Celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day in the Speech Room

September 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day!  My clients love imitating pirates, having "sword" fights, reading Pirate-themed books, play pirate-themed apps, and making pirate crafts.  It might be their favorite week, and it makes for some fun and easy planning.

BOOKS:
I love incorporating books into my therapy sessions.  You can target so much with them--articulation, WH questions, retell, sequencing, fluency, vocabulary, and more. One of my favorites is The Pirate Who Couldn't Say Arrrr by Angie Neal.  It's written by a speech-language pathologist! One pirate cannot say /r/, and this books helps kids discover how he learned how to say it.

Another client favorite is Pirates Love Underpants by Claire Freedman. The pirates who love underwear go on a search for the coveted Pants of Gold. This book always makes kids laugh.

We also really like How I Became a Pirate by Miranda Long. A boy is creating a sand castle and starts dreaming about becoming a pirate. This is a fun one to learn how to act, walk, talk, etc. like a pirate.

CRAFTIVITIES:
One of my favorite activities to get kids up and moving is making "swords" out of pool noodles.  Just go to the dollar store and find some (if they still have any). Here's a tutorial from Kitchen Floor Crafts:

Photo from Kitchen Floor Crafts

One craft we always do is make pirate hats!  I love crafts that target speech/language.  We use this one from my friend Courtney at Psst Let's Talk.

We also like to make crafts to decorate the hallways.  I love to use this one from Crazy Speech World. It targets so much and can show off the kids' hard work!

APPS:
I use apps a decent amount as reinforcers.  There are some fun pirate ones out there right now! I've listed some affiliate links for your convenience.

For a specific SLP app, I like to use Articulation Vacation. It is from Virtual Speech Center and is a fun way to target drill while playing games.

Articulation Vacation

1000 Pirates is one of our favorites.  It is a FREE app for kids to create their own pirates!

1000 Pirates

My younger kids love Kids Drawing: Pirates. It's a FREE app that is like a coloring book.

Kids Drawing: Pirates

My preschoolers also like Pirates! It has mini games and puzzles for them to complete. Our OT buddies might like this one for fine motor as well.  There is a FREE version and a paid version.

Pirates!!-Pirate Kids Game w/ Challenging Preschool Mini Games & Puzzles

If your students are a fan of the MyPlayHome apps, they might like Tiny Pirates-Kids' Activity App.  Kids get to explore the life of the pirates aboard a pirate ship!

Tiny Pirates-Kids' Activity App

If you do a search in the App Store for "Pirates," you will find a ton of different apps.  You can narrow your search by age-range as well.

PACKET:
When we're not doing one of the fun things listed above, we are using this packet to target more specific goals such as problem/solution, cause/effect, describing, Wh questions, synonyms/antonyms, sequencing, written language, and more. You can find it in my TpT store if you are interested!

Enjoy celebrating with your little pirates this week! What are your favorite activities for Talk Like a Pirate Day?