Are you wondering how you can incorporate gingerbread activities into your speech and language therapy sessions? One of the most popular themes around the holidays is gingerbread and I have a few activities in mind that you can do!
Using themes in speech therapy can seem daunting, but I am here to help you realize the potential it has on you as a speech therapist and also the kids! We all know that using the same game over and over again or the same materials can sometimes make work less enjoyable, so that’s where themed lesson planning comes into play! Changing up the theme weekly or every few weeks allows the kids to stay motivated and engaged but also allows you as a therapist to be able to continue to love what you do. Continue reading for ways that you can incorporate a gingerbread theme into your speech and language therapy sessions.
What can you do in your speech sessions?
Some gingerbread activities that you can incorporate into your speech therapy sessions include:
- Gingerbread Books
- Gingerbread Videos
- Gingerbread Crafts
- Gingerbread Coloring
Books are a great activity to use in your speech therapy sessions because you can use them to cover a variety of goals. You can ask WH- questions, work on sequencing or inferencing, and you can even work on articulation. You can have your students listen to you read the book and watch out for words that have their sound in them to practice after you are finished reading the book.
You can incorporate videos into your sessions as well. Whether you use videos as motivation to get through certain tasks or to actually target goals, it’s easy to just pull up a video on YouTube in no time.
One of the best crafts to do during a gingerbread theme is to, of course, create a gingerbread man! Crafts can be incorporated into your sessions while targeting all goals. The students will earn the pieces for their gingerbread man after correctly responding to whichever goal you are targeting.
Another great activity is coloring! So many kids love coloring because it gives them a break from the work they are doing in their classrooms. They don’t think that they are working while they are coloring in your sessions, but they definitely are! You can have them work for the color that they want to use while targeting each of their goals.
Do you need some easily accessible gingerbread materials?
So now you have ideas on what activities you can complete during a gingerbread themed week, and you are probably thinking about where to start on finding these items, or maybe you are just too busy to be able to look. I get it, the holidays can be a very busy time for everyone with meetings and testing that needs to get done. Well, no worries! I have an awesome bundle that you can download that incorporates all of these activities (AND MORE!). š
In this huge bundle, you get the following:
- Book Companion Worksheets for The Gingerbread Man
- Picture Scene
- Language Worksheets for:
- Irregular/Regular Past Tense Verbs
- Present Progressive Verbs
- Irregular/Regular Plurals
- Antonyms & Synonyms
- Descriptions & Categories
- Articulation Worksheets for All Sounds
- Gingerbread Dot Articulation Worksheet
- Gingerbread Man Creating Activity
- Gingerbread House Coloring Activity
- Blank Create Your Own Worksheets
If you are wanting something that is strictly for articulation practice, you can also look into doing this Roll the Dice Activity. It includes worksheets for all speech sounds and allows your students to color a gingerbread man and gingerbread house!
If you aren’t sure if the bundle is for you, you can check out my free Gingerbread Man Language Scene. In the bundle, you get an additional gingerbread themed picture scene and additional book companion activities for The Gingerbread Man, including WH- Questions, Sequencing, Writing Prompt, Inferencing, Following Direction, and BINGO.
Your students will absolutely love these gingerbread activities during your speech and language therapy sessions! This theme can be carried out over a few weeks, and you won’t have to prep anything with everything that is included. š
Happy Holidays!
