Let’s be honest for a second – the last thing that I want to do at the beginning of the school year is come up with ideas on what I will be doing on the first day of speech. As soon as I step foot inside my office, I have to start worrying about so many other things like who has an IEP coming up or which child is going to get pulled when. If you’re like me, then you’ll agree that taking the time to plan your sessions is not how you want to spend your first few days.
I went ahead and took the time over the summer to put together a few resources that you can do in your first few sessions at the beginning of the school year, so you don’t have to worry about it. 🙂 I hope you these activities are just as useful for you as they are for me.
Rules & Room Tour
On the first day, I like to take some time to set the ground rules. I want to make sure that my kids know what they can and cannot do. This is something they will be learning in their homeroom, so our speech therapy rooms should be no different. I will go over my Rules and Expectations Posters that I hang up on my wall and refer back to them whenever I need to.
Also, depending on how big your room is, you can do a room tour along with showing where the closest bathroom might be or where they would need to go in the case of an emergency.
“All About Me” Activity
A fun idea for the first day of speech therapy is an “all about me” activity. This allows you to not only get to know the student but for them to get to know you as well! This activity can include their name, speech goals for the year, and their current favorites.
Going over your kid’s speech goals in the first session can help your kids know what they are working on, and you can also get a baseline for where they are at.
Back to School Books
Another idea would be to read a book that is back to school themed. I’ve listed some of my favorites below! If you are on a budget, you can look up many of the readings on YouTube.
I like using books in my sessions because you can target both articulation and language goals, which helps when you have mixed groups and need to target multiple goals.
My favorite back to school themed books are:
- Froggy Goes to School
- First Day Jitters
- Turkey Goes to School
- Back to School with the Berenstain Bears
- If You Take a Mouse to School
BINGO
You can also start with a game, like BINGO. You can use a normal BINGO board or one that is themed for back to school. BINGO is great when working on different language goals like descriptions, inferencing, WH- questions, and more. You can even work on articulation by putting different numbers on the calling cards and having the kids say their words that many times when they have the match on their board.
Dotting Activities
A simple but fun idea is to use dot activity worksheets. They allow you to work on any goal speech or language goal. They also pair great with other activities and games. These worksheets can be dotted with anything that you have, including BINGO daubers, markers, or even BINGO chips!
Back to School All-In-One Workbook
Are the multiple ideas above that you’d like to do? My Back to School Speech Therapy Workbook is a resource that is jam-packed with many of the above activities and MORE! This resource targets various language and articulation goals, including vocabulary, spatial sequencing, and pronouns. You can even continue to use this resource for a few weeks with everything that is included.
other Activities
Lastly, if you have an Amazon gift card to spend you can look into these Conversational Cubes by Learning Resources. They are great conversational starters to get to know the kids on your caseload! You can also buy supplies to create a back to school themed sensory bin to use in your sessions.
I hope that these ideas have given you some inspiration on what to do in the first day of speech. Let me know down below if you use any of them! Have a great first week back!
