50 Preschool Group Speech Therapy Activities (with How-To + Specific Goals!)
- Anna Dalziel
- Apr 8
- 9 min read

If you’re a pediatric SLP looking for group therapy activities that are fun, low-prep, and packed with specific speech and language targets—you’re in the right place. Whether you're working on early sentence structure, pronouns, or describing with attributes, these activities will help you keep little learners engaged and progressing.
Here are 50 group therapy activities you can use with your preschoolers—including how to play, how to keep all students engaged, and tips for eliciting each goal!
Movement-Based Group Activities
1. Simon Says with Verbs
Target: Action verbs (jump, hop, spin)
How to Play: Lead “Simon says” commands using targeted verbs.
Keep Everyone Involved: Rotate leaders and give quick commands.
Eliciting Tip: Ask, “What did Simon say to do?” to get the verb repeated.
2. Obstacle Course Directions
Target: Multi-step directions with spatial concepts
How to Play: Set up a course and give two-step spatial directions.
Keep Everyone Involved: Others repeat or act it out in place.
Eliciting Tip: Have students repeat the direction before their turn.
3. Freeze Dance with WH- Questions
Target: WH- questions (who, what, where)
How to Play: Dance to music. Freeze and ask WH- questions.
Keep Everyone Involved: Use questions that include everyone.
Eliciting Tip: Use visuals or sentence starters as needed.
4. Animal Walk Races
Target: Verb tenses (past/present)
How to Play: Move like animals, then discuss what you did.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone moves. Take turns choosing animals.
Eliciting Tip: Ask, “What did you do?” and model past tense verbs.
5. Parachute Play
Target: Pronouns and verbs
How to Play: Use a parachute for lifting, shaking, or bouncing.
Keep Everyone Involved: Assign roles like shaker, runner, or lifter.
Eliciting Tip: Comment with pronouns and model, model, model!
6. Hot Potato Story Chain
Target: Sentence expansion with conjunctions
How to Play: Pass a ball. Add to the story using “and,” “but,” or “because.”
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone helps generate ideas.
Eliciting Tip: Give choices of words they can use.

7. Musical Chairs Describing Game
Target: Describing with attributes
How to Play: When music stops, describe an object or photo.
Keep Everyone Involved: All kids describe the same item after.
Eliciting Tip: Use visual supports for color, size, and function. My Visuals Bundle is perfect for this!
8. Bean Bag Toss with Categories
Target: Naming items in categories
How to Play: Toss onto a category mat and name 3 items.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone adds one item before next turn.
Eliciting Tip: Use visuals and model responses. My Visuals Bundle is perfect for this!
9. Animal Charades
Target: Inferencing and verb use
How to Play: Act out animals silently. Others guess.
Keep Everyone Involved: Take turns acting and guessing.
Eliciting Tip: Ask, “What is he doing?” and model the verb.
My Themed Action Cards include LOADS of animals you can use with movement ideas.
10. Movement Patterns
Target: Sequencing with temporal words
How to Play: Create and repeat movement patterns.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone participates and can take turns leading.
Eliciting Tip: Use “first, next, last” in descriptions.
Art and Craft Activities
11. Playdough Animals
Target: Basic concepts (big/little, long/short)
How to Play: Make and compare animals.
Keep Everyone Involved: Build the same concept together.
Eliciting Tip: Ask comparison questions like “Which is longer?”
12. Sticker Stories
Target: Sentence expansion with prepositions
How to Play: Build a sticker scene and describe locations.
Keep Everyone Involved: Each student adds and describes one item.
Eliciting Tip: Model phrases like “The cat is under the bed.”
13. Glue and Label
Target: Core and functional vocabulary
How to Play: Create scenes with glued items and label them.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone adds and labels one piece.
Eliciting Tip: Prompt core words like “want” or “on.”
My Themed Craft Scenes are perfect for this!
14. Finger Painting Scenes
Target: WH- questions
How to Play: Paint pictures and ask questions about them.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone paints and shares.
Eliciting Tip: Ask “What is happening?” and model answers.
15. Color Sorting with Paint Chips
Target: Describing and categorizing
How to Play: Sort objects onto color cards.
Keep Everyone Involved: Each student finds or names something.
Eliciting Tip: Prompt with “What color is it?”.
16. Collage Creation
Target: Plurals and quantifiers
How to Play: Create a themed collage and describe items.
Keep Everyone Involved: Each child adds and describes 2-3 images.
Eliciting Tip: Emphasize plurals like “There are three dogs.”
