In my Pets Themed Blog Post, I talked about how much I love themes you can use all the way from January - December because they are budget conscious, can be pulled out anytime, and can be used more than once (or twice) a year!
I'm sure you know by now that I am a huge fan any resource that can target a tonne of goals. This is my round up of tried and true resources for a monster theme in speech therapy. I love to use monsters as an alternative to Halloween, for kids who don't celebrate. As always, there are books, songs, hand-on activities, games, toys, and distance learning resources.
BOOKS
Shake a Leg: This story is a must for busy preschoolers. The bright and colourful pictures invite movement on each page - which makes it great for verbs and following directions. Listen to the story on Youtube HERE.
There's a Monster at the End of This Book: This book is hilarious and is great for older preschoolers. Poor Grover is so afraid of the monster at the end of the book and does everything to prevent you from flipping the page. Despite all his efforts, he gets to the end of the book and finds out the monster is him!
I use this book for past tense verbs,
vocabulary, and following directions,
and negation. Listen to it on Youtube HERE.
There's a Monster in Your Book: This series of books is SO FUN! The book is filled with simple directions for the child to follow - so they don't even really know that they are working on their receptive language skills! Interactive books are perfect for those students who don't love books (we all have a few of those!).
I wanna Cookie: This repetitive and interactive book is perfect for targeting CVCV word shapes. Students will love choosing a colorful cookie to feed the different members of the monster family. It is available as a BOOM Card and as a PDF.
GAMES
Guess My Monster: There are so many colourful monsters - all that are different from each other by only a few features, making it great for describing, How the game works is one player takes a card and the other player has a guessing card. The player tries to guess the card by asking questions and describing. IT includes visuals for describing to support the child. It is a great way to work on adjectives, stating features, comparing and contrasting, and asking questions.
Gobble Monster is a fun and easy game that makes kids giggle the entire time! I like to pair this preschool speech therapy game with my Game and Toy Companions (there are over 35+ games and toys included and over 60 goals you can target). It's truly a mix and match activity that can be used in your speech and language therapy sessions all year long!
Feed the Woozle: I cannot say enough about this game. I have never met a child that doesn't LOVE this game. This silly Woozle LOVES to eat yucky snacks. Not sure where to start? Grab Words Matter's FREE Game Companion in her TPT store. Don't own the game? Make your own with a paper bag, markers, construction paper and some creativity!
Yeti in my Spaghetti: This is a perfect quick turn taking game that you can pair with articulation cards or use to target turn taking, spatial concepts, and negation. It is ideal for little ones working on fine motor skills as well! (It is also included in my Speech Therapy Game + Toy Companions!)
TOYS
Fisher Price Stack and Nest: Two of these monsters open so you can feed them! I use mini erasers, but you could use ANYTHING - pom poms, Shopkins, or beads. I like to target early words, such as eat, mommy, daddy, baby, want, food, more, in, open, and out. They are also great for vocabulary if you think of synonyms for eat (gobble, chew, devour), following directions (feed the monsters in different orders), and spatial concepts (put the food in/out/on/beside). You can also target possessive 's by talking about whose food it is and requesting by having the student request a food item to feed the monster.
SONGS
These super simple songs have repetitive lyrics, which make them perfect for little learners. You can use them to work on word shapes, verbs, and simple vocabulary.
DISTANCE LEARNING
Build A Monster Activity: This free game is available at PinkCat Games. Your students can pick items for the monster to wear with the click of a button. This is perfect for requesting, describing, body parts, and vocabulary
SENSORY BIN
My Thematic Sensory Bin Product has over 30 themes - and includes a Monster theme!
Each theme comes with a Sensory Bin Cover, Legend, and pieces to put in your sensory. You can create over 30 sensory bins with this one product!
You can create either mini sized Sensory Bins (perfect for on the go therapists) or full size Sensory Bins! These are perfect for your preschool speech therapy sensory bin activities!
HANDS ON ACTIVITIES
Play Dough Monsters: This super easy and low prep craft is perfect to keep little hands busy! Simply grab some google eyes, pipecleaners, play dough, beads and pom poms. Let the child lead the play and create cuet and colourful monsters!
Using different colours, shapes, and sizes of materials allows you to work on complex directions and concepts. You can also work on describing, similarities/differences, and increasing MLU.
Remember those visuals from the Guess My Monster Game? I use them in this activity, too!
Monster Mini Object Scene: This is one of the 90 Mini Object Scenes in my Mini Object Scenes. Pair with any small manipulatives (mini erasers, pom poms, play dough) to create scenes or feed the monsters. It includes visuals for wh-questions, spatial concepts, and describing. It is a versatile activity for a variety of speech and language goals.
This combination of activities will allow you to use this monster theme with your entire caseload to target expressive language, receptive language, wh-questions, articulation, and more!!
I have put together lists of my favorite resources for my SIX favorite year-round themes (zoo, farm, food, pets, monsters, and cookies) in the freebies section of my website!
These are not affiliate links - these are simply resources that I have used and loved for years because they are fun and versatile! Access this and a tonne of other freebies by becoming a subscriber to the Anna Dee SLP Email List!