Are you wondering what themed activities you can do during wintertime in speech therapy? Are you trying to find activities to work on with mixed articulation and language kids? Look no further, then, because I have a full list of themed activities and ideas that you can use!
What themes can you do during the wintertime?
I’ve put together a list of a few themes to do during winter. There are many others you can incorporate, including a few other US holidays that occur throughout, but these ones below are my favorites!
- Winter
- Snow Day
- Christmas
- Snowman
- Penguins
- Gingerbread
I know that 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.
Winter Theme
This might be an obvious theme to do during winter, but there are many books and activities you can incorporate into your sessions. You can even do a scavenger hunt of different winter items, like mittens or snowflakes. This is easy to incorporate into your sessions by printing off pictures you find online and taping them around your room. You can use the scavenger hunt to work on descriptions, categories, articulation, and more!
Some of my favorite books for this theme include Hedgehog’s Home for Winter and The Mitten.
You can check out my Winter Weekly Lesson Plan if you want to incorporate this theme into your sessions!
Snow Day Theme
I grew up in Texas and snow was something I rarely saw but was always interested in and wanted to know more about it. So, whether or not you are in a place where it snows, a snow day theme would be fun! You can incorporate a craft into your session on making a snowflake to hang up and decorate the room or you can make some fake snow!
Another fun activity would be to make a sensory bin out of faux snow and include different winter objects inside to target vocabulary, expanding utterances, following directions, and more.
You can check out my Snow Day Lesson Plan if you want to incorporate this theme into your sessions. 🙂
Christmas Theme
Of course, the biggest holiday during wintertime is Christmas, so this is always a hit theme to do. I’m a huge fan of music so I love to incorporate Christmas songs into my sessions. YouTube has a ton of videos, and you can search for the songs that you enjoy to use during the sessions. When the songs are over, you can ask questions about the songs or work on vocabulary.
You can check out my Christmas Lesson Plan if you want to use this theme during your sessions.
Snowman Theme
This theme can fall in the same category as the snow day but can also be an entirely different one as well. Of course, you can always read the book, Frosty the Snowman or you can change it up with a different themed book like Froggy Builds a Snowman or How to Catch a Snowman. You can use the books to work on questions, sequencing, articulation, and more.
Another fun activity to do is to build a snowman using printed out parts. You can also just as easily draw three circles to make the body of the snowman and have your kids draw and color the rest of the parts.
If you are interested in using this theme during your session, you can check out my Snowman Weekly Lesson Plan.
Penguin Theme
I absolutely love penguins, and whenever I think of a winter animal, penguins are what come to mind. I created a Penguin Weekly Lesson Plan because of how much I love them, and my kids also love when I used this theme with them.
Some of my favorite books to use during this theme are If You Were a Penguin and Spike The Penguin With Rainbow Hair. This is also a fun time to incorporate the game Don’t Break the Ice. You can use this game to work on turn taking or any goals where the kids need to hit their target before taking their turn.
Gingerbread Theme
I wrote an entire blog post on this theme that you can read here. This is such a fun theme that I knew it needed its own blog post. Check it out because it also includes a free language scene!
If you want to skip straight to checking out the lesson plan I created, you can see it here.
I hope that this has given you some ideas on what wintertime themes and activities you can do during your speech therapy sessions. Let me know down below if you do any of these and which one is your favorite!
Happy Winter!!
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