Using Squirrel Me Timbers in Speech Therapy: Key Concepts, Activities, & Free Resources

I’m so glad you’re here!

In this post, we’re diving into Squirrel Me Timbers, a fun, adventurous story that’s perfect for elementary speech therapy sessions.

I’ll give you a quick summary of the book, share ideas for the goals and skills you can target, and link to a mix of free and paid activities to make planning easy.

Whether you’re just finding me for the first time or you’ve been following along for a while, I hope this post leaves you feeling inspired and supported in your work as a busy speech therapist!

A little summary

Sammy, the pirate squirrel, finds a treasure map and embarks on an exciting adventure to find the treasure! Follow Sammy as he navigates through various obstacles and dangerous environments to find the hidden cache of nuts. Can you spot the treasure when Sammy arrives at where "X" marks the spot?

What Makes Squirrel Me Timbers Great for Speech Therapy

1️⃣ It contains a complete episode, so you can target story grammar!

2️⃣ It's engaging with the follow the treasure map aspect (perfect for fall and talk like a pirate day).

3️⃣ You can use it to target a bunch of skills: semantic, syntactic, pragmatic, narrative, & articulation.

Key Concepts to Target

Wh questions:

• Who is the story about?

• What did Sammy find?

• Why is Sammy going on an adventure?

• Where is Sammy?

• How did Sammy feel when he found the treasure map/was in the swamp/reached the place where X marks the spot?

• When did Sammy find the treasure?

• How did Sammy find the treasure?

Articulation:

/k/ words: keep, canon, come, spiky, like, pick, lake, quick, kicked

💡 Incorporate literacy support:

• Do you hear the /k/ sound at the beginning, middle, or end of the word? (reduce to two options if needed)

• Do you see the /k/ sound at the beginning/middle/end of the word? Point to it.

• How is the /k/ sound spelled [c, k, ck]? (have letters available on index card, sticky note, etc. for student to point to)

/r/ words: round, red, run, right, remember, really, rumble, rain

💡 Incorporate literacy support:

• Do you see the /r/ sound at the beginning of the word? Point to it.

• Write the letter each time you find a new /r/ word in the text. Can use a pencil and paper, dry erase marker and white board, just a finger on the table pretending to write it, a finger in sensory box filled in sand, trace it, etc.

/r/ blends: dreamed, treasure, trap, crocodile, cried, crossly, creek, crack, groan, ground, great, grumble, grew, from, bristles, prickles, surprise, hundreds

/f/ words: forest, fur, fun, found, far, full, find, fix, frightening, felt, fit, foretold

"sh" words: shot, shower, shouted, ship, shiny, dashed, marshes, swish, splash, flash

Other skills to target:

• Story grammar

• Story retell, summarizing

• Past tense -ed verbs

• Plural nouns

• Prepositions (in, on, far, down, out, under, through by)

• Synonyms & antonyms

• Describing, adjectives (high, round, red, thick, spiky, wide, tall, and more!)

For more detailed targets, head to the library for the free book guide!

Activities & Freebies to Pair With the Story

To make things even easier for you to use, I’ve pulled together a mix of activities and free resources that pair perfectly with the story!

🎯 183-page book companion (or grab it in my TPT store)

🎯 Boom cards book companion

🎯 Free book guide

🎯 Narrative activities (or grab it in my TPT store)

🎯 Nonfiction texts - great as an extension text or to use with older students that you want to use the same theme with

🎯 Eastern Gray Squirrel

🎯 Squirrel Sleuth

🎯 Squirrelville

🎯 Pirates (Grade 5)

🎯 Squirrels Build Nests (Grade 1)

🎯 Six Skeletons Discovered Inside Ancient Shipwreck Helmed By Legendary Pirate Samuel Bellamy

🎯 Build a Treasure Map activity

🎯 Free Paper Plate Pirate Craft with Visual Directions (great for younger students and self-contained classrooms)

🎯 Free Let's Be Pirates Game

• Work on social communication skills

• Drill articulation words from the story on each student's turn

• Work on language concepts from the story on each student's turn (e.g. Story grammar: Who was the story about? Where did Sammy go? What did Sammy want to find?; Past tense: Let's make a sentence about where Sammy lived using the word "lived." Why did Sammy cry? He cried because...)

🎯 Free Articulation 50 Trials (pair this with target words from the story)

I hope this has been helpful! 🫶🏽