No Fail Winter Speech Therapy Ideas for Virtual & In-person

At the beginning of January, when we’re all picking ourselves off the couch and drudging back to work, the last thing we want to do is plan for therapy. We wish someone would just wave a magic wand and give us some quick and easy winter speech therapy ideas that keep the kids engaged.

Well, friend. I’m here for you. Here are a few no fail, easy to implement winter speech therapy ideas for all your planning needs!

Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which just means that I might get a small (tiny! 😂) percentage if you purchase through it.

Books & Themes

First, let’s talk winter themes. My favorite themes to do with my students this time of year are:

• Hot cocoa
• Snow/winter
• Arctic animals
• Yetis

If you’re a literacy-based therapy kind of girl like I am, here are some cute storybooks for these winter themes!

Hot cocoa	Snow/winter	Arctic animals	Yetis
–Interactive How to Make Cocoa –Sweet Story of Hot Chocolate –Sneezy the Snowman	–Biscuit’s Snowy Day –The Little Snowplow –The Snowy Day (& companion pack) –Froggy Gets Dressed –The Cold Lady who Swallowed Some Snow	–Hello World Arctic Animals –Can You Say It Brr Brr –Pierre the Penguin –One Winter’s Day –Bear Snores On –3 Snow Bears (& companion pack)	–How to Catch a Yeti –The Thing About Yetis –Betty and the Yeti

Worksheets and Printables

During the winter, the evals and referrals usually start to pick up for me. I typically end up reaching for my low prep items as much as possible. Here are some easy print-and-go resources to get you through!

• 100 trial hot cocoa/snowballs/ice (free)
• Hot cocoa worksheets
• Arctic animal worksheets
• Winter worksheets
• Winter fluency binder
• Inferences and Text Evidence – Winter

There are a few other items that take a little more time to prep, but once you do they’re good for years to come. Here are some prep once and go items that I use in winter:

• Hot Cocoa mini unit
• Hot cocoa speech game (free!)
• Arctic animals mini unit
• Penguin phonology
• Penguin preschool language
• 3 Snow Bears book companion pack
• The Snowy Day digital and printable book companion pack

I also LOVE these winter sensory bin ideas from The Dabbling Speechie!

Crafts

I love crafts because they can often be used or modified for any therapy goal. Plus, they are safe and easy-to-clean when using during in-person therapy.

This Winter Accordion Craft pack is awesome because it can be mixed and matched with my other accordion crafts. It lets you target SO many goals with one fun craft.

Additionally, there are lots of cute free winter crafts out there that pair beautifully with all my books and games. Check out these favorites!

• Hot cocoa craft from Speech Dreams
• Winter hat craft from Easy Peasy and Fun
• Cotton ball penguin craft from Easy Peasy and Fun
• Polar bear paper plate craft from A Dab of Glue will Do
• Paper plate Yeti from Arty Crafty Kids

Games

Sometimes you just need to pull out a good game for reinforcement. It’s not always something that’s easily manageable during these pandemic days, but when I need kids to stay engaged I pull out the sanitizing wipes and do it!

I love winter games like Don’t Break the Ice! This game companion pairs really nicely with it as well. It takes a minute to prep, but once you do you have it forever.

My students also enjoy Yeti in My Spaghetti and Yeti Set Go if you’re doing Yeti theme!

Last year at Target I found these winter ball poppers that were a huge hit. Just hang up some articulation cards and you’ve got target practice! lol I’m not sure if the poppers are still at Target, but if not you can always find some on Amazon.

Digital Activities

Since I’m running that hybrid schedule, I’ve got to have my share of digital activities to do in speech as well. Boom cards and Google slide activities are my favorite things to use. But sometimes, I also love the good old-fashioned hold the items up to the screen activities. Favorite digital winter activities:

• Hot Cocoa Digital Mini Unit
• Hot Cocoa Race from Crazy Speech World
• Snowball Fight Artic from Speech Dreams
• Build a Snowman freebie
• Arctic Animals Digital Mini Unit
• Open-ended Winter Boom Cards
• Winter Vocabulary Memory
• WH Questions Winter

There are also tons of theme-based online games at Pink Cat Games, ABCya (like this Make a Snowman game), and PBS Kids (like this cute Snowflake Match game).

YouTube Clips

I don’t know about you, but I like to start a lot of my virtual sessions off with a YouTube video. Anything to get the students looking at the screen, right? I play songs for my preschoolers and show clips for my older kids that we can discuss. The songs are great for brain breaks too! Check these out:

• 5 Little Marshmallows
• Snowman Freeze
• I’m a Little Snowman
• Counting Snowflakes
• The Penguin Dance
• 5 Little Penguins (Cocomelon)
• Polar Bear Rolling Around
• Lily & the Snowman (short film)
• At Home with Olaf clips
• National Geographic Kids: Arctic Animals
• Penguins for Kids

OK, friend. I hope that gave you some great winter speech therapy ideas for all of your sessions! If you want a lot of these all wrapped up in a nice little package, be sure to check out my January monthly plans in my free resource library! There’s a template for you to make your own as well. 🙂

Cheers to the new year!