Winter Boom Cards for Speech Therapy

Winter Boom Cards for Speech Therapy

by | Feb 4, 2023 | Boom Cards Speech Therapy, Uncategorized

You may love planning by themes but need help with getting the speech therapy activities prepped for the theme. If you want to do a winter speech therapy unit with your elementary caseload that is less time-consuming, this blog post is for you! Instead of searching endlessly on Pinterest for winter activities, read this blog post for winter Boom Cards for speech therapy. You can cut down that prep time for treatment sessions using digital speech therapy materials!

Plus, you can pull up Boom Cards on your laptop, SMARTboard, or iPad, so they are super convenient for traveling SLPs.

If you are new to using Boom Cards, check out this blog post from The Digital SLP, which answers all your questions in this blog post. 

 

Open-Ended Winter Boom Cards

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It’s nice to have open-ended winter-themed speech therapy activities to use with any goal on your caseload.

Often, our mixed groups run more smoothly when we can use one reinforcer game or activity to work on goals in the group. Here are some winter game-type activities you can use for any goal:

Troll in a Bowl Winter Reinforcer – Save the Snowman

Hot Cocoa Race Open-Ended Game – FREE download by Crazy Speech World

Don’t Melt the Snowman – FREE download

Winter Picture Scene – FREE download (click the pink button below to grab)

Get Your Free Winter Picture Scene Boom Cards

Winter-Themed Picture Sequencing Boom Cards

Because school-based SLPs do a lot of intervention in mixed groups, it’s nice to have digital speech therapy materials that you can adapt to many skills. The following activities are great for working on sequencing tasks related to winter that also provide opportunities to discuss tier II vocabulary, following directions, verb actions, wh-questions, and more:

Winter Sequencing Boom Cards – Sequencing for getting dressed in the snow and having a snowball fight

Snowman Sequencing Boom Cards – Sequencing for building a snowman

Hot Chocolate Sequencing Boom Cards – activities to discuss how to make hot chocolate 

Check out this blog post to learn how to incorporate winter sequencing. You can also get ideas for sequencing with a snowman theme from this blog post. 

 

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Receptive and Expressive Language Winter Boom Cards

 

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If you are looking for activities that focus on receptive and expressive language for vocabulary and grammar, check out these resources:

 

More Winter Speech Therapy Ideas and Activities 

If you need some more winter speech therapy ideas, check out these blog posts:

 

winter-boom-cards-speech-therapy
January Speech Therapy Themes

January Speech Therapy Themes

by | Jan 18, 2023 | Themed Speech Therapy, Uncategorized

When planning by themes for your elementary speech therapy caseload, knowing which theme to use can cause indecisiveness. When we are trying to decide which way to go with themes, it leaves us wasting time and procrastinating therapy planning. So, I am sharing a GIANT list of January speech therapy themes you can use with your caseload. And, if you still need to narrow down a theme for January, check out this blog post with tips for choosing a theme. 

One Thing to Remember with Theme-Based Therapy

As SLPs with high caseloads, remember that you DON’T have to use a theme for only one week. It can be time-consuming to plan when you constantly prepare for a new themed unit each week. You will lead yourself to burn out FAST switching materials each. We want to stay energized from lesson planning, so when you pick a theme, use the mindset that you will use this theme for 2-4 weeks of therapy. I talk all about that on the Real Talk SLP podcast episode 45. 

SLP Planner for the Year

Use my free-themed therapy yearly SLP planner to help you plan what themes you want to use for the year. It gives you ideas for what to prepare and has an editable lesson plan template to keep notes on what you did with a theme. When you have notes for your themed units, it will job your memory when you pull out the January speech therapy activities the following year. Click the pink button to download. 

Get Your Free Themed Therapy SLP Planner

January Speech Therapy Themes With Animals

Plan units around winter animals using books, non-fiction passages, sensory bins, and YouTube videos. If you focus on antarctic animals, break down the theme to learn about one animal a week. Here are some other winter themes with animals:

 

Arctic animals

Yeti’s (are they real or a myth)

Penguins

Hibernation

Get Your Free Themed Therapy SLP Planner

January Themes Focusing on Winter

The winter season is something that most kids experience in the United States and around the world. Although some places like Florida don’t experience snow, many kids live in colder climates. Or, they can quickly drive to snowy places in the wintertime.

