Because the best things in life are free.
I don’t know about you, but I absolutely LOVE work from October until December. Is it because the leaves change color and fall? No, I live in Los Angeles. Is it because of pumpkin spice lattes? Maybe. Is it that there are fewer IEP meetings? Probably. But no, the main reason is because there are so many amazing speech therapy materials available for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And guess what? A lot of them are FREE.
I’ve compiled a list of some of my absolute favorite free resources to use in speech therapy during the month of October. Because yes, you can do Halloween activities throughout the entire month. These are separated into three categories: digital/no print resources, printable resources, and games/apps. Within each category, I go from activities I use with younger students up to activities I use with older students. Let’s get to the free stuff...
DIGITAL AND NO PRINT RESOURCES
Five Little Monsters Jumping on the Bed Song Companion Boom Cards by BabbleBee Speech. I found this fantastic freebie in 2020 and my preschool and younger elementary students went CRAZY for it. It accompanies the Super Simple Song, available for free on YouTube. I like to play a portion of the song, then stop it and use the Boom Cards to describe what happened. You can use this in-person or during teletherapy sessions. My students loved when the monsters would fall off the bed and bump their heads on different objects. So much fun.
Decorate the Pumpkin Boom Cards by A Perfect Blend. There are a million Potato Head Boom Card decks out there, but for some reason this pumpkin one cracks me up. There are lots of different pumpkins to decorate, and you choose from different phrases and sentences for requesting or describing. Sentence strip visual supports for language make this decorating activity extra helpful and great. My students who use AAC love this activity!
Room on the Broom Book Companion Boom Cards by Speech Glam. I don’t know about you, but I read Room on the Broom with my students every year. I love it for sequencing, wh- questions, inferencing, and more! Don’t have the book? You can find it on YouTube! I like this one. These free Boom Card character and question cards are a quick and easy (no prep) companion to the story.
Halloween Sequencing and Story Retell Boom Cards by the Crafter Teacher. I like this sequencing activity because not only do students get to retell the story, they also get to physically move items in the sequence to decorate for the Halloween party. This little activity can target so many different goals! There are four total sequences, and each one has three cards.
Halloween Would You Rather Boom Cards by Speech Bop. I use “Would You Rather” activities with my older social skills students at EVERY holiday. They always seem to spark conversation in a way that other conversation starters don’t. This free deck has a bunch of Halloween-themed questions that will get your students talking!
PRINTABLE RESOURCES
Halloween Articulation Vocabulary Books Freebie by Speech is Sweet. These cute little books are sound-loaded for students working on /k/, /g/, or /s/ blends. They are great for using with your younger kiddos, not just for articulation! They can be used for teaching halloween vocabulary and expanding utterance length. This is a print and go activity, and students have so much fun coloring and making their little books!
Halloween Roll & Cover Game by Tech ‘n Talk SLPs. This Halloween themed game is great because it’s open-ended and can be paired with any target words, pictures, cards, and activities you use with your students. I like to use this game with mixed groups. Print and laminate the four game boards and save them to use year after year!
Crayola Halloween Coloring Pages. Don’t skip this one! It’s not just coloring pages. Crayola has two pages worth of games, activities, crafts, and coloring pages for you to download! Sometimes a busy SLP just needs a coloring page to print for ALL HIS/HER GROUPS. This resource has fun stuff for not just your younger students, but your older students as well! Check it out! I could seriously use the stuff on this page to cover the entire month of October.
Halloween WH- Questions by TheTalkingOwl. These are just simple Halloween-themed question cards that could be used either for students working on wh- questions or for students working on conversation skills.
Halloween Mad Labs for Speech by Super Power Speech. Who doesn’t love Mad Libs? This Halloween-themed one is extra fun AND comes with word lists for /r/ and /s/. If your students are working on different sounds, it won’t be hard to find words with their sounds to fill in the blanks! I use this with older students who are still working on generalization of /r/ or /s/.
Halloween Figurative Language by SpeechMonster. For your older students working on figurative language and deciphering meaning from context clues, these cards are wonderful! This resource has 24 different idioms used in context, you could work on learning a few each week throughout the entire month!
What Are They Thinking? A Halloween Activity by the Speech Paths. I first got this activity over seven years ago when I was in grad school working with my first clients! The picture is so interesting and thought-provoking. This is a fabulous perspective-taking activity to use with older elementary students.
GAMES & APPS
Abby and Elmo Dress Up Time on PBS Kids. I don’t think this game is Halloween-specific, but I use it at this time of year because Abby and Elmo are dressing up in different costumes. First, you listen and follow directions about how to dress up. Then students get to pick their own costume! This activity can be used as a reinforcer, or can be used to target language goals for preschool students.
Make a Pumpkin Game on ABCya. I love, love, LOVE using ABCya’s games during teletherapy! This game can be used as a reinforcer or used as the activity itself! Students can request, give directions, expand utterance length, and more! I like to see what they end up creating, because it’s always hilarious! This activity is super motivating for younger students!
Halloween Games for Kids App by Moo Moo Lab (iOS). In the free version of this app, you can design a monster and decorate a witch’s house. I use it for following directions, expanding utterances, and answering questions. This is a simple and fun app to use with preschool and kindergarten students.
Halloween Car App by Labo Lado, Inc. (Google Play version here). In this free app, you design a fun halloween car then drive it on spooky roads. I like this app because there are SO many options when you’re designing the car. You can really get creative. I use this app for following directions and expanding utterances, or just as a simple reinforcer (students get to add one thing to the Halloween car after each turn).
I hope this list of FREE Halloween speech therapy activities help makes October planning a breeze in your speech room! Have a fun and relaxing Halloween!