When winter break ends, the new year is just beginning! Make a plan to help your students transition back to speech therapy by sharing about their winter break, reflecting on the past year, and planning for the next one. Read on for easy-to-implement after-winter break activities!
Winter Break Conversation Game
If you work with older students in speech therapy, this winter break conversation game is the easiest (and most engaging) way I've found to allow them to share about their breaks– in a productive way.
The best part about the game is that it naturally elicits conversation about winter break plans. Plus, it involves some strategy (to keep older kids engaged) and comes in both printable and digital versions.
Show and Tell in Speech Therapy
Have students bring (or show a photo of) and tell about an item that they used or received over winter break. This is a great way to let students share about an item of their choosing (such as a gift received) in a way that incorporates lots of speech and language.
Winter Objects or Actions Guessing Game
For students who may not be warmed up and ready to share aloud, break the ice with a winter break guessing game. Students act out or draw something they did over break for others to guess.
Year in Review
Looking back at the previous year can be a great segue into a new year of speech therapy. This is especially fun if you or your students have photos, videos, or work samples to reflect on the progress, achievements, and growth that have occurred.
For some students, you could also include local, national, or global events and trends that have occurred in the past year. You could use a notebook or Google Slides presentation to create a "scrapbook" of memories.
New Year Vision Board
Vision boards aren't just for adults– kids can make them too! A vision board is a collection of images and words that represent someone's goals and aspirations for the coming year (or the future in general).
You can even make the vision board activity more specific to speech therapy. With each student, discuss their progress over the last year and speech or language goals for the next year. It's important to help students connections between their speech therapy goals and the goals they have for school, home, and social environments.
Email subscribers can grab this (printable or digital) vision board in the free resource library. Students can add their own drawings, magazine cut-outs, gifs, stickers (or digital stickers), text, etc. to kick off the new year.
New Year's Resolutions
Helping your students formulate New Year's resolutions can be a great speech therapy activity for incorporating real-life experiences, functional vocabulary, and conversational skills.
All-in-One Winter Break and New Year's Speech Therapy Activity Set
Want to pick and choose from several of these activities so you can tailor your first week of speech therapy to each student's or group's needs? This Boom Card deck (get the digital and printable versions on TpT) incorporates several post-winter break activities that provide structure, yet offer flexibility for exactly what you need.
The activities use simple language, appealing illustrations, and interactive elements to give students opportunities to...
Share about their winter break plans.
Learn about New Year's Eve and resolutions.
Have a mini New Year's celebration (complete with a ball drop and real music).
Reflect on the highlights and lowlights of the previous year.
Set goals and resolutions for the new year.
Speech Therapy Rules and Expectations Reminder
For some students, winter break can be a significant disruption to their schedule. After a couple of weeks off, you might find that settling back into speech therapy routines and structure is the best use of your time. Some students may just need a few quick reminders of school or speech therapy rules and expectations.
No back-from-break blues here! Before jumping into your winter speech therapy themes, use these engaging activities to effortlessly transition back from winter break. These interactive ideas provide the structure you need while still welcoming students, recapping winter break, and setting goals for the new year.
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