Therapy Theme: January (Winter)
January Speech Therapy
“What’s in your box, Mrs. Elizabeth?”
I’m here to share some organization tips and tricks, some free activities, and a lesson plan for great resources for January speech therapy for preschoolers!
Organization
- Monthly Labels: First off, I use tote boxes by season. I use these very cute Monthly Labels and have 4 boxes: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. I change them out in the back of my car every 3 months and always have my evaluation box with me.
- Planner: I print my planner each year from Polka Dot Posie Print. I love the seasonal colors and the options to customize what I need each year. I use the discbound system and other accessories from Happy Planner. These are easy to find on amazon.
The Cozi App: Our family uses this app to keep up with appointments and our full schedule for the 6 of us. It also allows you to make grocery lists, sync with alexa, and upload recipes for meal planning.
- Visuals: Visual Schedule (I use this with children whether we are face to face or in teletherapy format). I’ve added a digital version, which has been really helpful in teletherapy. I also created a set of digital reinforcers, which has been especially helpful for my kiddos age 5+. I’ve been using lots of visuals to help keep kids on task and engaged. This set has digital and print versions of first…then, task box size, full size, cues for articulation, /wh/ questions, categories, and more.
- Texas Speech Mom: Organization and Theme Planners, Articulation Visuals in the Speech Therapy Tool Box- these have been wonderful….there are so many that I haven’t even printed them all yet. She will definitely increase my colorful display and organization skills!
- Type B SLP Thematic Units: I purchased her fall set and have been able to carry a lot of it over into winter. There is a LOT in each set!
- Work Table: I can’t say enough good things about this new work table I got from amazon. It was a beast to carry and put together (and now is permanently in that room because it doesn’t fit through the door)…..but look how much space there is for storage and putting materials together! I was able to prep the materials from Texas Speech Mom, Type B SLP, and my fable bundle all at the same time!
Favorite Print and Prep Activities
- Adaptive books, task boxes, and work task notebooks. For my more concrete learners, I also typically use a “Finished Box” to the right.
- Some of my favorite activities are: Mr Frost Lost his Nose adaptive book and coloring page by Panda Speech, There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow book companion by Ausome Speech, and seasonal task boxes by Especially Education.
- Ten Silly Snowmen is a fun little adaptive book perfect for teaching simple counting. This cute littler interactive adaptive book comes with: 1) a printable version with interactive velcro pieces, 2) a Boom Cards™ digital version, 3) common core standards for both math and ELA, along with targets for speech and language!
- Social Stories: During this unusual time of 2020-2022, I’ve found that Autism Little Learners has the best social stories for unusual, but needed topics: wearing masks, Christmas looking different, hybrid learning, etc. Highly recommend her store for helping children to adjust to these usual times. Best part: many are free! She’s got stories for separation anxiety, wearing masks, hybrid instruction….you name it, she’s got it!
Favorite Digital Activities
- Digital Everything! During teletherapy, I relied heavily on digital resources to keep my students (and me) engaged in what we are doing. Click on the images to access these Boom Decks (some are free).
Digital Tools and Tokens
- This open-ended game set set has been really helpful in teletherapy and face to face instruction. It has over 57 boards, including “Feed Me” characters, seasonal items like making a Gingerbread man/house, Tic Tac Toe, and much more! This one has worked well for my whole caseload!
Favorite Games
Ice Cream in January!? Yes, please! Check out this cute ice cream set from Melissa and Doug. Put it with Sneezy the Snowman by Stephen Gilpin and you’ve got a ton of things you could work on during a speech and language session. Tip: laminate the dollars so they last longer. You could also add Let’s Go to the Ice Cream Truck digital game.
Freebies for Speech and Language
- Goldie Talks Speech: Winter Articulation Match-Ups and 50 trial articulation sheet
- Ivy League Language: Articulation Dough Mats
- A Perfect Blend: Backgrounds for January (instagram stories), Speech Posters, etc
- BVG Speech: Winter /S/ and /S/ Blends
- Looks Like Language: Sentence Building Activities
- Panda Speech: Winter Listen Up
- Rainbow Studio– Coloring Pages, Digital Stickers, etc!
- Ausome Speech: Winter themed freebies for speech and language.
- Speech Sprouts: Has a post with 29 great ideas for free winter activities!
Freebies for Teletherapy
- highlightskids.com
- pbskids.org
- abcya.com
- thecolor.com
- uniteforliteracy.com
- matchthememory.com
- quia.com/web
- sesamestreet.org
- tweentribune.com
- rewadworks.org
- onlinejigsawpuzzles.net
- playtictactoe.org
- pinkcatgames.com
Favorite Books for January
Snowmen At Night, Snowmen All Year, Snowmen at Work by Mark Buehner
The Biggest Snowman by Jeni Bassett
Bear Snores On by Jane Chapman
There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow by Lucille Colandro
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear? by Eric Carle
Sneezy the Snowman by Stephen Gilpin
Ten Silly Snowmen by Elizabeth Hepler
Mr Frost Lost His Nose by Amanda Schaumburg
Favorite Songs and Movement Breaks
Jack Hartman Penguin Dance (my son loves this one!)
Go Noodle Yes I want to Build a Snowman
I’m a Snowman– for purchase by Rachel Arnston
Just for Fun
- Brooks has blue and white snowman shoes (amazon for the win)! My tote bag is from 31 gifts. Normally, I’d cart it into my school and clinic sites, but for now, I haul it up and down the stairs to my work space at home.
Happy January, everyone!!!
Elizabeth