Using winter themes in January is a great way to build background knowledge around the seasons and teach vocabulary and language skills around those themes.

One way to break down a broad theme like winter is to plan mini-themes related to the season. For example, you can plan to do a winter season theme for the entire month of January. Each week you can focus on a different aspect of winter, such as winter clothes, winter weather, winter activities, and winter sports.

Or, you can pick one of those winter topics and focus on one mini topic each week. If you choose winter sports, you can focus on ice skating, snowboarding, hockey, and the luge. For more winter-themed speech therapy ideas, check out this blog post. 

January-speech-therapy-ideas

More Winter Theme Ideas

  1. Snow Day – you can read the book Snow Day by Lester L. Laminack to talk about what kids do when it snows, and their school is canceled. 
  2. Snowmen – I have LOTS of blog posts with ideas for a snowman theme you can check out on the blog. 
  3. Snowflakes – you can find good articles on ReadWorks or Wonderopolis. I also will look on YouTube for snowflake videos. Plus, there are LOTS of excellent snowflake science experiments and activities you can work on for speech and language goals. Check out this idea from The Sprinkle Topped Teacher. 
  4. Hot Chocolate – who doesn’t love talking about hot chocolate? And it’s full of speech and language opportunities. I have a bunch in my store if you need some activities for a hot chocolate theme. Live Love Speech has some visual recipes for your co-teaching lessons.
  5. Winter Tools and Vehicles – this is the ultimate theme smash where you can pair winter weather with transportation. If you need a snowplow sensory bin, check out this one! 

If you need more January speech therapy ideas, check out this post from Busy Bee Speech.

January speech therapy activities

Check out the Themed Therapy SLP membership if you love using themes for your speech therapy caseload but struggle to find the time and energy to plan your lessons. The membership is for busy school-based SLPs who serve Prek-5th grade students and want to streamline their therapy planning process.

When you become an SLP themester, you can access three themed therapy units a month!

The January speech therapy themes are arctic animals, penguins, and outer space. An annual membership gives you access to over 24 theme

Themes Based on National Holidays

So many meaningful and fun national holidays would make for great themes to plan in January!

Here are some January speech therapy themes for national days:

Martin Luther King Jr. (this is an excellent kick-off for Black History month, which starts in February)

January 1st – New Years Day: focus on healthy habits, creating goals, and new changes

January 4th- Spaghetti Day

You can theme smash yetis and spaghetti with the game! I have a cheat sheet for the Yeti in my Spaghetti game in my TPT store. 

January 8-14th – National Pizza Week

Check out this blog post with ways to use a pizza speech therapy toy in your sessions. 

January 18th – Winnie the Pooh Day

January 18th – Hot and Spicy Foods – January 18th

What theme-based units do you plan in January?

Let me know in the comments what theme-based speech therapy lessons you plan for your elementary caseload. Tag me @themedtherapyslp with your themed activity, and I will share it in my stories!

Snowman Speech Therapy Activities for Early Elementary

Snowman Speech Therapy Activities for Early Elementary

by | Jan 10, 2022 | Themed Speech Therapy, Uncategorized

One of the best themes to plan for the month of January is snowmen. Talking about snowmen is so engaging for students! Plus, there are ton of snowman speech therapy activities you can use to cover your Prek-5th grade caseload. Today, I am going to share a round-up of snowman ideas you can use to support your student’s speech therapy goals.

Planning Tips for Using a Snowman-Theme

The most efficient way that I have found to plan by themes is to first pick a book to use with my students. Oftentimes, I will select 2-3 books within the theme to use with my caseload. This allows me to stay consistent with the theme throughout weeks, but have the flexibility to use different books in therapy when needed. Check out this blog post to get tips for selecting snowman books and how to use them in therapy.

Once you have your book selected, you can then look for extension activities to use with the snowman-themed book. For example, if I plan on using a feed the snowman activity, I will try to adapt that activity for many ages and settings. The sensory bin could be great for my small groups and my c0-teaching lessons. Check out how you can set up your push-in therapy HERE.

Need some engaging snowman speech therapy activities that you can adapt for a wide-range of ages and goals? Check out this blog post!

Toys and Tools to Use with a Snowman Theme

Need some engaging snowman speech therapy activities that you can adapt for a wide-range of ages and goals? Check out this blog post!

