20+ Easy Preschool Ocean Activities for Speech Therapy

Easy preschool ocean activities for your summer speech therapy sessions

Looking for low-prep ocean activities for preschoolers and kindergarteners to wrap up the school year or fill your summer speech therapy sessions? I’ve got you covered with plenty of preschool ocean-themed activities, storybooks, songs, crafts, and play-based ideas that target both language and articulation. No need to spend hours searching for ideas and prepping, especially at this crazy busy time of year.

Why use ocean-themed preschool activities in speech therapy?

Summertime makes our thoughts turn to water fun, whether we live near the ocean or not.

The ocean is a high-interest topic for young children

Because the ocean and its creatures seem rather strange and mysterious, it gets little imaginations going. Your students will be extra eager to talk about the sea and ocean animals, making maintaining focus and engagement a breeze.

A preschool ocean unit is perfect for working on vocabulary and language.

Your preschool and kindergarten students will love talking about interesting, colorful ocean animals like sharks, whales, and crabs. Sea creatures fascinate children and will give you tons of language-rich opportunities. For instance:

•  Which animals are large?
• Which animals are small?
• How do they move?
• Where can we find them?
• What special parts do they have?
• How are they the same?
• How are they different?

Practicing vocabulary, categorizing, sentence expansion, describing, following directions, and articulation will become fun and motivating to little ones when wrapped up in an under-the-sea focus.

Using themes makes planning and prep so much easier for multiple groups.

Are you a fan of using themes in speech therapy? If so, you already know that organizing speech language activities for preschoolers around a theme makes it easy to address a wide range of goals with just a few materials.

Need a few ocean summer speech therapy ideas to get started? Try some of these…

10 Easy ocean activities for preschool speech therapy that target language and articulation.

I believe little ones learn best when they play, move, and use their imagination. These ocean-themed summer speech therapy ideas are all low-prep and easily adaptable for different goals:

1. Feed the Shark

Use a printable shark mouth or paper bag shark and have kids “feed” it picture cards or toy fish. I made the hungry shark above with construction paper glued to a box. Tip: Making “chomping” noises and moving the shark a bit as your children feed it will produce delighted squeals for preschoolers. So fun.

Targets: nearly any goal, including requesting, labeling, turn-taking, and articulation

You can find plenty more sharky ideas in this post: 14 Great Ideas for Shark Week in Preschool Speech Therapy

2. Ocean Animal Sort

Grab ocean animal pictures or toys, plus pictures or toys of another animal category, such as pond animals or farm animals. Sort the animals by where they live, large and small, or specialized parts like fins or claws.

Targets: naming, categorization, describing by attributes, compare and contrast

3. Fishy Directions

Hide paper fish cutouts around the room and give kids fun directions to find them (“Before you get the red fish, touch your toes!” or “Turn around 2 times, then look under the chair.”).

Targets: concepts, sequencing, basic concepts, and following multi-part directions.

4. Play with Dough

Grab the dough and:

a. Create sea creatures. Decorate them with wiggly eyes and pony beads (the shinier, the better) or make a sea urchin with a ball of dough and toothpicks. Don’t forget that star-shaped cookie cutter to create your starfish.

b. Make a fun green and blue dough ocean. Add plastic sharks, shells, fish, boats, and glass ‘gems’ or stones (The ones that are used to fill a vase) if you have them.

Targets: Any goal. Great for prompting language during child-led play.

5. Ocean Sounds Sort

Sort and name ocean animals or items by initial sound or final sound for a quick phonological awareness or articulation warm-up. What sound do they both start with? What sound is at the end?

Targets: phonological awareness, ocean animal vocabulary, categorizing, articulation

A few examples:

Initial Sounds	Final Sounds
whale/wave	fish/splash
ship/shell	eel/gull
sand/seal	cove/wave
coral/cove	ocean/dolphin
dune/dolphin	porpoise/octopus

6. Go Fishing

Cut out construction paper fish and attach large metal paper clips to them. (You may need several paper clips for larger “fish”.)  I like to make fish of different sizes so we can talk about and sort our “catch” into small, medium, and large. Glue articulation or language pictures on one side of your fish, or just add 1-3 numbers or dots so you can “keep score.”

