9 Fun & Easy Spring Ideas for Speech Therapists & OTs

March and April bring warmer weather and longer days but can be tough for therapists with Spring Break, state testing, last minute referrals, end-of-year paperwork, and the remaining IEP meetings. The anticipation of the end of the school year and summer approaching is palpable. Having fun activities that get therapists the data they need while keeping students engaged is a must!

Here are some of our favorite, ready-to-go spring activities, books, and crafts that are perfect for speech therapists and occupational therapists. Don’t worry! These easy-to-use therapy ideas will free up your planning time and are what you need to get you through the end of the school year!

1. St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day is a fun theme for March. You can look for leprechauns, search for the pot of gold, or make a green milkshake!

Book: Pete the Cat is always a hit with my younger students and How to Catch a Leprechaun is another popular book.
Activity: Pair the book with a fruit loop rainbow or make a shamrock shake!
Shamrock shake: vanilla ice cream, milk, and green food coloring. Give the option of adding mint flavoring if you would like. You can do regular milkshakes or dairy free.
Fruit Loop rainbow: Fruit Loop Cereal, pipe cleaners or paper, marshmallows (if using a pipe cleaner), cotton balls (if making fruit loop rainbow on paper)
Song: I’m a little leprechaun

2. St. Patrick’s Day Articulation Activity

This craft is perfect for the month of March and works well for a variety of age ranges, group sizes and speech and language goals. It’s easy to differentiate so students can all work on the same activity at the same time!

3. Kites!

Springtime brings warm, sunny and often breezy days perfect for kites!

Book: Just a Kite by Mercer Mayer or Kite Day by Will Hillenbrand
Activity: Paper kites. The kites make cute decorations to hang on a bulletin board, your door, or around your office.
Supplies needed: a kite template to practice cutting (just make your own), scrapbook paper for kite shapes, colorful straws for back of kite, bow tie shapes from various scrapbook paper, colored yarn, glue, and scissors
Fun Extension Idea: If you have real kites and space outdoors, it’s fun to bring in real kites and fly them outside! It’s a great opportunity for spontaneous language and descriptive writing.

Kite Directions:

Make a kite template with 2 small and 2 large triangles.
Cut out small and large triangles to glue on top of template.
Choose two small and two large triangles.
Match the triangles to the kite template and glue down.
Cut out your completed kite template.
Write your name on the back of your kite.
Take one large straw and two small straws and glue onto lines of kite.
Glue string to back of kite.
Choose 3 bowties and glue to tail of kite.

4. Daily Spring Fine Motor Skills Worksheets

These spring themed fine motor worksheets are the perfect activity to target multiple skills including coloring, cutting, glueing, writing, and drawing. These activities are perfect for Daily 5, fine motor journals, or independent work stations within the classroom. They also are an excellent tool for occupational therapists working collaboratively with special education teachers and speech therapists! The easy to follow format makes them an excellent resource for home practice, too!

5. Raindrop Sun Catchers

Book: The Rainy Day
Activity: Raindrop sun catchers
Supplies needed: contact paper, scissors, painter’s tape, tissue paper

Sun Catcher Directions:

Make a raindrop template and cut out.
Cut 2 pieces of square pieces of contact paper per student.
Peel the back off of one piece of contact paper and tape each end to the table to secure it.
Place different shades of tissue paper squares on the sticky part of the contact paper.
Then make a sandwich out of the contact paper by placing the second piece of contact paper on top of the tissue paper.
Next using your raindrop template, trace the raindrop on the contact paper.
Cut out the raindrop.
Display in your windows or send home.

If you have a big window to display the raindrop sun catchers on, you could make an umbrella or a cloud out of butcher paper to hang around the raindrops.

6. More Book Ideas

The Rainbow Fish is great for discussing what it means to be a good friend. Spring is Here is a cute story about friends and the changing of the seasons. I love the Red, Ripe Strawberry for inferencing, predicting, sequencing, and answering questions. It’s been one of my go-to books for many years. If St. Patrick’s Day isn’t a theme you typically do, you could pair When Spring Comes (YouTube link) and the rainbow crafts from above with this book.

7. Spring What’s Wrong Picture Scenes

These fun and interactive picture scenes are always a favorite and will have your students begging for more! Get ready for a fun year of therapy with these engaging, silly picture scenes that will have your students giggling and you collecting a ton of data!

The articulation picture scenes are perfect for working on articulation carryover and great conversation starters! Print and go or display digitally. Scenes are available in both color and black/white and include the following sounds: vocalic /r/, prevocalic /r/, /s/, /z/, /sh/, /ch/, /l/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/.

These picture scenes are a favorite of therapists AND students! You won’t be disappointed!

8. Spring Stuttering Activities

This resource is loaded with fun, easy-to-use spring activities that are designed to help your students practice using their fluency strategies in therapy. Use the visuals provided in combination with the activity sheets, picture scenes, wh-questions and conversation starters. Strategies come with a visual, an explanation, and a practice activity.

9. Spring Speech and Language Activities

If you just need something to help you survive the next few months that’s no-prep, no fuss, then this is the resource for you! It is filled with activities for everyone on your caseload. Simply print and go.

That’s it! 9 functional and engaging springtime activities that will eliminate the stress of trying to figure out what you’re going to do during March and April and your students will love. Everything is ready-to-go and little to no prep. I know how crazy the last few months of the school year are. You’ve got this!