Farm Themed Activities to Use in Speech Therapy

The farm might be one of the most quintessential speech therapy themes of all time. When I think back to my first sessions as an undergrad in the campus clinic, I picture myself dragging that big plastic barn (and the hundred farm animals that came with it) into my tiny therapy room for preschool language sessions.

I don’t need to tell you that a toy farm set is a fantastic way to elicit speech and language skills. But today, I want to show you tons of no-prep ways to use the farm theme without lugging around a bunch of plastic toys (and how to go beyond the basics with your older students).

Farm-Themed Activities for Speech Therapy

The beauty of a farm theme is its flexibility. You can target articulation, language, social communication, and even literacy skills using the same core vocabulary and visuals. And the best part? Many farm activities require little to no prep while still keeping students engaged, making them especially handy for speech-language pathologists looking for flexible, themed therapy ideas.

Below are some easy ways to bring the farm into your speech therapy room (or teletherapy sessions!) using digital resources, everyday materials, and interactive activities that work across age groups.

Virtual Field Trip

I can think of a few reasons you might not be able to drop everything and take your students to visit a farm. But that's okay, because you can still use a virtual field trip to introduce the farm theme right from your speech therapy sessions.

A virtual visit to the farm can introduce farm life and review animal vocabulary. First, the lesson teaches students about farms: what they are, what farmers do, what grows on farms, etc. It then has real pictures with prompts for various language goals right on each page. 

Language Activities

This farm-themed digital PDF actually has six speech and language activities designed to keep students engaged while targeting a variety of communication goals. Bright, colorful images and built-in visual supports help students stay focused on the topic while reducing your prep time. 

The activities allow you to target multiple skills within the same lesson, making it especially helpful for mixed groups or back-to-back sessions. Students can practice skills such as:

• Answering wh-questions about farm animals and daily farm routines

• Comparing and contrasting themed vocabulary

• Using subject pronouns in structured sentences

• Formulating complete sentences using visual prompts

These digital stickers are a great addition to your farm-themed lessons with younger students. You can use them for anything from eliciting animal sounds and expressive language to following one- or multi-step directions.

Articulation Activity

These articulation Boom Cards help students unleash their creativity by creating their own farm picture scenes. Under each movable animal or farm object is a target word that the student can produce by itself or in a phrase, sentence, or short story.

Because students are actively creating their scenes, practice feels more like play than drill work, making it easier to get repeated productions without losing engagement.

Of course, the deck can be used to target much more than speech sounds. As students create and talk about their scenes, you can work on spatial concepts and receptive language goals (like following directions), describing scenes, and expanding sentences.

For early language learners, the activity provides a fun way to build farm-themed vocabulary and practice combining words while interacting with meaningful visuals. Older students can expand the task by explaining their choices, telling stories about their farm scenes, or giving directions for someone else to recreate the picture.

Books

Search the following farm-themed books wherever you access digital titles (your local library, YouTube, websites, or online stores). These children's books would make great additions to your farm theme, while supporting literacy and giving plenty of ways to target speech and language.

• Farm Flu by Teresa Bateman

• 1001 Things to Spot on the Farm by Gillian Doherty

• Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

• Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton

• The Little Red Hen (Pair it with this Boom Card book companion.)

• Click, Clack, Moo and Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin

• Curious George's Day at the Farm by H.A. Rey

Videos

Videos are an easy, no-prep way to introduce or reinforce a farm theme in speech therapy. Include any of these videos in your lesson plans to introduce or practice farm vocabulary, work on core words with AAC users, or work on sentence building within the thematic unit.

• Use a farm vocabulary video that teaches and shows clips of the animals and crops that might be found on a farm... all in less than 3 minutes!
  

  

  
  

• We Are Teachers' site shares a list of many farm videos, including virtual field trips and tours and informational videos about things like how milk gets from the farm to our tables.

• Cuteness overload — check out John Deere Kids' video about baby animals on the farm.

• This Highlights Kids video teaches students how honey is made.

Farm-Themed Website Games and Activities

Interactive websites are a great way to continue the farm theme with little to no prep. They add movement and choice, which can increase participation while giving you natural opportunities to target speech and language goals.

Here are a few farm-themed websites for kids to explore:

• Toy Theater offers a farm hidden picture in which students search for objects disguised within a farm scene. This activity works well for targeting describing, spatial concepts, and expressive language.

• Toy Theater's sticker activity includes a farm background along with movable farm animals and crops. Students can build their own scenes while practicing following directions, sentence formulation, and storytelling.

• PBS Kids' Elmo & Grover's Farm Time Fun activity is great for younger students. The interactive format encourages vocabulary use, commenting, and basic problem-solving skills.

• PBS Kids also has a Daniel Tiger farm-themed memory game that supports turn-taking, memory skills, and simple language targets such as labeling and requesting.

• Let students choose a farm animal picture to color (printed or digitally) from thecolor.com.

• Visuals for real-world topics can spark great discussions. I found this cool picture (from Iowa Ag Literacy Foundation) that gets students thinking about all the household items supplied by agriculture– a great way to get students thinking and elicit language!

Farm Activities for Older Students

Farm themes aren’t just for preschoolers. With the right materials, you can easily adapt the topic to engage upper elementary, middle school, and even high school students while targeting more advanced speech and language goals.

A farm-themed fill-in-the-blanks passage is a fun way to naturally elicit both laughter and language. Pair the activity with speech sound-specific word lists to incorporate articulation practice in a way that feels age-appropriate rather than drill-based.

National Agriculture in the Classroom (NAITC) is a treasure trove of free lessons for students of all ages, including middle school and high school lessons that can easily be adapted for older students in speech therapy. For example, check out this lesson on how cow's milk gets from farms to grocery stores, complete with visuals for learning, sequencing, and explaining each step.

A quick memory game (from the BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation) can help students identify various agricultural careers and is perfect for students who are starting to explore education and job opportunities after high school.

Older students may enjoy learning about farm-related, real-world topics, such as teens who detassel corn for a summer job (from We Are Teachers) or how farming has changed over the years (from Down On The Farm). These types of resources naturally support higher-level skills like inferencing, comparing perspectives, and engaging in meaningful conversations.

As a busy SLP, you may love themed therapy but still struggle with limited storage space and prep time. The good news is that farm-themed activities don’t require bins full of plastic animals to create engaging, language-rich sessions.

Whether the farm is one of your favorite themes for spring, summer, or fall, these ideas can help you build therapy sessions filled with meaningful opportunities to target speech and language goals across age groups, from early learners all the way to older students working on real-world communication skills.

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