Having some snowman-themed toys and props can add some engagement to your sessions! Recently, I wrote a blog post on all of my favorite snowman toys that you can add to your stash. Check it out here.

When thinking about adding new toys to your therapy stash, my best advice is to look at the needs of your caseload. Would this toy be easily adapted for a lot of goals? Is it a toy that helps my students connect with the theme or story? How much use would I get out of the toy?

Those are the types of questions I ask myself before buying materials. There have been occasions when I bought something because it made me excited like these snowman pull-back sleds.

Snowman Videos to Use with Your Caseload

When you are strapped for time, using a YouTube video can be an engaging, quick lesson plan. There are lots of great snowman videos. In the snowman push-in language lesson plan guides, there is a Google Slide presentation included with all the best snowman-themed videos.

For a brain break or a way to transition into a new activity in your sessions, you can use these snowman songs! Here are two of my favorites to use in co-teaching. 

Snowman Rhymes and Fingerplay Activities

If you have students that love movement and hands-on activities, you have to try using snowman rhymes in therapy! Using rhymes with props for your snowman unit, you can target many speech and language goals. Check out this blog post from Ms. Gardenia’s speech room, where she shares a fun snowman rhyme and free visuals to use with it!

Snowman Crafts to Use in Speech Therapy

Need some engaging snowman speech therapy activities that you can adapt for a wide-range of ages and goals? Check out this blog post!

There are a lot of great simple snowman crafts you can use for your small groups and co-teaching lessons. My favorite is using a white paper bag or paper plate and creating a snowman! If you need some free visual supports for following the steps of the craft, grab them in this blog post. 

You can make this snowman craft with your mixed groups and have a template for speech and language goals. When you have mixed groups, it’s hard to do crafts that cover all the goals in the group. That’s why you can use one craft template and customize based on your student’s goals. 

For more winter craft ideas, check out this blog post. 

Snowman Cooking Ideas for Speech Therapy

For your whole class lessons, why not read a fun snowman book and then do a hands on cooking lesson! Here is a FUN marshmallow snowman cooking activity from Kristine Lamb at Live Love Speech. If you need visual recipes for your themed units, Kristine has the best set that will last all year!

Need some snowman speech therapy activities for your early elementary caseload? Check out how you can plan for your mixed groups in this blog post.

Snowman Speech Therapy Activities for Younger Students

If you are needing pre-made language lesson plans to cover your small groups and push-in services, this snowman theme language lesson plan guide, has a Google Slide presentation, parent newsletter, lesson plan cheat sheet, and over 5 small group activities to pair with any snowman book! Plus, it also has to cheat sheet instructions to give to instructional aides or teachers when running a station activity. If you want to increase engagement and have activities that target a LOT of goals, buy this resource for caseload.

It has a build the snowman file folder, snowman picture mats, snowman life cycle visuals, and a feed the snowman activity, just to name a few.

Check out all these snowman speech therapy activities that you can use to plan your small groups and whole class lessons!
Check out all these snowman speech therapy activities that you can use to plan your small groups and whole class lessons!

Digital Snowman Activities for Younger Students

When working on sequencing skills, using a build the snowman digital activity can target a lot of meaningful language within the context of the snowman theme. This build a snowman sequencing Boom Cards™ set in my TPT store helps you target tier II vocabulary, scaffold by using 3, 4, and 6 picture scenes as well have use extension activities. With the extension activities, you can cover grammar, wh-questions, following directions, and more! 

ABCYA has a great FREE interactive build a snowman game that you can use to target requesting, sequencing, describing, and building MLU.  What digital activities have you found to be helpful for your younger students? You can also set up a green screen with a winter scene from Google Photos. Then, build your snowman with this felt snowman from Amazon (affiliate links) and make sure your green screen fabric is felt or will allow Velcro to stick to it. 

What are your favorite snowman resources to use with your caseload?

Using a snowman theme can be LOTS of fun and filled with tons of opportunities to work on goals. Plus, it is a theme that you can adapt and reuse activities for 2-4 weeks. This makes therapy planning easier because you have to do it less often. If you want to hear more about using a theme longer than a week, check out this Real Talk SLP podcast episode. 

Let me know in the comments some of your favorite digital and printable snowman materials to use in therapy!

