Dollar Store Dash {Linky Party!} Making Speech Fun (& Gross) for Halloween!

 

I love when fellow-SLP’s host linky parties!  It’s such a great opportunity for the rest of us SLP bloggers to think outside the box and share some creative ideas or maybe some tried and true materials, therapy techniques and organizational methods that we use everyday.  Teach Speech 365’s linky party is no exception. I had so much fun perusing the aisles of the dollar store conjuring up some fun new ways to use cheap and simple items in my therapy sessions.  So here’s what I came up with—I kept it themed to all things Halloween.  I hope you can find some of these same items in your local dollar store too and your kiddos are sure to have a blast in your therapy sessions this Halloween season!

 

 

One bag of skeleton plastic rings= $1.00

One severed, bloody plastic hand= $1.00.   

My middle-school kiddos are going to love this fun and gory-looking activity–especially the boys!!  You can use this activity for keeping track of correct responses for any goal you are targeting: articulation, vocabulary building,  comprehension questions, etc.  Each student in the group claims rights to one finger.  When a correct response is given, the player gets to slip a ring onto the finger.   Whoever has the most rings piled onto their finger first is the winner!   (I cut  the rings at the back to make them easier to slip onto the fingers if necessary).

 

One foam pumpkin=$1.00

One bag of scary face pieces= $1.00

I love foam carving pumpkins—no slimy seeds to deal with!  And all the scary pumpkin face decorations were hanging next to the foam pumpkins so I knew I just had to grab these for my dollar dash idea.    The pieces easily press right into the foam pumpkin and stay put.  I would use them to address direction following, spatial concepts, If/then statements, as positive reinforcement for any targeted goal.  For example:  “Put the left ear next to the stem and the eyes below the stem.”   OR “If bats sleep in caves, then put the nose on the pumpkin, if they don’t, add the left ear.”   You can make the task as easy or complex as needed to meet the ability levels of your students.

 

One bag of plastic bloody eyeballs=$1.00

Gotta love these bloodshot eyeballs!  Twelve plastic pieces came in a pack.  They are about the size of ping pong balls and bounce pretty well so I know my  kiddos are going to try and bounce them around the room, but I have different plans.   Number your eyeballs with a permanent marker.  For my purposes, I used numbers 1-4 on eight of the balls, but on the back of three them I put an “x” (you could also use a scary Halloween sticker).  Students get to reach into a container and pick out an eyeball after responding to a questions for the area you are targeting.  Keep a tally of the points earned, however if they pick the X or scary sticker, they must put all eyeballs back in the box!!    Lots of suspenseful ups and downs in this eye-popping game idea!!

 

So there you have it….

Cheap Halloween therapy ideas=$5.oo  

Motivated, engaged students having fun while learning=Priceless!!! 

Don’t forget to check out the other “dollar dash” ideas Teach Speech 365 is sharing over on her blog!!