Easter & Bunny Theme Lesson Plans for Speech Therapy

Easter / Bunny Theme Lesson Plans for Speech Therapy

Easter feels like the major kick-off to the spring season. Where I live, we get glimpses of spring weather before Easter, and if we’re lucky we have sunshine instead of snow that weekend. Easter themed activities can be a fun way to target speech and language goal areas, but I always check with families before incorporating this theme into therapy. At the beginning of the year, I like to ask families if there are any holidays they do or don’t celebrate, but it’s always a good idea to confirm or check in again around specific holidays, especially ones with a religious connection. Here are some of my favorite activities for an Easter themed week in Speech therapy!

Product Round-Up: Here is a list of my own resources I use in therapy during Easter!

No Prep Craft: Funny Bunny Glasses : This one page craft has options for 19 different speech sounds, and eight different language targets! Perfect for group sessions with mixed goal areas!

Crafts

Sun Catchers: I love to make these throughout the year! They really brighten up a therapy space. You can make eggs, bunnies, Easter baskets, carrots, really anything! Cut out an outline using black construction paper or cardstock, then with some tissue paper and contact paper you’ve got a beautiful sun catcher! This is a great craft to target following directions, articulation, phonological awareness, “wh” questions, sequencing , really any speech or language target!

Salt Painting: Have you tried salt painting yet?! It’s really fun, and a great way to target commenting, exclaiming, observations, making predictions, and just general spontaneous language production. You’ll need liquid glue, table salt, water colors and thick, sturdy paper like cardstock or water color paper. Easter Eggs make a perfect craft to use with raised salt painting. Using liquid glue, like Elmers, have your students design their own Easter Eggs, with different patterns and designs. If you want to save some time, you can always prepare the outline of the egg before hand, and let your students just decorate the inside. Then just like you would with glitter, sprinkle table salt all over paper until the glue is completely covered, shake off the excess and you’re ready to paint! Paint the salt with watercolors and watch the paint spread and the colors blend. A little water goes a long way with this craft, and the more paint you use, the more vibrant the colors will be. Salt painting is a craft and STEM activity all in one!

Pom Pom Painting: Use pom poms and a clothespin to create a unique paintbrush. Give your students an outline of a bunny, carrot, Easter egg, whatever you decide and they can dot paint their own creation! It can be a fun way to target patterns, add texture, target requesting (different paint colors, more paint, a new piece of paper, another project, etc), following directions, and really, whatever speech-language targets work for your students! You could try the same thing with Q-tips, cotton balls, or marshmallows , there are tons of ways to mix it up when it comes to painting!

Shaving Cream Easter Eggs: Painting with shaving cream is a great way to create marble-like paintings quickly. This can get a bit messy so it is not for the faint of heart, but with the right materials it’s a lot of fun ! You’ll need shaving cream, acrylic paint, a tray, newspaper or paper towel, toothpicks, and Easter eggs cut out from cardstock paper. Spread shaving cream over a tray, then have your students choose their paint colors. You want to add drops and lines of paint to the shaving cream. Use toothpicks or upside down paint brushes to swirl the paint droplets together, finishing with up and down strokes throughout the entire tray. (This post here has great pictures of how she designed her marble eggs.) Place your Easter egg onto the shaving cream tray and lightly push down, pulling the egg up gently after a few seconds. Leave the egg to dry for a few minutes, scrape away the excess shaving cream, then enjoy the beautiful designs!

Games

Pin the Tail on the Bunny: Like the classic birthday party game, Pin the Tail on the Bunny is a fun, COVID-safe, group game. Hang a large bunny poster somewhere in your therapy room or classroom, then give each student a bunny tail. You could use cotton balls, balled up scrap paper, laminated paper shaped like a bunny tail; get creative! Change up the way you play by giving students different directions to follow while they try to pin the tail on the correct spot on the Bunny!

Sensory Bins: Easter sensory bins truly light up my life. They are colorful, creative, engaging and so easy to make with simple items! Use kidney beans, black beans and pinto beans to create an earthy look or use a mixture of jelly beans and pom poms for color and fun! Hide therapy targets, mini-erasers, picture cards, carrots (try this freebie from Creative Clips !), eggs, bunnies, and more! What is your favorite thing to put in a sensory bin?! Use tongs or tweezers like these ones to play safely but separately and to reduce your cleaning after sessions!

Easter Egg Hunt: A classic, but so much fun! Fill your eggs with articulation targets, mini-erasers or other mini-items, picture targets, and more! Hide eggs around your therapy room or throughout the school. I like to give each student a specific color egg to find to prevent one student from finding all of them, and to limit cross contamination this year. What is your favorite thing to hide in Easter eggs?! I would love some new ideas!

Easter Egg Mix-Up: Have you ever changed the tops and bottoms of eggs so that the colors no longer matched? It can be a fun way to target coloring matching for little ones, but I like to put synonyms and antonyms on the tops and bottoms so that my students have to find the matching pair. You could do the same thing with homophones or rhyming words too! I don’t like to write on the eggs so I can reuse them for other things, but a little piece of scotch tape and a sharpie let me label the bottoms and tops of eggs easily!

Easter Egg Tower Stack: Use the tops or bottoms or the eggs and race to build the tallest tower! This is a great Minute-to-Win-It style game, and is tons of fun in group sessions. Mix it up by challenging your students to make patterns within their tower, to choose specific colors, or to follow silly directions before they can add to their tower.

Books

These are my favorite books to use during Easter themed sessions:

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick by Lucille Colandro

The Night Before Easter by Natasha Wing

Happy Easter, Mouse! By Laura Numeroff

It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny by Marilyn Sadler

Going on an Egg Hunt by Laura Hughes

Turkey’s Eggcellent Easter by Wendi Silvano

TPT

Feed the Bunny: Open-Ended Activity from Speech Gems

Easter Following Directions by The Pedi Speechie

Easter Egg Activities for Speech Therapy by Natalie Snyders (similar to the egg-matching activity I described above AND comes with word lists and extension activities!)

Easter and Spring No Prep Language by Ashley Rossi. Target verb tense, synonyms, antonyms and plurals with this freebie!

Easter Roll and Race by Peachie Speechie. This open ended activity works for your whole caseload!

Boom Learning

Feed the Easter Friends Free Sample : Free sample includes /p/ targets, but is a great way to target expanding phrases, and increased language use with preschoolers!

Who’s Behind the Easter Door? Target color matching and expanding phrases with this free deck!

Easter Bunny Dress Up : Design an outfit for the Easter bunny with this open-ended language deck.

Easter Bingo : This deck by Itty Bitty Speech is a fun open-ended language activity!