Winter can mean kids are cooped up indoors and full of enthusiastic energy. It’s especially important this year to have activities that can be done at school or at home that are hands-on and interactive. In this article, you’ll learn 10 ideas of active activities to do this winter that gets kids moving and excited to learn.
Musical Chairs (Snowflake Hop)
https://www.pinkoatmeal.com/snowflake-hop-winter-gross-motor/
This snowflake hop is much like musical chairs, and is great for following directions with verbs and is great for Pre-K and Kinder students.
For this activity, you’ll place papers on the floor that have one action per sheet of paper (for example: jump, run, clap hands). As you play a song (there are plenty of great winter-themed playlists on YouTube), the SLP presses pause and children do the action listed on their paper that they ended up on. If you’d like, you can remove one paper per turn (trial? segment?) so there is a winner, but that part is optional.
Snowman Describing
https://speechtimefun.com/low-prep-speech-therapy-ideas-for-winter/
This drawing activity is great for elementary-aged students working on using descriptors and synonyms.
For this activity, students will draw a snowman and then put synonyms together (cold/chilly) and write them on the snowman. Students can even color code the word pairs. One thing I like about this activity is it can go home with students, and they can “teach” people at home their word pairs and use these words in sentences.
Draw a Snowman Barrier Game
https://speechtimefun.com/low-prep-speech-therapy-ideas-for-winter/
This drawing activity (from the same blog post as above) is also great for elementary-aged students working on receptive language, following directions, prepositions/location concepts and descriptive words.
Marshmallow Toss
https://www.speechtherapyideas.com/2019/01/28/marshmallow-toss-therapy-activity-3-different-ways/
This activity is an excellent reinforcer game for preschool and elementary-aged students, and all you need is mini marshmallows and a mug (or several). Students can practice their speech or language task and throw a mini marshmallow into a mug to earn points.
Ice Skating with Paper Plates
https://pocketofpreschool.com/classroom-winter-party/
This activity is a great open ended reinforcer for preschool and elementary-aged students (I think even my middle school students would enjoy this). Students use paper plates on their feet to cross the room, sliding on the plates.
I could see doing this with irregular past tense verbs, for example (Today I catch the ball, yesterday I _____ the ball) and then crossing the room to see who can get the most trials in a certain time period. For an articulation student, I’d do the same except for a targeted articulation word, phrase, or sentence.
Snowy Mountain Craft
https://www.gluedtomycraftsblog.com/2017/09/watercolor-snowy-mountain.html
For this craft, you’ll need construction paper, watercolors, a glass of water, a paintbrush and cotton balls. Students will watercolor paint the background, you can glue on a few brown or blue triangle shapes for mountains on top, and then glue a few cotton balls onto the top of the mountains so they look snowy. This craft turns out really pretty and also, kids of different ages can do this craft and it can look quite different.
For articulation students, you can write your target words on the back (write the words the next day, after the project has dried) or even work on saying 5 articulation words for each step. For language students you could do something similar, for example for each step ask the child if you’d use “is” or “are” in the sentence, and then write some fill in the blank sentences on the back for homework (“She _____ climbing, They ______ climbing, etc.).
Make Snow Dough
https://buggyandbuddy.com/white-playdough/
Also FWIW, my favorite dough recipe is salt dough, here: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/240641/salt-dough/
If you like making your own modeling clay or salt dough, you can make this with your students, or do what I do and pre-make the dough and do winter activities with the dough together. Ideas: make a snowman out of dough, make “snowballs” out of dough and toss them onto a hand-drawn target, make a snowflake - and more, the possibilities seem endless.
Make an Icicle Craft
https://www.kindergartenworksheetsandgames.com/2019/01/easy-icicle-winter-craft.html
This craft can become a great token activity, and all you need is pipe cleaners and beads. This is an ideal craft for your articulation students, who can say a word, phrase or sentence with their target sounds as they put on each bead.
Snowman In a Bag
https://www.ohmy-creative.com/winter/sudsy-snowman-kids-craft/
This craft includes a baggy with shaving cream (which is fun to push and squeeze) and a construction paper face glued on top in order to make the likeness of a snowman. This can be a fun sensory activity or can work like a fidget in sessions, as long as students can also concentrate while the snowman in a bag is close!
Cooking - Snowman Snack Ideas
https://fun-a-day.com/5-snowman-snack-ideas-kids/
Many of my students love to cook, and when parents ask for activities they can do at home to promote language skills, I often tell them to look up recipes to do together. Cooking is a great interactive activity to do at home and model vocabulary and new words. This blog post has some sweet treats and some healthier options (such as apple and pretzel snowman snacks).
Let’s Get Moving!
Wherever this winter takes you, I hope you consider adding some hands-on and gross motor activities into your speech therapy activities. The winter can be a challenging time for speech therapy sessions (especially since kids are often indoors and sugar fueled this time of year), and active hands-on activities can help.
Sarah Lockhart is a speech language pathologist in private practice in Ashland Oregon. She specializes in working with the birth to five population, particularly Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Autism.