17. Make-a-Face Activity
Target: Emotion words and facial features
How to Play: Build faces and talk about them.
Keep Everyone Involved: Each child makes a face and shares.
Eliciting Tip: Ask “How does he feel?” “Where is the mouth?”
18. Paper Plate Puppets
Target: Pronouns and sentence structure
How to Play: Make puppets and act out actions.
Keep Everyone Involved: Rotate turns acting and describing.
Eliciting Tip: Model “He is jumping!” “She is eating.”
19. Seasonal Wreaths
Target: Thematic vocabulary
How to Play: Decorate paper wreaths with seasonal items.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone adds and describes one item.
Eliciting Tip: Give choices!
20. Torn Paper Art
Target: Requesting with core words
How to Play: Tear and glue colored paper to make pictures.
Keep Everyone Involved: Students take turns requesting materials.
Eliciting Tip: Prompt with “I want blue paper.”
Games for Group Therapy Language Targets
21. Guess What’s Missing?
Target: Memory and object functions
How to Play: Show several items, cover them, remove one, then reveal.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone guesses what’s missing. Take turns being the remover.
Eliciting Tip: Ask “What do we use it for?” or “What’s missing?”
22. Feed the Monster Game
Target: Speech sounds in isolation or phrases
How to Play: Feed picture cards with target sounds into a monster box.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone takes turns. Group echoes the words.
Eliciting Tip: Say the word 3 times and use it in a phrase.
My Feed and Move Bundle is perfect for this, with over 15 themes and LOADS of themed characters!!
23. Bingo with a Twist
Target: Describing and comparing
How to Play: Call out clues; kids describe before marking spots.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone plays at once. Encourage discussion.
Eliciting Tip: Prompt with “Find something soft and small.”
24. What’s in the Bag?
Target: Attributes and functions
How to Play: Pull objects from a bag and describe or guess them.
Keep Everyone Involved: Rotate turns pulling and guessing.
Eliciting Tip: Use prompts like “What color is it?” “What is it for?”
25. I Spy with a Spinner
Target: Initial sounds and phonemic awareness
How to Play: Spin for a sound and find objects that start with it.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone finds and shares.
Eliciting Tip: Emphasize initial sound: “Buh—ball.”
Literacy-Infused Group Activities
31. Go Fish for Verbs
Target: Verb use and subject-verb agreement
How to Play: Use action cards to ask and match.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone plays and models questions.
Eliciting Tip: Encourage full sentences: “Yes, he is jumping.”
32. Board Game Sentence Builders
Target: Sentence formulation
How to Play: Land on a space and build a sentence using a prompt.
Keep Everyone Involved: Group repeats or adds to each sentence.
Eliciting Tip: Use visuals or sentence strips for support.
33. Mystery Box Guessing Game
Target: WH- and yes/no questions
How to Play: Hide an item. Kids ask questions to guess.
Keep Everyone Involved: Take turns hiding and asking.
Eliciting Tip: Model question forms and use visual supports.
34. Hide-and-Seek Object Hunt
Target: Spatial concepts
How to Play: Hide and find objects. Describe the location.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone searches and shares what they found.
Eliciting Tip: Use prepositions: “It’s under the chair.”
35. Find and Describe
Target: Adjective-noun combinations
How to Play: Search for objects and describe with two words.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone finds and shares one.
Eliciting Tip: Prompt: “What color is it? What size?”
36. Story Retell with Props
Target: Sequencing and narrative
How to Play: Retell a story using puppets or props.
Keep Everyone Involved: Assign parts or pages to each student.
Eliciting Tip: Ask “What happened first?” “Then what?”
37. Picture Walk Predictions
Target: Inferencing and future tense
How to Play: Look at a book and predict what will happen next.
Keep Everyone Involved: Each child takes a turn predicting.
Eliciting Tip: Use sentence frames: “I think he will…”
38. Rhyme Time Relay
Target: Rhyming and phonological awareness
How to Play: Pass a ball while naming rhyming words.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone gives a rhyme in each round.
Eliciting Tip: Model examples if needed.
39. Character Puppets
Target: Pronouns and verb tense
How to Play: Act out scenes with puppets.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone gets a puppet and takes turns.
Eliciting Tip: Model past/present tense: “She was running. Now she is walking.”
40. Draw and Tell
Target: Descriptive language and narratives
How to Play: Draw a picture and tell a story about it.
Keep Everyone Involved: Each child shares and answers a peer’s question.
