The holidays are upon us…9 great holiday activity ideas!
November is here and many of us are looking forward to the holidays. Many are fascinated with the feeling of holiday cheer. Let’s be honest, we can all use some holiday cheer as we wrap up this year. Incorporating holiday activities into my sessions helps spread holiday cheer. No matter what level or goals you’re targeting, holiday themes (i.e., Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanza, Hannukah, New Year‘s eve, etc.) are easy to address in your therapy sessions. Here are some ideas to get started:
1. Sign up for an account on Boom Cards and Teacher Pay Teachers. Many creative therapists and teachers create and post activities throughout the holiday seasons that may be free or available for purchase. These are great sites if you feel creative and want to create your own activities.
2. GoGo Speech has been a wonderful resource I use for free activities. When you subscribe for GoGo Speech, the creator sends out free activities by email. Her activities can be used with green screen or as a power point download.
3. Holiday books are fantastic! Many may not have access to actual books during this time. Many therapists working via tele-therapy use digital resources like Vbooks. Additionally, sites like YouTube offer narrated books. It’s great to utilize a video or digital book because you can stop as need to incorporate goals.
4. Theme-centered pictures can easily be found online, printed, colored, and cut for pasting or for playing a game. Crayola offers a variety of holiday coloring pages that are great for coloring or painting. You can also draw a picture of a holiday item (snowman or turkey), then add in silly eyes, nose, ears, mouth, or hair.
5. Utilize theme-driven words for articulation activities. For example, if you are targeting /r/, write a list of /r/ words or print images related to your themed holiday. Google images offers
a great supply of holiday-themed pictures.
6. BINGO! Who is not a fan of bingo? Utilize Microsoft Word to create bingo cards while incorporating pictures, words, phrases, or sentences to target goals. Create your cards around a holiday theme.
7. Utilize holiday theme pictures you can find through Google images to incorporate as conversation starters or description, sequencing, fluency activities.
8. Utilizing holiday movie clips are great for targeting goals to recall information, to describe, and for wh-questions as well.
9. Crafts are another fun way to include the holidays. If you are working in person, the patient’s participation can be reinforced by working towards earning opportunities to cut ornaments for pasting items onto a Christmas tree or a turkey, depending on your focus. If you are working virtually, some platforms offer a white board feature you can utilize to add to a Christmas tree or to draw tail feathers onto a turkey.
As always, the focus is to provide skilled therapy while targeting patient goals in a fun way. That being said, we can definitely pair some holiday fun and cheer to our sessions. Happy Holidays!
If you or someone you know needs the services of a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist, please be sure to discuss your concerns with a physician, a speech-language pathologist, or another qualified provider. You can also find a provider through the ASHA ProFind service or visit us at www.bilingualspeech.org for more information. NOTE: This article is intended only as a general source of information, i.e, it is not intended to replace information given to you by a qualified health professional that is familiar with your particular circumstances. Lastly, if you have an urgent medical need, please seek immediate medical attention.