Next, you’ll need a wooden dowel or stick, string, and a magnet. Or use a child’s real fishing pole, minus the hook. Tie your string to the “rod” and the magnet on the other end of the string. 

You can see how I created a “fishing hole” for my pond theme in this ASHA Leader Post. Just swap the cattails for some colorful seaweed, and you’ll be all set.

Targets: Size concepts, color words, articulation of /f/ and sh, irregular past tense verbs “caught” and ‘got’

7. Ocean Animal “I Spy”

Use mini ocean toys or pictures for a guessing game. Lay the items out and have children guess which one you are talking about. Then give your students a turn to give the clues. “I spy something that ____.”

Targets: Vocabulary, initial sounds, naming to a description, s-blends, and expanding sentences.

8. Puppet Play

Use ocean animal puppets (or DIY paper ones) for pretend play while practicing articulation and sentence formulation in context.

Targets: Sentence construction, expanding sentences, asking questions, action verbs, vocabulary, and more.

9. Create an Ocean Sensory Bin

a. Water beads are fantastic to add some “splash” without the mess to a water-themed sensory bin. Add plastic ocean animals, shells, small fishing poles, and boats to your bin. If you have small “nets” you can catch and sort the ocean animals and examine how the animals are the same or different.

b. For a ‘dry” ocean sensory bin with paper cutout ocean animals, shredded paper (like you find for gift bags), or blue pompoms make great fillers.

Targets: sensory words, ocean animal vocabulary, verbs, asking and answering questions, and more.

10. Sink or Float?

Try a mini science activity with ocean toys. Kids can make predictions and describe what happens-perfect for verbs, describing, and comparing. For more water play ideas, check out this post: Three Reasons Why You Should Include Waterplay in Speech and Language Therapy

Targets: prediction, vocabulary, verbs, retelling, and more.

12 Preschool ocean books for speech therapy

You’ll want to add at least two great books to your preschool ocean activities. Here are some of my favorite storybooks for ocean-themed therapy sessions. They’re full of rhyme, repetition, and colorful visuals. Grab the book, or find a read-aloud on YouTube.

If you don’t have a hard copy of the book, check YouTube for a read-aloud video. When showing a YouTube storybook reading, I prefer one that shows the entire page and is not animated.

It doesn’t matter if the book is read well, because I mute the volume, pause on each page, and read the story to students myself. This way, we can take our time to explore the pictures, predict, stop, discuss, and practice articulation during our reading.

Here are some favorite preschool ocean books:

1. Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea by Jan Peck features an adventurous little boy diving deep into the ocean. The colorful pictures and rhyming text will capture little imaginations.
2. Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae. Learn about sea creatures with fun rhyming text and lots of SH practice.
3. The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen is about a grumpy, frowny fish. It has adorable illustrations and repetitive text that will make it easy for your students to chime in and participate.  
4. Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. Check out this excellent reading:  Rainbow Fish Read-Aloud by Ernest Borgnine
5. A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle. Hermit Crab has outgrown his shell. Where will he go next?  Wouldn’t it be fun to bring in a pet hermit crab to talk about for this lesson?
6. Smiley Shark by Ruth Galloway. Poor Smiley doesn’t understand why no one wants to play with him. Will he find friends? Find my book companion activities for Smiley Shark here.
7. The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist is a fun takeoff on the Three Little Pigs, with a big shark as the bad guy.
8. Hooray for Fish! by Lucy Cousins repeats “fish” over and over, making it perfect for /f/ and sh practice
9. Over in the Ocean: In a Coral Reef by Marianne Berkes is a counting book written using the rhythm of “Over in the Meadow”. Each sea animal performs an action such as squirt, grind, or stir, providing lots of opportunities to learn new vocabulary as they answer “What did they do?” with less common verbs.
10. I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry. A squid thinks he’s the biggest thing in the ocean, until….
11. Big Blue Whale by Nicola Davies. Learn fun facts about Blue whales in this child-friendly book. This story is great for a range of ages.
12. Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen. Mr Magee and his dog pack a lunch and head out to sea in their boat for a fun day on the ocean. But when they find themselves over the blowhole of a playful whale, they end up high in a tree. How will they get down? Ideal for targeting many goals, including predicting, inferencing, verbs, and articulation. Both your preschool and elementary students will enjoy this one.

