech Therapy

Halloween is almost here! As children get excited about costumes, jack o’lanterns, and candy, now is the perfect time to harness their excitement and work on speech and language skills. Spend quality time with your child while enjoying Halloween-themed activities.

To celebrate this spooky holiday, I’ve compiled some fun activities that you can easily incorporate into your speech therapy sessions to target various speech and language goals.

Many of these activities and worksheets are from my Halloween Vocabulary Building Product, which is jam-packed with fun ways to learn Halloween themed vocabulary associated with this holiday.

Amazon affiliate links have been included.

Read some books about Halloween

Halloween books for speech therapy

There are so many wonderful, interactive books about Halloween! I’ve written the following blog posts that explain how to use Goodnight Goon, Go Away Big Green Monster! Mouse’s First Halloween, and It’s Pumpkin Day, Mouse in speech therapy sessions. Other books that I like are Room on a Broom, Little Blue Truck’s Halloween, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything and my recent discovery of What Do You Say When a Monster Says Boo! This last book will appeal to children who have younger siblings. The young sister (aka the monster) is perpetually annoying her older brother with various antics. The book repeatedly asks,”What do you do when a monster…”does a certain prank or stunt. It is followed by what you could do versus what you should do.

Say, Color, & Display

Say, Color, and Display Worksheets

Need a simple table-top activity to calm your students? Maybe your speech students are coming back from recess or gym or are thrilled about an upcoming event and are in the yellow zone (aka this is a reference to Zones of Regulation). Let’s guide them into the green zone by coloring! Grab some crayons, colored pencils, or markers and get coloring as it can relax the brain and allow students to focus on vocabulary related to Halloween. These unique Say, Color, and Display coloring sheets are a fantastic way for students to see how to make the first sound in the word – see the visual mouth cue in the top left corner? To change it up, have the students color their sheet behind a folder so they cannot see each other’s coloring page. At the end, they can reveal their finished product and compare and contrast the similarities and differences.

Circle and Say Worksheets

Circle and Say, speech therapy worksheets

Receptive and expressive vocabulary skills can be targeted with these interactive worksheets. For instance, before having the child circle the Halloween vocabulary, ask him or her to point to a word (e.g. point to the ghosts, the pumpkins, the spiders). These worksheets also provide a context to discuss Halloween. The discussion can be modified and scaffolded based on the student’s abilities. Print these worksheets and ask students to circle then say the Halloween vocabulary . They can also be used digitally with annotation tools on zoom or used on an ipad. To have FOREVER – simply laminate and then children can use dry erase markers to find the halloween vocabulary.

Mini Pumpkins and Vocabulary Cards

Print and cut out the Halloween Vocabulary cards. Fold each card then shove into each pumpkin (students can do the shoving!). Take turns removing the folded vocabulary word and practice saying the word, defining the word, using the word in a sentence or describing the Halloween object. To target receptive language, begin by having your student point to each vocabulary word (e.g. point to the ghost, point to the Haunted house, etc)

Puzzles

Halloween puzzles

Scatter vocabulary puzzle pieces featuring Halloween vocabulary on a table- top or floor and watch your students put them together and say the words! I laminate the puzzle pieces so it’s super easy to disinfect ! (Amazon affiliate links are included for your convenience.)

Feed Max the Monster

Max is a friendly monster who has an insatiable appetite. He’s not a picky eater and prefers a varied diet of sweets, fast food, insects, and other earthly things.

Grab a box (tissue box or shoe box), the cards included in my Halloween Vocabulary Building Product, and some Velcro tabs and have a blast using this over and over again during your speech therapy sessions! I wear my green witch’s finger to point and name each picture and shake the box and make chewing sounds (“hmmmm” “yum, yum, yum, yum”) each time a student puts the food item in his mouth.

Working on articulation? Then change Max’s name to one that has the student’s target sound! For instance, earlier this week Max became Victor and then Sam because I had clients who were working on the /v/ and /s/ sounds!

Graveyard Pudding in a Cup

Everybody loves making fun, delicious treats! This Halloween-themed graveyard pudding cup is a great way to practice vocabulary. Target sequencing, listening and following directions, describing, using verbs and so much more. At the end, enjoy a delicious treat!

Kids will love decorating their chocolate pudding cups with oreo cookie crumbles, gummy worms, and candy tombstones. Can’t find the candy tombstones, no worries! Substitute with candy corns or candy pumpkins!

Guess What I Am! Print and Go Sheets

Print this worksheet and give it to students to cut, solve, and then glue the correct vocabulary word to the riddle. It’s an ideal homework assignment or can be used in your speech therapy session when you’re having a busy day and need something easy to implement – just print and go! Or laminate and use velcro tabs to use this FOREVER and save paper.

Big Green Monster in a Cup

I had a blast making this Big Green Monster in a Cup and so did my clients. First scoop green/lime jello into a cup, Next, top with the pink Good and Plenty candies, then draw the monster’s face on the cup, and finally eat and enjoy!

We started by reading the classic, Go Away, Big Green Monster! This is a GREAT book to encourage language skills. My blog post describes why I like it so much and explains how it facilitates learning the names of our facial features, some common first words, and the importance of using our words to reject or protest something.

Then, we made this interactive and fun snack! Grab the step-by-step directions in my resource library.

Pin the Eyes of the Monster Game

Everybody loves Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but have you ever heard of Pin the Eyes on the Monster? This Halloween inspired game is perfect for children who need to get out of their seats!

Start by tying a bandana over a child’s eyes, and spin them around a few times. Before tying a bandana over the child’s eyes and spinning them around, to put the googly eyes on the monster, ask them to perform a specific task related to their speech and language goals.

I hope this post has been helpful, and if you try out any of these activities please share a picture and tag me! I would love to see them! Enjoy your Halloween!