Martha Speaks Activities & Lesson Plans for Kindergarten
- By Deedee Wills
- Updated on July 2
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Martha Speaks Activities for Kindergarten & First Grade
If you pick up Martha Speaks for a read-aloud, be ready for a lot of laughs and a surprising amount of learning that follows naturally from the story. In this post I’ll walk you through what we do in our classroom after reading it. Literacy, writing, math, and center ideas that actually work with kindergartners and first graders.
Martha is a dog who eats alphabet soup and starts talking. That’s the whole premise, and kids are immediately in. I’ve read this book more times than I can count, and students never get tired of it. The story holds their attention long enough to get into some real comprehension work, which is honestly hard to find in a picture book that’s also this fun. That’s why I keep coming back to it.
Here’s what we do with it.
Martha Speaks Read Aloud Activities
This book is genuinely good for reading comprehension work because the story gives you so many natural stopping points. You’re not forcing the conversation. It just happens.
As you read, kids can practice these reading comprehension skills
- Retelling key events
- Making predictions
- Inferring character feelings
- Identifying story elements
- Sequencing events
The part where Martha loses her ability to talk is always a good one to pause. Kids want to talk about how her family reacts and what Martha might be feeling. You don’t have to prompt much. They just go.
Later, when the burglar gives Martha soup, students start predicting on their own. I usually just ask “why do you think he did that?” and let them run with it. It’s one of those moments where you can see them actually thinking about the text instead of just listening to it.
Martha Speaks Retelling Activities
Retelling is one of the skills I come back to again and again with this book because the story structure is clear enough that kids can actually do it.
After reading, we use picture retelling cards to sequence the events. Students work through beginning, middle, and end and then use the cards to retell the story out loud. The visual support makes a real difference for kids who know the story but struggle to organize it when they’re talking.
A few other things that work well:
- Acting out the story
- Using puppets during small group
- Partner retells
- Pocket chart sequencing (or using your interactive white board)
The acting out one is always a little chaotic, just so you know. But kids remember the story sequence a lot better after they’ve done it with their bodies. Worth it.
Martha Speaks Craft Activities
After we read, we make a Martha craft. It’s simple and kids love it, which is really the whole criteria for a good kindergarten craft.
Students create their own talking Martha and then write a response to go with it. The writing prompts are open-ended enough that you get genuinely interesting answers.
A few that work well:
- What would you say if you could talk like Martha?
- What kind of soup would give you special powers?
- Would you want a talking dog? Why or why not?
The soup one is my favorite because the answers are completely unhinged in the best way. One of my kids said pickle soup would give her the power to turn invisible. I don’t know how that connects, but she was very confident about it.
These look great up in the hallway too.
Martha Speaks Writing Activities
This story also works beautifully for writing lessons.
After reading, students can respond through:
- Opinion writing
- Narrative writing
- Sentence building
- Interactive writing
- Shared writing
Students especially enjoy imaginative writing activities connected to the alphabet soup idea.
You could even create a class chart listing funny things students would teach their pets to say if they could talk like Martha.
Martha Speaks Literacy Center Activities
If you want to extend the learning even further, there are so many fun literacy center ideas you can pair with this book.
One favorite activity is a letter sorting center where students scoop magnetic letters and sort them by attributes such as:
- Letters with curves
- Letters with straight lines
- Uppercase vs lowercase letters
Older students can extend the activity by building words and sorting them into:
Since the story itself focuses so much on language and words, these activities tie in perfectly.
Martha Speaks Math and Science Activities
You can easily incorporate cross-curricular learning with Martha Speaks activities too.
Some simple ideas include:
- Dog-themed counting activities
- Alphabet soup sensory bins
- Sorting and classifying activities
- Measurement activities using dog bones
- Graphing favorite pets
- STEM building challenges for Martha
These hands-on activities help keep engagement high throughout the week.
Martha Speaks TV Show Connection
If you have access to the Martha Speaks television series, students also enjoy comparing the book and show versions of the story.
This creates a great opportunity to discuss:
- Similarities and differences
- Characters
- Setting
- Events from the story
Students love noticing what stayed the same and what changed.
If you want to stick to the book version, here is one from one of my favorite read aloud channels on YouTube!
Weekly Lesson Plan Ideas for Martha Speaks
This book holds up for a full week. You can use it across:
- Back-to-school lesson plans
- Literacy units
- Comprehension strategy lessons
- Read aloud lesson plans
- Center rotations
- Writing workshop
- Small group instruction
Kids don’t get tired of it, which means you can revisit the story across different activities without losing them.
Editable Martha Speaks Template
You can download this free editable template by clicking on the photo below.
Want to see other lesson plans like this?
To see additional Lesson Plan Posts like this, click HERE.
Deedee Wills
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