Winter is loooong. While many of us SLPs are freezing our tails off, we're also trying to liven up speech therapy sessions during that never-ending stretch of school between winter break and spring break. Trying to keep students engaged and working toward their speech and language goals can be a challenge, but tying in new themes is a great way to keep things fresh!
Hot chocolate (both making and drinking it) is a simple and relatable theme for kids that you can utilize to target just about any speech and language goal thrown your way in teletherapy!
If you’re working with students face-to-face, these hot chocolate activities still work. And how heroic would you be for your students if you made hot chocolate together as a finale? SLP. of. the. YEAR! Need some ideas? Consider it done ✔️
Hot Chocolate-Themed Boom Cards
Since I discovered them in 2018, Boom Cards have been solving all my problems, including the often-pondered question I ask myself every Sunday night...
What activity will allow me to target multiple goals this week?
Well if you work with elementary students, I have your answer. This versatile deck has 8 hot chocolate-themed activities to target following directions, sequencing, answering wh- questions, and more. My favorite part of the deck targets discriminating the sounds of making hot chocolate... using real sounds!
For those older elementary and middle school students working on articulation, make a virtual cup of hot chocolate by adding marshmallows with high-frequency target words!
Hot Chocolate-Themed PDF Activities for Speech Therapy
There are lots of ways to facilitate language just by allowing students to share their opinions about hot chocolate! I created a quick PDF activity containing seven "poll questions" about hot chocolate, starting with the label...
Do you call it hot chocolate? Or hot cocoa?
Discuss amongst yourselves! I'll use these questions with my older language and pragmatics students as a way to target perspective-taking, negotiation, asking and answering questions, and other functional skills. And if you're an email subscriber, you can snag it in the free resource library!
Books with a Hot Chocolate Theme for Speech Therapy
Search the following book titles/authors wherever you access digital versions of books (your local library, YouTube, websites, online stores, etc.).
Cold Day, Hot Chocolate is a short story with simple sentences about children making hot chocolate at their grandmother's house.
Warm Chocolate YouTube by Flitzy Books is a story about a boy who explains to his classmates why he loves "warm" chocolate.
Hot Chocolate Weather by Elizabeth Castro is about a brother and sister that are waiting for the perfect weather to make hot chocolate.
How Chocolate is Made From Natural Resource to Finished Product by Kerri O'Donnell is a general overview of chocolate production, but discusses hot chocolate toward the end of the book.
Videos with a Hot Chocolate Theme for Speech Therapy
In this 2-3 minute PBS Kids video, the characters of Nature Cat discover their hot chocolate mug breaks outside.
This wordless video walks through the steps of making instant hot chocolate... a great language activity!
Here's a fun song about marshmallows and colors for your preschool students!
This quick song (less than one minute) doesn't have video animations but is another song to use with your younger students.
Website Activities with a Hot Chocolate Theme
While you'll need to sign in for this free website (education.com), this Cocoa Color Sorting activity is a quick and fun activity for younger students.
This is a free hot chocolate coloring activity on thecolor.com.
If your student has paper and a pencil handy, here's a tutorial video for drawing hot chocolate. Or, you can use annotation tools on your teletherapy platform or Jamboard!
Here's a free hot chocolate online puzzle. You can modify the complexity (how many pieces there are) by selecting the button on the left with nine small squares.
Hot Chocolate Activities for Older Students
The Cacao Tree (ReadWorks) is an interesting article about how and where cacao trees grow in the world, plus how they have been used historically.
Would you rather eat your chocolate, or drink it? (Tween Tribune) tells the history of how hot chocolate has come to be what we know today.
In this article, 10 popular brands of hot chocolate are rated. This would be great to spark discussion about which ones students have tried and liked!
This CBS segment reveals the origins of hot chocolate as we know it today.
This article from Canada's Hot Chocolate Festival website shares facts about the history and health benefits of hot chocolate, as well as how hot chocolate varies around the world.
This short article tells about National Hot Chocolate Day (January 31) and how cocoa and hot chocolate are actually different.
If you’re still here, and haven’t darted to the kitchen to make yourself a cup of steaming chocolaty goodness, don’t forget to...
Download the free. hot chocolate activity!
Bookmark a few activities (or this entire post) for future reference!
Need more winter teletherapy lesson plans? Download my FREE Google spreadsheet here!
NOTE: Several of the links in this post go to websites for which I have no affiliation. The links are provided for your convenience only. This post does not signify endorsement of any of the above websites or resources (other than those I have created on TpT and/or Boom Learning), and I have no responsibility or liability for any of the other content or information shared in this post.
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