Eliciting Tip: Prompt with “Who is this?” “What are they doing?”
41. Book Sorting (Fiction vs. Nonfiction)
Target: Categories and vocabulary
How to Play: Sort books or pictures into fiction or nonfiction.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone helps explain their sorting choices.
Eliciting Tip: Ask “Is it real or pretend?”
42. Fill-in-the-Blank Stories
Target: Grammar and syntax
How to Play: Read a short story with missing words. Kids fill in the blanks.
Keep Everyone Involved: Rotate turns choosing words.
Eliciting Tip: Emphasize correct grammar use like “He is eating.”
43. Story Sequencing Cards
Target: Temporal concepts
How to Play: Put story cards in the correct order.
Keep Everyone Involved: Each student explains a card’s place in the story.
Eliciting Tip: Use “first,” “next,” “last” in prompts.
44. What Happens Next?
Target: Predicting and cause/effect
How to Play: Pause during a story and predict the next event.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone shares predictions.
Eliciting Tip: Ask “What will happen if…?”
45. Word Hunt in Books
Target: Sound-symbol correspondence
How to Play: Choose a sound and search a book for matching words.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone finds and reads one word.
Eliciting Tip: Ask “What sound does it start with?”
Sensory + Play-Based Activities
46. Sensory Bin Sound Hunt
Target: Initial speech sounds
How to Play: Find objects with a target sound in a sensory bin.
Keep Everyone Involved: Each child finds and names one item.
Eliciting Tip: Emphasize the beginning sound.
47. Water Play with Verbs
Target: Action verbs
How to Play: Use toys in water. Narrate and act out actions.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone gets a turn splashing, pouring, or washing.
Eliciting Tip: Prompt with “What is he doing?”
48. Mini Object Sorting
Target: Categories and functions
How to Play: Sort small toys into categories.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone chooses and describes one item.
Eliciting Tip: Ask “What do we use it for?”
This is a fun activity to pair with my Mini Object Scenes! You can use the difference scenes to categorize the items into what belongs in each scene.
49. Play Kitchen Role Play
Target: Sequencing and social language
How to Play: Act out cooking, serving, and eating.
Keep Everyone Involved: Assign group roles like chef, server, guest.
Eliciting Tip: Narrate actions using sequence words.
50. Dollhouse Directions
Target: Prepositions
How to Play: Move dolls or furniture and describe placement.
Keep Everyone Involved: Each child gives or follows a direction.
Eliciting Tip: Model sentences like “The chair is next to the bed.”
51. Puppet Problem Solving
Target: Problem/solution and emotions
How to Play: Act out social problems and solve them.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone adds a line or idea to the puppet show.
Eliciting Tip: Ask “What is the problem?” and “How can we fix it?”
52. Mr. Potato Head Build & Talk
Target: Body parts and possessive pronouns
How to Play: Build Mr. Potato Head and label parts.
Keep Everyone Involved: Each child adds one piece.
Eliciting Tip: Use “his” and “her” in descriptions.
53. Toy Store Pretend Play
Target: Requesting and turn-taking
How to Play: Set up a store and take turns being shopper or cashier.
Keep Everyone Involved: Rotate roles. Model polite requesting.
Eliciting Tip: Model the target goal, like “I want the red truck.”
54. Sound-Loaded Toys
Target: Speech sound generalization
How to Play: Use toys that feature target sounds.
Keep Everyone Involved: Everyone uses toys and names actions.
Eliciting Tip: Model and encourage sound-loaded phrases.
My Play Based Articulation Handbook features ideas for toys, games, books that are a LOADED with target sounds (incuding the target and eliciation ideas)
55. Themed Sensory Bins
Target: Vocabulary and sentence expansion
How to Play: Explore seasonal or thematic bins. Describe what’s inside.
Keep Everyone Involved: Each child describes 1–2 items per turn.
Eliciting Tip: Encourage full sentences: “I found a squishy orange pumpkin.”
Check out my Themed Sensory Bins! They include many themes you can use year round!
Board Games
Target: Any
How to Play: Practie a target before each turn.
Eliciting Tip: Use VIsuals! My Game Companions are made just for that. They include visuals and low-prep target sheets that help you target vocabulary, artiuclation, grammar, and sentence structure—all while your kids are playing. Pair them with these group ideas, and you’ll be ready for the whole week.
Group therapy doesn’t have to be chaotic—or complicated. With the right tools, it can be fun, effective, and even easy to plan. These 50 group activities are designed to keep every student engaged while targeting meaningful speech and language goals.