5 Ocean-themed movement and song breaks

Need a brain break or transition? Pair movement with target words or directions to sneak in extra language learning.

 These YouTube videos are preschool-friendly and will fit right into your ocean theme:

1. Fish Freeze Dance – Kiboomu Kids
2. Octopus Song – Maple Leaf Learning
3. Down in the Deep Blue Sea – Super Simple Songs. It’s easy to add movements to this simple, repetitive song.
4. A Sailor Went to Sea by Super Simple Songs has lots of initial /s/ practice and animal names
5. 10 Little Fishies Finny The Shark – Super Simple Songs. This adorable counting song offers plenty of repetition for articulation practice of initial /f/, /k/, and /g/, sw blends, sh, and final /z/.

Ocean preschool crafts that are quick, cute, and language-rich

No Pinterest perfection needed here – these preschool ocean theme crafts are simple enough to prep during your lunch break:

1. Paper plate Jellyfish

Cut your paper plate in half and color it. Cut slits along the cut bottom and string paper strips or crepe paper through the slits for tentacles. Draw or add wiggly eyes for extra fun. Practice /j/, color words, or sequencing steps.

Here’s another sea creature craft I love by Easy/Peasy and Fun. Whale paper plate craft.

2. Ocean in a Bottle

Layer water, oil, and glitter in a water bottle. Add tiny plastic ocean animals if you have them. (It’s a good idea to hot-glue the cap shut after filling the bottle to prevent spills.) Great for vocabulary (floating, sinking), describing, and cause-and-effect.

3. Torn paper sea turtles

Tear green paper to decorate a turtle shell. Targets: /t/, describing textures, spatial concepts.

4. Under the sea collage

Use leftover paper scraps to create a big ocean scene. Great for labeling, commenting, and categorizing.

5. Thumbprint fish

Use washable stamp pads (and little fingers) to create colorful fish, then add details with a pencil. The cute fishermen and boat picture is perfect for talking about spatial concepts of over and under, working on color words, wh questions, and practicing final /sh/ articulation too.

6. Cotton swab painting with washable stamp pads. Use cotton swabs to dot the fish in the black-and-white fish-counting printable. Provide 2 or 3 different colors so your littles can make each “school” of fish colorful!

Work on color words, counting, spatial concepts, following directions, or articulation. You can also print the cards in color to create a fun articulation game that will yield a ton of trials.

Games for your preschool ocean unit

Do you have, or can you borrow, these fun commercial games? They’ll fit right in with your ocean theme:

Pop-up Pirate by Tomy was always a favorite in my therapy room. Take turns putting the swords in the barrel… until he pops. He sails high and makes me jump every time.

Shark Bite Game by Pressman. Kids go fishing in the shark’s mouth for the sea creatures, but sometimes its jaws snap shut. Children love the suspense and the snap!

Squid Squish by Funwares also looks like fun. Children use their “squid” dome to press over and capture the colored balls

If you’re looking for an online game, check out tide pools, add a school of fish to the ocean, go on a treasure hunt for seashells, or build a sandcastle at PBS Kids Splashtastic Beach Day Game. These ocean-themed preschool activities are perfect for vocabulary, describing, and are great motivational activities too.

Want a few fun, easy preschool ocean activities ready to go?

I have a set of three ocean printables for you:

1. A cotton swab fish-painting page
2. A fishy counting card game and…
3. A thumbprint craft your kids will love.

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I hope you found plenty of grab-and-go ideas you can use right away this summer.

Whether you’re doing a full ocean week or sprinkling in just a few salty activities, these ideas will help you support speech and language goals with fun, flexibility, and minimal prep.

Find more summer activity ideas in these posts:

15 Fun Summer Speech Therapy Ideas -Let’s Go Camping!

14 Great Ideas for Shark Weeks in Preschool Speech Therapy