Ready or not (I'm guessing ready), the last day of school is coming and it's time to get a plan for the last week of speech therapy sessions. Of course you want to go out with a bang with a fun end-of-the-year activity to reward students for their hard week and send them off to summer break on a high note.
While in-person SLPs may plan a little party with treats and trinkets, teletherapists are probably wondering how to make the last week of speech therapy extra special. Even without the ability share share food, your final virtual sessions can still have anticipation and excitement.
Check out these ideas to give you and your students the last week of school celebration you deserve!
Create a digital scrapbook.
Maybe it's because I was once a scrapbook hobbyist, but creating a digital memory book is a fun way to tie up the year. A presentation program like Google Slides or PowerPoint works great for this.
Start with a blank presentation and insert photos that you've taken throughout the year or import them using Google Images. Using text boxes, personalize the book even more by adding moments from the past year in addition to summer plans.
If your creativity is shot by this point in the year (and you just want a template that's ready to go), grab an end-of-the-year speech therapy recap activity that you can use in Google Slides or PowerPoint (or even print).
Take a virtual field trip.
Virtual field trips make for some of my favorite teletherapy sessions. If your students have specific interests or enjoyed a particular theme that you used previously in the year, here's a chance to expand on it.
Virtual field trips are pretty easy to find, thanks to Google! Just search for the type of field trip that you're looking for (you'll often end up on YouTube). Some ideas include museums, aquariums, zoos, landmarks, monuments, community buildings, and landforms. Live webcams also make for a fun way to (virtually) travel somewhere new.
In this example, a live stream from the Georgia Aquarium is being used alongside a shark-themed fill-in-the-blank story.
Hold a talent or award show.
For group speech therapy sessions, hold a mini event to recognize each student. Students can share a talent or you can present each student with an award to recognize their (serious or humorous) accomplishments.
Go on a scavenger hunt.
I'm a fan of using scavenger hunts in teletherapy any time of year, but they're also the perfect last day activity! Use summer-themed objects to build hype for the upcoming break and spark conversation about each person's plans for the upcoming break.
Play summer-themed games.
It's no secret that most students love to play games in teletherapy any chance they can get, so that would be a great way to celebrate the end of the year. Play a little of each student's favorite game or have students vote to select a game or two.
If you want to create your own game, check out Baamboozle, Kahoot!, or Jeopardy Labs. You can personalize the questions to your student groups or find generic pre-made games on those sites that fit your needs.
Games with a summer theme are another easy and fun way to finish up the year. A few ideas are...
Summer-Themed Bingo can be played in Google Slides or using a PDF.
Summer Memory is a Boom Card deck that is also full of summer vocabulary.
Summer Click It Game (Boom Cards) is a fast-paced call-out game that is great for students of all ages.
Summer Break Conversation Game will elicit tons of language about the upcoming summer break. It can be played in Google Slides or using the included PDF version.
Use other summer-themed activities.
You can also use summer-themed activities to send off students– and even target a few speech therapy goals at the same time!
Summer Speech Libs is a digital PDF (that can also be printed). Students fill in the blanks in the story to create their own hilarious passage.
Summer Basic Concepts and Directions is a Boom Card deck that's loaded with summer vocabulary and pictures.
Summer Sounds Listening Activity is also a Boom Card activity that engages students with colorful photographs and real sounds.
Do a countdown to the end of the year.
Regardless of which activities you use, an end-of-the-year countdown is a fun addition. Grab this simple and FREE Boom Card deck (get it here on Boom) as a visual countdown of the remaining days (or weeks) of school or therapy until summer break.
Choose from these end of the year teletherapy activities to make each student's last session unique and memorable. If you choose to, don't forget to share about summer speech therapy homework with your students, too!
Get a jumpstart on the fall by bookmarking some back-to-school teletherapy activities, too!
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