Give me all the cute monsters and silly skeletons. I love using themed books in therapy as much as the next SLP. But, choosing the right book for your specific student is important. Here’s what I always ask myself when choosing books for my groups or individual students:
- Is it developmental age appropriate? (not just chronological age appropriate)
- Will it allow me to target their specific needs and IEP goals?
- Is it motivating and easy to understand?
- Will it be short enough to finish in time to do additional activities in my session? (Or does it lend itself to be chunked between multiple sessions?)
Here are my favorite Halloween books for speech therapy with some fun crafts to go along with them. Be sure to ask yourself those questions too when checking out the list! Amazon affiliate links included.
1. Where’s My Mummy
I love this book to talk about story elements. It’s perfect to use with the Story Grammar Marker tool too! My favorite mummy craft is the Speech Machine Mummy, which you can grab for free in my tpt store.
I also love these 15 mummy craft ideas from this mom blogger that would be easy to do in speech.
2. The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat
Who isn’t a fan of the old lady? This fun story is great for sequencing, and the repetition is always beneficial for my littles.
My favorite craft for this one is this paper plate bat craft from A Dab of Glue Will Do.
3. The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
Speaking of old ladies, this book is a favorite of my preschoolers. They love all of the actions. It’s good for targeting following directions, actions, sequencing, and clothing vocabulary.
The Inspired Treehouse (OT/PT blog) has an adorable free printable scarecrow to go along with this book. Be sure to check it out.
4. Room on the Broom
This silly book is great for story elements, sequencing, making inferences, and vocabulary. My first and second graders love it, and always ask tons of questions.
This book also has its very own website with tons of activities, games, and coloring sheets.
5. The Spooky Wheels on the Bus
Do you work with preschoolers? You can sing the Wheels on the Bus tune to the words of this book. Some of my kids still need that hand over hand motions, cloze sentences, songs in therapy. This is a good book to elicit that.
Check out this amazing egg carton spooky bus craft from Reading Confetti! Not sure it’d be easy to do in a speech session, but maybe work on it a little at a time.
6. Go Away Big Green Monster
I have a fun little velcro puppet from Lakeshore that came with this book. It’s great for body part vocabulary and talking about facial expressions. I also like using it for AAC and signing “go away.” Perfect for my students with a lower developmental age.
It’s super easy to make a paper plate green monster. You can use a green plate and make the monster face yourself. Or use tissue paper like this mama did here.
7. There’s a Monster in Your Book
Um, if you haven’t heard of this book, you need to go to Amazon now and check it out. It’s the best! I love that it’s interactive, so it’s PERFECT for following directions and basic concepts. Plus, it’s absolutely adorable!
Another great thing is that it lends itself to more following directions games. You can make any monster craft and then have “the monster” give the students directions. Then, the students can take a turn giving the monster directions. Cute, right?!
8. Skeleton Hiccups
Sometimes skeletons get the hiccups and can’t get rid of them. They try all kinds of random things their friends tell them to do. I love this book for WH questions, cause/effect, and sequencing. Q-tip skeletons are the perfect craft to go with this one.
If you need more speech specific resources, check out the activities below:
I hope some of these make your themed therapy something extra this year! I’ve also got a little Halloween freebie for you!! Join the BBS community to grab this free spider web articulation craftivity from the resource library!
Happy Halloween!
Halloween is such a great way to get the students excited at school when doing things
Yes, agreed!