Have engaging snowman speech therapy activities to use in your themed therapy sessions!
Must Have Snowman Toys for Speech

Must Have Snowman Toys for Speech

by | Dec 18, 2021 | Themed Speech Therapy, Toys for Speech, Uncategorized

When planning your snowman-themed unit, you can add some engagement by grabbing some of these must-have snowman toys for speech therapy. You definitely don’t need all the toys shared today in this post, but if you are looking to add some new snowman toy additions to your therapy stash, here are some of my faves.

Build a Snowman Toys for Speech Therapy

There is so much language you can target with sequencing tasks! Why not work on the sequencing task of building a snowman. You can definitely make your own white playdough with this recipe and grab buttons, sticks, mini hats and accessories to build a snowman. When building the snowman, you can target transition words, verb tense, vocabulary, wh-questions, summarizing, and answering wh-questions.

If you aren’t interested in making your own white playdough, there are several snowman toys for building a snowman. Here are some good snowman toy sets (Amazon affiliate links included):

– Mr. and Mrs. Snowman Set with Floof modeling clay

– Melting Snowman

– Felt Snowman Game Set

–Snowman Stacker Toy from Melissa and Doug Toys

Have some build-a-snowman toys to use in speech therapy for your snowman activity lesson plan!

Ideas for Using the Snowman Felt Game Set

With the felt snowman game set, you can work on following directions for building the snowman. Once the snowman is built, students can work on identifying colors, describing by attributes, and explaining the sequence in their own words. If you need more ideas for how to use winter sequencing tasks, check out this blog post.

You can also set this up across the speech room and do the snowman-dressing races as a reinforcer. After your students practice their targets, they can do a race to see how fast they can build the snowman. You can have them walk across a plank of wood to work on the basic concept “across.”

After you time the students, talk about who built the snowman the fastest, or slowest as well as discuss the concepts more and less time.

Snowman Toys to Use with Games

Let’s talk snowman toys that can be used as reinforcers or functional communication in speech therapy.

If you own a bowling pin set, add some snowman printables to them. Now, you have a knock the snowman down game! Use these free snowman printables for your bowling pin set. You can also use white paper cups and draw snowman faces to create bowling pins. Stack them into a pyramid and use fake snowballs to try and knock them down. 

Using ball poppers in therapy can be very engaging and motivating for students. Did you know that there is a snowman popper toy? It’s the best! There is also another version that pops the balls out of the snowman’s head. And if you have kids obsessed with Pop Its, I even found a snowman version! For SLPs that love using toys with mixed groups, using the popper toy companion cheat sheet will help you have pre-selected targets and ideas for therapy. 

To use the snowman popper for speech and language targets, tape pictures to the wall or whiteboard. Your students can try to hit the pictures and then practice their targets. If you need some snowman category images, there are a bunch in the snowman language lesson plan guides.

More Snowman Toys for Speech Therapy

You still with me? I went on a snowman toy hunt because this is a theme that I use for a whole month! It makes planning so much easier and my students benefit. Check out episode 45 of the Real Talk SLP podcast to find out why using a theme for at least two weeks can help you and your students. 

Snowman toys for speech therapy that will increase engagement in your mixed groups!

These Snowman pullback cards from Oriental Trading company can be great as a reinforcer, but they can also target some powerful CORE words. You can work on stop, go, more, again, fun, like, turn, my, you, and all done.

With your speech and language goals, you can set up mini trinkets in a row. Have students see what the snowman passes on his drive. Whatever he passes, those are the items students must practice.

You can also set up cube blocks or sugar cubes and see if your students can knock them down with the snowman cars. Work on the verbs pull, start, go, stop, hit, crash, knock, and watch.

To check out these snowman pullback cars in action, watch this REEL on @themedtherapyslp

I got a snowman plush toy on Oriental Trading company, but I think they are all sold out. Here is another version from Amazon. You can use a snowman toy to work on following directions, basic concepts, and use it with your pretend play scenes. For example, you can make hot chocolate for your snowman, or have an ice cream party with a snowman and friends. Add mini snowman erasers to any task mat or worksheet to make therapy have a hands-on component. I found the snowman erasers on Oriental Trading.

Want to Stay Inspired with Themed Therapy Ideas?

