Back-to-School Speech-Language Activities for Elementary Students

Looking for ideas for the new school year? I’ve got some back-to-school Speech-Language activities for you (including a freebie) . . . and most are no-prep or low-prep!

(If you looking for back-to-school speech-language activities geared more toward early language skills for students who need lots of visuals, check out this article.)

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Back-to-School Speech-Language Activities:

Back-to-School Craft for Speech Therapy: Articulation and Language

I love a good craft – great for engaging students and getting in multiple trials! Plus, students love to show off a craft at home, which makes them great for carry-over.

This lift-the-flap lunch box craft will keep your students’ hands busy while working on articulation or language goals! The food items have articulation or language targets on them. Students can practice each target while they color, cut, and then glue to get more trials in! Great for mixed groups too.

Back-to-School Language BINGO

Games are always a fun way to get your students engaged and excited about coming to speech therapy! This Back-to-School Language BINGO game can work for 1:1 sessions, small groups, or whole class push-ins. You can choose whether you focus on school vocab (kind of like playing Zingo with a school theme), riddles/inferences, or WH- questions.

There is even an option to print black & white boards that students can color in to mark their spaces. The “two-step directions” calling cards are made to go with these black & white boards. You can find Back-to-School Language Bingo here.

Back-to-School Speech Therapy Books

Here are some fun, school-themed books to try in your speech therapy sessions:

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes by Eric Litwin – this one is great for working on school locations and “where” questions
The Bus for Us by Suzanne Bloom – great for making simple inferences based on the illustrations
We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan Higgins – a funny read about social skills

Free Back-to-School Speech-Language Activity: School Scavenger Hunt

This free back-to-school scavenger hunt is perfect to work on vocabulary for school objects or find people and places around the school! You could also pair it with a school-themed book or video for more practice.

Here’s How to Use this Back-to-School Scavenger Hunt:

1. Preview Vocabulary: You can preview by simply labeling the pictures, or you can have students color in the black and white version.

2. Classroom Scavenger Hunt: Have your students explore their own classroom to find these common school objects! Students can cross off items they find. (If you have a 1:1 student or small group, using flashlights to find the school items in your speech room can be fun!)

3. School Scavenger Hunt: Take students around the school to locate these people and places. It is a great opportunity to say hi to different people in the school to practice social skills!

Back-to-School Following Directions: Coloring Activities

Coloring can be a calming activity for a lot of elementary students. I like to check out my local Dollar Tree for school-themed coloring books or print out some themed coloring sheets.

For students working on auditory comprehension skills, you can give coloring directions verbally – from one-step directions all the way up to multiple steps with qualifiers! (If you want a print-and-go option, check out these school-themed following directions coloring pages)

School-Themed Compare/Contrast Activity

If you are looking for a way to work on more complex language skills, comparing and contrasting is a great activity! You can help your students understand multiple features of two school vocabulary words (features, function, class, etc.) using a Venn diagram. Just draw it out on a mini-whiteboard or a piece of paper (or grab this cut-and-glue option)!

Some ideas include:

pencil vs. crayons
teacher vs. principal
classroom vs. cafeteria

Plus, you can help them practice using more complex language to explain the similarities and differences by organizing their thoughts in a Venn diagram. Don’t forget to teach them key words and sentence structures to use when explaining their thoughts.

You can get the print-and-go Back-t0-School Compare and Contrast Activity here.

Back-to-School Articulation Practice

Here’s one more no-prep articulation activity on the BOOM Cards platform! Spice up typical practice with a school-themed set of BOOM Cards to work on those articulation drills!