30+ Free Wintry Resources for Speech and Language Therapy

We haven't seen a bit of snow in my part of Virginia this year. This is a peek of my neighbors' snowmen taken in 2011. 

My most popular posts in 2013 were my lists of links so here are more than 30 links to resources for winter.

If you are looking for something to do on those first few days back, check out these New Year's Day activities. 

• Fun Facts for New Year's Day (aka I Mustache You to Recall Details for New Year's Day) is a FREE packet, made by The Thrifty SLP, to get her older students back into the routine. 

• At Speaking of Speech.com find My New Year's Resolution for Speech; a great way to talk about current goals. 

• We're Thinking About A New Year is FREE at Ladybug's Teacher Files. Work on this together in a small group to incorporate predicting, time/seasonal concepts, complex wh-questions, retelling, and more. 

• Find New Year Speech Sound Fireworks at Word Nerd Speech Teach.

• Two of the newest posts at Speechie Freebies.com include activities for New Year's goals. I love the Christmas Survey - a great way for students to compose and ask questions. 

• Back to School (after Winter Break!), a story booklet is a nice first day back activity from Ms. Lane's SLP Materials. 

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of links to activities suitable for speech and language therapy that incorporate a winter theme. Here are just a few. 

• The Snowy Day for Speech and Language Therapy, one of my prior posts, provides you with more than 18 links with ideas to use with The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. 

• Find two FREE snow apps at another of my posts, Snow Day! - Apps and More. 

• Increase Utterance Length with Winter Bingo for Early Childhood is the last of my re-posts in this list. 

• Ruth Morgan at Chapel Hill Snippets has posted her more than Modest Collection of Winter Ideas. All are FREE and most are printable. 

• At Playing With Words 365.com find Snowflake Gross Motor Learning and Penguin Memory/Describing Cards. Both activities could be used with a variety of speech and language objectives. 

• Download Language at Home, take home activities for The Mitten by Jan Brett, All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle, and The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel.  All of these and more resources from Heard in Speech.  

• A lot of work, but very cute Winter Dramatic Play at L. C., SLP. Build a snowman, ice skate, make some hot chocolate. 

• There's a great Winter Vocabulary List at Sam's Blog. 

• Allison at Speech Peeps has a free Winter Language Writing Activity for her older students. 

• Find Winter /s/ Blend Practice from Tracy Boyd and other winter themed activities at Speaking of Speech.com.

• Make Learning Fun has a lot of activities that incorporate snow and winter. I really like The Hat Emergent Reader that can be used when reading The Hat by Jan Brett. 

• Printable graphics and activities for The Mitten, The Hat, and The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett can be found at janbrett.com. 

• The First Grade Parade's Mitten Loads of Fun includes a very cute downloadable blend activity for students practicing /l/ blends.  She also created an adjective activity for beginning readers and an activity for making predictions. The math and writing activities could be used to ask questions and make comparisons. Use the Mitten Math word problems for articulation carry-over. 

• A search for "winter" at TpT revealed 95 free activities for speech therapy. Topics included inferences, pronouns, articulation, sequencing and so much more. 

• Print Make a Snowman Game at Activity Village. Students can practice saying their target phoneme the number of times on the die. Work as teams or individually. Change the rules to meet the needs of your students. 

• Visit Classroom Magic (scroll down) to see the Snowmen at Night graphic organizer. 

• Build a snowman and sing Ten Little Snowmen at Starfall.com.

• For unique homework activities, look at Fun Winter Speech and Language Activities for Kids to do at Home from The Speech Language Pathology in Motion Blog and 10 "Wintery" Games to Play Over Break to Build Speech, Language, and Listening Skills by Katie Yeh at Friendship Circle.org. 

Enjoy and stay warm!

Diana

© 2013

Books to Read in December AND Links!

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

During the holidays, add one or more of these wonderful books to your therapy sessions. 

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff is my favorite holiday book. Find many links to activities in two of my 2012 posts, Taking the Mouse to the Movies and Taking Mouse to the Movies: Why Questions, Pronouns, and more. 

Read Llama Llama Holiday Drama, by Anna Dewdney, on your computer or whiteboard at We Give Books.org. This book gives you a lot of opportunities to talk about action words, work on verb tense, and ask and answer questions. At Teachers pay Teachers, Llama Llama Holiday Drama Activities Free! includes an adjective search and comprehension questions. Find vocabulary and other language activities in the Llama Llama Activity Kit from Penguin Young Readers Group.






Cookies are always a good topic for December. Kizclub has story props for the book, Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?, illustrated by Jane Manning and you can view the version by Christine Schneider at Vimeo. Find a rhyming activity at Cinjoella and, at YouTube, Kim Taylor-DiLeva explains how to use the rhyme with a group of students along with adding some sign language. 

Find story props for Bear Stays Up at 1+1+1=1 and a free sequencing activity for readers at Teachers Pay Teachers (Happily Ever After Education).  

OR, for a little less than a Grande Caffe Latte, you can purchase Bear Stays Up For Christmas: Speech and Language Activities by Jenn Alcorn of Crazy Speech World. Included in the 18 pages are activities for rhyming, synonyms, comprehension questions, wh questions, story retelling, and articulation word lists for /r/, /s/, and /l/. 

The other book companion by an SLP at Teachers pay Teachers is only a little more than that Grande Caffe Latte.  The 37 page Bear Stays Up For Christmas – Speech and Language Activities (Book Companion) by Mindy Stenger of The Speech Bucket targets sequencing, story retelling, comprehension, basic language concepts, following directions, written expression, and more.

The Easy Reader at Heidisongs.com is perfect for retelling, sequencing, syntax or to increase sentence length after reading Pete the Cat Saves Christmas. Use Parent Magazine's Christmas Addition with Pete the Cat and The Christmas Pup as carrier phrases for articulation practice. Addition facts are perfect for the phoneme /s/ and for practicing /l/blends - Seven plus one equals nine. Use the blank sheet to write your own facts and incorporate other phonemes. 



Find preschool activity suggestions for Snowballs by Lois Ehlert at Wannabwestern. 

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett is another favorite. Find another book companion at TpT by Mindy Stenger of The Speech Bucket. And, this one is free. Twelve pages of activities target sequencing, story retelling, comprehension, basic language concepts, early print awareness, and oral and written expression. 


Create a Gingerbread Baby House at JanBrett.com. All kinds of opportunities for speech and language production can occur as students give directions while one student creates the house.  Make several different houses, print, and use for barrier games. Practice articulation carry-over, basic positional words, syntax, turn taking, and more! 

Listen to Jan Brett read her story. Print masks from Jan Brett's site and students can wear them as they retell the story. Or, use them as story props.

I hope that these book suggestions and links save you a little time as you plan your December sessions. I will be taking a break from blogging this month and will be back in January!

Best wishes to you during this holiday season! 

Diana

© 2013