Staying creative with implementing a themed-based approach can be a little daunting at times. One minute you find yourself looking on Pinterest for a themed idea and hours later you come out with 20 different themed ideas, 10 dessert recipes to try, and your kid’s next birthday party. If you want to stay inspired with planning by themes, come join my FREE-themed therapy SLP Facebook group!

Winter Snowball Fight Speech Therapy Reinforcer

Winter Snowball Fight Speech Therapy Reinforcer

by | Dec 13, 2021 | Games For Speech Therapy, Themed Speech Therapy

Nothing is worse than a lackluster mixed group session. Am I right or am I right? When you start to plan a winter-themed unit, you always want to include a general open-ended game or reinforcer that you can use across groups. By having one main game or activity as an incentive, you don’t have to come up with new games every week. Today, I wanted to show you how to use this winter snowball fight activity as a speech therapy reinforcer. Better yet, there are some functional goals and CORE words you can target with it too!

What You Need for the Winter Snowball Fight Speech Therapy Reinforcer

To create your winter snowball fight activity, you need a few items. Hopefully, you have some or all of the supplies, so it won’t cost you much money. Here are some materials you need (Amazon affiliate links included):

-Container to hold the snowballs

–Binder clips or photo holders

–Cotton balls

–FREE Elf and Yeti Printables

Download your FREE Elf and Yeti Snowball Fight Printables

Click Here
Have a fun winter open-ended game for speech therapy using this FREE winter snowball fight reinforcer!

How to Play the Winter Snowball Fight in Speech

Have a fun winter open-ended game for speech therapy using this FREE winter snowball fight reinforcer!

Print the elves or yeti’s on cardstock and laminate for durability. Attach each printable to a binder clip or photo holder. Students can earn “snowballs” after each turn practicing their speech or language target. You can either give them a set amount each turn or they can roll a die to see how many they collect.

Then, when all the snowballs are collected, students can have a snowball fight trying to knock down the elves or yetis. You could set up two games and have students do elves versus yetis. See which team can knock down all their players first. Have each student take a turn to throw a snowball. 

To add another variation, you can write different numbers with dry-erase markers on the back of the cards. Have some cards that have unique numbers like subtract 10 points or double your points. When a student knocks down the player card, they get to see how many points they earned. The person with the most points at the end wins the game.  

Save over 70% off with the SLP Winter Survival Kit

Suppose you are in survival mode and need help planning a winter theme for your elementary caseload. In that case, you can get a kit of winter-themed resources for over 70% off during the extended Black Friday sale from November 21st-December 3rd. You can get $100 worth of speech therapy materials for only $29. It will help you save time, reduce stress, and bring back joy to your therapy sessions. Grab it HERE.

Additional Goals to Target With This Open-Ended Game

Not only can you use this as an open-ended game for any goal, you can also adapt to cover students goals with a fun, hands on play activity. 

You can work on verbs, describing the yetis and elves, and answer simple “Who” questions.

Work on CORE words, turn-taking, or making a funny snowball fight story.

Download your FREE Elf and Yeti Snowball Fight Printables

Click Here
There are so many fun ways to use this free winter snowball fight speech therapy reinforcer activity. Check it out on the blog!

How would you use this snowball fight to cover goals for your students on your caseload? Share in the comments your therapy ideas!

If you need a winter themed version of this, check out the winter language lesson plan guides for printables. 

Easy Ways to Adapt This Activity With Other Task Cards

If you have other printables, add them to the binder clips and have a snowball fight the last five minutes of the session. With your students working on speech sound disorder goals, put their target word flashcards on binder clips and knock them down. Whatever card falls, that’s the one they need to practice. See the winter sensory bin companion for some winter-themed printables to do this in your therapy sessions. 

Blog Post with MORE Winter-Themed Therapy Ideas

When planning by themes, it can get a bit overwhelming searching for activities you need. Fortunately for you, I have a LOT of blog posts about winter.

This is one of my fave seasons to use because there is so much theme smashing you can do between clothing, weather, transportation, and activities.

Check out these blog posts:

–Ideas for Winter Crafts to Use in Speech

–Winter Sequencing Short Stories for Speech Therapy

–Winter Activities for Speech Therapy

Real Talk SLP Podcasts:

–5 Winter-Themed Books for Mod-Severe Caseloads

–Winter YouTube Videos for Older Students

 

Have a fun winter open-ended game for speech therapy using this FREE winter snowball fight reinforcer!
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