Celebrate summer with a cute (and yummy) craft! Crafts are an excellent way to target speech and language skills. They are filled with fun, so much so that a child may not realize they are “working” on skills!
Items Needed:
Items needed:
Vanilla pudding cup
Teddy grahams
Scissors
Airhead Belts
Mini Umbrella
Graham crackers
Instructions:
Place a few graham crackers in a bag or bowl. Crush to desired “sand” texture.
Prepare the Airhead Belts to make as a mini beach towel. Prior to cutting, determine the appropriate size of the Airhead by laying a Teddy graham on top for scale. This will help achieve the desired length for the towel. Then, cut the Airhead to size.
Pour the crushed graham crackers on top of pudding cup.
Decorate the pudding cup with a mini umbrella, Teddy grahams, and Airheads. Get creative with the beach scene!
Additional craft ideas:
Dye the pudding blue to make it look like water.
Use other candy items as beach objects, such as a Lifesaver as a swim raft or a striped round mint as a beach ball.
Pour the pudding cup into a larger bowl. This will provide more surface area to create a larger beach scene.
Ways to target speech and language skills:
Following Directions:
Print out the blog post instructions and have the child follow the directions. Or, read the instructions aloud to the child and have them work on their listening skills!
Grammar:
Focus on a specific grammatical skill, such as regular past tense -ed. Have the child retell the step after completed, such as “I crushed the graham crackers.”
Use with a Theme:
Themes are wonderful to incorporate in learning. See our blog post here for more on this: https://www.owlstherapy.com/new-blog/spring-book-list
One way to incorporate a theme is to read a summer book together and then make the beach pudding recipe!
Wh-Questions:
Focus on yes/no and wh-questions. These questions could be informational (i.e. “Who crushed the graham crackers?, What did you put on top?”, “Does it have an umbrella?”) or personal (i.e. “What was your favorite part of making the snack?”, “Do you like vanilla pudding?”)
Sequencing and Retell:
Follow the directions and complete the recipe. Then, have the child retell how they made the recipe. Don’t forget all the details!
Bonus! Work on written language skills. Encourage the child to write down the steps and mail the recipe to a friend!
Summer Vocabulary
Talk about all the summer items in the recipe, such as the sand, beach umbrella, and towel. Then, discuss all the other items that could be seen on the beach!
Spatial Concepts
Have the child describe where items are, such as: “in the sand”, “under the umbrella”, “on the towel”.
Sound Drill:
Find a word list with the child’s sound! Here is a great website with word lists: http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/?page_id=55
Have the child say their sound 5-10 times, then complete a step of the recipe!
Print out this blog post and have the child highlight their target sound throughout the recipe. For example, if their target sound is “S”, have them highlight any “S” words they see in the directions. Then, have them practice reading the directions aloud.
Enjoy the beach pudding and be on the lookout for our next craft idea!
About the Author
Janene Besch
Director/Speech-Language Pathologist
Janene Besch, née Martin, holds a Master's degree in Speech Language and Hearing Sciences from San Diego State University and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of California at San Diego. Janene is a member of the American Academy of Private Practice in Speech Pathology
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