Are you a speech-language pathologist that loves themed therapy? Me too! Happy Theme Thursday! Spring is finally here (even if Mother Nature didn’t get the memo) and I’m so excited to talk about one of my favorite themes – bugs! Bug themed speech therapy is perfect for spring, summer, or year around!
Bug Themed Speech Therapy Crafts
First up, let’s talk about some fun and easy bug crafts! Crafts are great for keeping students focused and engaged between turns. If you have large articulation groups, it really is important to keep everyone actively involved while they wait for one-on-one time with you. I love using activities that require cutting, coloring, and glueing!
If you’ve been visiting my blog lately, then you know I’m currently obsessed with paper plate crafts! I love them, because they’re sturdy and they’re ready-made circles!
Materials Needed:
– Paper Plates (I like the cheap kind that are flat-ish)
– Word Pieces (you can find target words in my articulation crafts or speech therapy crafts bundles)
– Bingo Daubers
– Glue
– Scissors
– Black Construction Paper
– Wiggle Eye Stickers
Ladybug Craft
There are two options. 1) Students can cover the entire paper plate with word pieces. This would take the average student multiple sessions. If you don’t have a place to store unfinished crafts in your speech room, then this option may not be realistic for you. If you do have space, then you plan once and you’re covered for 2-3 sessions. 2) Students can cover the paper plate with a bingo dauber! Then they can glue 10 word pieces onto their plate. This option takes WAY less time!
This ladybug is so precious and perfect for a ladybug theme! Notice there are no wings, legs, or antenna – ain’t nobody got time for that! haha. To create the faces of the bug, I just cut a black semi-circle out of construction paper and glued it near the top of the paper plate. Then I placed two wiggle eye stickers on it! Also, remember you can use a red bingo dauber to get the entire plate covered instead of all the word pieces! Lastly, you glue black circles on top – I used a 1 inch circle punch to make the circles.
Bee Craft
This bee is very similar to the ladybug, but instead of dots it has black stripes and a black triangle is glued on the bottom!
You can target a wide variety of skills while students are constructing their craft, such as basic concepts, spatial concepts, following directions, prepositions, and more!
There are also four no prep bug crafts in the March Speech Therapy Crafts packet (or bundle). I’ll try to add in pictures of those in the next week or so!
Bug Themed Speech Therapy Resources
Let’s check out some bug themed speech therapy materials! First, I found this adorable wooden bug box in the Target Dollar Spot! This would make such a fun reinforcer! After a student practices a word or skill, they can “feed” the bug box with mini objects or toy bugs! I found a very similar one by Melissa and Doug on Amazon. I also found my wooden bugs at Target around Valentine’s Day. Melissa and Doug make some super cute plastic bugs that you can find HERE.
Speech Therapy Worksheets
May: A Dab of Speech and Language features a bug themed! This can also be found in the bundle or in The Speech is Sweet Club (the membership gives ALL ACCESS)!
This packet addresses articulation, language, and stuttering/fluency! It’s perfect for mixed groups. You can use it with bingo daubers! These sheets are also a fun companion for a toy bug box! Language skills that are included address describing, following directions, grammar, and more! I love using my A Dab of Speech and Language packets for speech homework too!
I also have a Bee Articulation packet (also found in Articulation Bundle #2)! These are in my TPT store or in my membership! These no prep worksheets will make planning your speech therapy sessions a breeze! No prep articulation materials make my SLP heart happy!
You can also slip these pages in a dry erase sleeve and add yellow play dough and tell your students that it’s a Honey Smash game! They’ll love it! Also…. you can use these sheets for word pieces if you make the bee craft! Students just cut out the honeycombs!
Interactive Notebooks
This year I’ve been hard at work on my Thematic Interactive Articulation Notebooks Growing Bundle! My latest packet is a bug theme! These are my favorite bug activities so far! Let’s peek inside!
There’s a bug box pocket! There are butterfly shaped puzzle pieces and then students store them inside their bug box! You can revisit this page over and over again. Students can just take out their puzzles and practice their words.
This buggy sort is my favorite! Students sort their words into initial and final positions! They lift the wing flaps and glue their words under them!
Bug Jar flap-ups! Students glue their words around the bug jar and then they lift up the bug jar and write sentences underneath it! If your students are not writing, they can also glue their bugs under the jar flap.
Buggy Phrases Flaps! Students lift up the bug bodies and write a phrase/sentence underneath!
Digital Speech Therapy Resources
I’ve created a couple different bug themed no print games for articulation, stuttering, and apraxia! These are super handy for distance learning, speech teletherapy, or any day you just can’t be bothered to print anything out (iPad it is!)!
Fluency Fireflies
This game is in the form of a digital pdf! Students tap on the fireflies in the picture scenes to “collect” them into their jar! On each page is a target word where students can practice either a light contact or easy onset. In addition to the stuttering resource, there are also articulation versions of this game and an apraxia version! They can be found in my TPT shop or in my membership!
