Practical Ways to Use a Summer Vacation Theme in Speech Therapy
- shannon | speech hamster
- May 10
- 5 min read
A summer vacation theme is an easy one to work with. Most students have some connection to it – whether it’s a trip, a day outing, or just the idea of going somewhere different. That familiarity makes it easier to build vocabulary, practice language, and layer in articulation without having to over-explain the context.
Summer Vacation Vocabulary to Use Across Activities
This is one of those themes where a small set of words can carry you through multiple activities. Introduce them once, and then keep reusing them. You don’t need a huge list –just enough to keep things consistent across activities.
Destinations: beach, campground, theme park, city, hotel, relatives house
Transportation: car, airplane, train, bus, boat, ship
Items to Pack: clothes, shoes, swimsuit, sunscreen, towel, toothbrush, snacks
Activities / Actions: swim, hike, play, eat, travel, pack, ride, visit
Discuss Vacation Options
A simple place to start is talking through where to go and how to get there. It gives you a chance to build vocabulary and get students thinking about the theme without adding much structure yet.
Activity Ideas:
Vocabulary: Have students generate a list of vacation destinations, transportation options, items they might pack and activities they might plan to do. Grab this list of summer vacation themed words for reference.
Categories: Sort pictures or words into destinations, transportation, items to pack and activities to plan.
Make a Choice: Ask "Would You Rather" styled questions like "If you had to choose, would you go camping or to the beach?", "ride in a car or on a train?", "pack a suitcase or a backpack?", etc.
Pack for the Trip
Packing tends to be where things click. It’s concrete, familiar, and easy to turn into a task without much setup.
Activity Ideas:
Name the Function: Have students choose an item that could go in a suitcase and describe what it’s used for.
Follow the Directions: Using a shoebox as a pretend suitcase, give simple directions like Put the sunglasses in the suitcase or Pack the toothbrush next to the towel.
What Do You Need?: Show a destination and have students explain what they would bring and why.
Plan the Activities
This is where you can start adding a little structure. Planning out what happens during the trip naturally brings in sequencing and action words.
Activity Ideas:
Sequence the Day: Choose 2–3 activities (swim, eat, hike, visit) and put them in order using first, next, last and explain why.
Act It Out: Have students select and act out an activity for others to guess.
What Happens Next?: Describe part of the trip and have students tell what would come next. Examples:
“Suzie got in the car and buckled her seatbelt. What happens next?”
“The campers finished setting up the tent. What happens next?”
“The airplane landed at the airport. What happens next?”
“It started raining during the camping trip. What happens next?”
“The family spread out a blanket at the park. What happens next?”
Build a Vacation Scene
Adding a visual piece helps bring everything together. It also gives you a simple way to work on directions and spatial concepts without needing a separate activity.
Activity Ideas:
Build the Scene Barrier Game: Have one student describe a vacation scene while another recreates it. Super Duper's Magnetic Barrier Game Story sets work well for this kind of activity (not an affiliate).
Vacation Game Board: Use a simple board game where students move and respond to WH questions such as:
What would you pack for the beach?
What would you do on a camping trip?
Where could you swim on vacation?
Where would you buy snacks during a trip?
Who would you bring on vacation?
Who might work at a hotel?
When do families usually go on vacation?
When would you stop to eat on a road trip?
Why would someone travel by airplane instead of car?
Why is sunscreen important?
Search and Find: Using a picture scene, have students locate items by providing descriptions or prepositional concepts. Visit Alison Fors' Free Picture Scenes for Speech Therapy on Pinterest.
Enjoy the Vacation!
At this point, students have enough to talk about. This is where you can shift into storytelling, problem solving, and slightly longer responses.
Activity Ideas:
Create a Vacation Story: Have students create a simple story with a setting, characters, and other key story elements.
Problem Solving: Ask questions like What would you do if it rained at the beach? or What would you do if you forgot your suitcase?
Fill in the Blank Story: Use your favorite AI tool to create a fillable story.
💡Here is an example of a prompt created for ChatGPT:
➜ Create a fill-in-the-blank story for elementary students using a summer vacation theme. Write the story in paragraph format at a 2nd grade reading level. Include at least 10 sentences with a clear beginning, middle, and end, along with a simple problem and solution.
Use blanks labeled with (person), (noun), (verb), and (adjective). Use (person) for the main characters and (noun) for places and things. Do not include any other labels or explanations in parentheses. The story should read smoothly when the blanks are filled in.
➜ Follow up prompt: Create a word list for students to select from that is organized by type of word. Exclude "person" as an option.
Featured Resources
If you want something to support these activities without adding more prep, a summer vacation theme pairs easily with these made-for-you materials.
Printables:
100 Trials Seasonal, Open Ended Card Games Bundle (free download when you subscribe to the Speech Hamster Newsletter)
Digital Boom™ Cards:
– This section contains affiliate links. A small commission may be earned at no additional cost.–
Books to Support a Summer Vacation Theme
The Night Before Summer Vacation – Written by Natasha Wing, illustrated by Julie Durrell: A family hurriedly packs for a summer vacation, experiencing the excitement and chaos typical of pre-trip preparations.
The Truth About My Unbelievable Summer... – Written by Davide Cali, illustrated by Benjamin Chaud: A boy returns to school with an unbelievable story about his summer vacation, keeping readers guessing about its truth.
On the First Day of Vacation – Written by Tish Rabe, illustrated by Sarah Jennings: A young girl recounts her summer vacation adventures, highlighting family activities, outdoor fun, and the joy of creating lasting memories.
Keeping it Simple
A summer vacation theme doesn’t require much to get started. With a small set of vocabulary and a few consistent activities, you can move through multiple goals without needing to plan something new each time.
If you want to tie this into what’s already on the calendar, moments like National Road Trip Day mark the start of summer travel and fit naturally into your sessions. You can also explore more National Day themes that fall during the summer months here: National Day Themes (Summer Months).
Hi! I'm Shannon, creator of Speech Hamster. If you have found the information in this blog post useful, there's more where that came from! Subscribe to the Speech Hamster Newsletter to gain access to the Free Resource Library; a hub containing a host of downloadable resources and so much more!
Portions of this blog post were drafted with AI prompt assistance then reviewed and edited by me.
Comments