Catching Bees Game
In this digital game, students collect bees and put them into a hive! There are fluency (exclusive to my membership), articulation, and apraxia versions of this fun game! Digital games are effective resources for speech therapy, because they add some novelty and they’re fun! These can be displayed on a tablet or on a computer! The Speech is Sweet Club literally contains hundreds of digital resources!
Bug Themed Picture Books
Lastly, let’s talk about some of my favorite bug-themed picture books and read alouds! There are so many bug books that are perfect for speech-language therapy! Check out these ideas to tackle a variety of speech goals, such as temporal concepts, vocabulary, and WH questions!
Fiction Books
A Pet for Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold
I LOVE the Fly Guy series! He’s always been a hit in my speech room over the years! In this book, Fly Guy wants a pet of his own. They go to the pet shop and check out a puppy, frog, and cat. Then they go to the park and check out worms, spiders, and crickets. Of course, none of them work out! Ultimately, Fly Guy decides he wants Buzz (his owner) to be his pet. It’s so sweet! You can work on:
1) Adjectives – Each pet doesn’t work out because it’s too *something.* It’s either too jumpy, too slimy, too tangly, etc.
2) Why Questions – Ask students why various animals didn’t work out.
3) Animal Vocabulary
Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! by Bob Barner
I love this book! It’s colorful and so much fun! At the end there’s a page that shows the actual sizes of bugs and there’s also a colorful chart (Bug-O-Meter) at the end that breaks down where bugs live, how many legs, can it fly, etc. There are many language activities you can do with this book and children will be exposed to so many different insects! You can work on:
1) Rhyming – The story portion is written in rhyme!
2) Compare/Contrast – Use the bug-o-meter in the back of the book to compare/contrast different bugs!
3) Where Questions – Talk about where each type of bug lives.
Eric Carle Books
The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
This book follows a grouchy little ladybug through its day. The ladybug tries to pick fights with a variety of animals and by the end of the day it’s exhausted! Ultimately, the ladybug ends up happy and content. This is a great book to tackle language goals! There are so many uses for this book:
1) Time Concepts
2) Social Skills
3) Compare/Contrast – The ladybug encounters lots of different animals throughout the day. Compare the ladybug to each animal or compare the animals to each other.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Eric Carle has tons of lovely books about bugs! This one is my favorite! This book shows the life cycle of a butterfly. The little caterpillar hatches and eats his way through the week! It’s a wonderful book to tackle receptive language and expressive language! Use this book to target:
1) Quantitative Concepts – He eats one apple, two pears, etc
2) Sequencing – Talk about the lifecycle of a butterfly!
3) Describing
Non-Fiction Books
Bugs A to Zzzzzz by Caroline Lawton
This is a wonderful non-fiction book to add to your bug collection. It features real pictures and shares two different bugs for each letter of the alphabet. For instance, the “B” page has a bee and a butterfly and the “Z” page has a zebra spider and a zebra swallowtail butterfly! This book will be expose your speech therapy students to so many new vocabulary words (specifically tier II & III words).
1) Compare/Contrast – This book is set up perfect for comparing and contrasting! Each page features two different bugs!
2) WH Questions – Each bug has a little blurb that provides information. Read the blurb aloud and then ask questions about it!
3) Describing
The Magic School Bus: Inside a Bee Hive by Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen
I love Mrs. Frizzle! This book series combines non-fiction and fiction in such a fun way! The end breaks down all of the things that can’t happen in real life! The pages are full of diagrams and tons of different text features! Generally, these books are very text-heavy though. This is a great book to introduce children to expository text features. Use this book to address:
1) Text Features – Non-fiction books require a different set of skills. Teach students who to recognize a variety of text features such as headings, diagrams, charts, labels, etc.
2) Dialogue
3) Compare/Contrast – drones vs. worker bees, queen bee vs. worker bee, etc
Books are truly some of my favorite therapy resources! They truly open our students up to a world of background knowledge and they’re great to incorporate into themed activities!
More Bug Themed Ideas
Do you ever do a bug theme in your speech room? What materials and books are on your lesson plans?! There are also many other different themes related to a bug theme, such as spiders! Bugs are also a great segue into a garden theme! You can even niche down a bug theme even further into just a bee theme, ladybug theme, worm theme, etc!
Want more bug-themed speech therapy content? Check out these posts:
The Very Busy Spider Freebie
Ladybug Themed Speech Therapy
Hedgehugs and the Hattiepillar
Looking for spring themed speech therapy activities? Check out these blog posts:
Spring Speech Therapy Activities: A Mega Guide for SLPs
In the Tall, Tall Grass Freebie
Garden Themed Speech Therapy Activities
March Read Alouds and Activities
April Read Alouds and Activities
May Read Alouds and Activities
Tops and Bottoms Book Activities Freebie
Rainbow Craft for Speech Therapy
Spring Apraxia Worksheets
Spring Flowers Craft
Spring Receptive Language Activities
Spring Expressive Language Activities
Spring Articulation Worksheets
Thank you for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!
