Do you need some fun New Year’s Day activities for speech and language students? Keep reading…you will not want to skip this post!
I’m sure I can speak for all of us when I say we are glad to be able to say good-bye to the year 2020. It was a trying year for most of us. There were many changes to jobs, the world of education, our social life and our health and healthcare system. Who ever imagined SLPs would all become teletherapists overnight?! Luckily, having a baby in 2020 made the year pretty amazing. Hopefully next year, he can finally meet some of his family and friends. When every new year begins, I like to do some specific activities with my speech and language students to help show them that a new year means new possibilities and goals. I also like to incorporate some fun craftivities for the littles as we return to school from winter break to help adjust and celebrate! The best part? Two of the activities that I’m sharing today are FREE! Happy New Year! Here are my 3 favorite New Year’s Day activities for speech and language students.
These Speech Therapy Learning Targets are one of my favorite New Year’s day activities for speech and language students because they work on targeting goals. As an SLP, we should always be goal-oriented since all of our students have specific IEP goals that they are working towards mastering. These can be used with students from kindergarten all the way to 8th grade. I like to use learning targets as part of our routine at the beginning of each session after I introduce them. This reminds the student of his/her target and allows for me to have him focus on the work (not the activity!) The target is there to bring your attention to what the learning goal is. The learning target isn’t the activity. Most importantly, have a discussion about the topic. Don’t just post it and never talk about it. These take it back to the basics of why the student is receiving speech and language therapy.
One of the benefits of posting the learning target includes having students rate their own success. This is important for having students take ownership of their learning. We can chart their success and then refer back to the learning target to see if they have met the I can statement. In each therapy session, I use thumbs up/down to determine the path. These thumbs up/ down signs are available in a larger pack of Learning Targets for Speech and Language. The behavior learning targets include 6 skills you can use to identify good behaviors in your student. When the group sits down, identify the behaviors you want to see in the group, i.e.: ”I see Jenna is sitting calmly, she’s on target.” While the group is working, you can give nonverbal cues to indicate off target behaviors. If you see a child not watching the speaker, just pull off the target on that space until the student resumes the appropriate behavior. You can read more about why you should be using learning targets in speech and language therapy in a previous blog post that I wrote.
These articulation party hats are another one of my favorite New Year’s Day activities for speech and language students. They make a fun craft but also work on speech skills at the same time. I typically use these with students in preschool-2nd grade. There are seventeen different speech sounds to choose from and each hat has eight pictures total for students to color- four pictures practice the initial position sound and four pictures practice the final position sound. There is also a blank hat included to use your imagination and create your own activity. These Happy New Year articulation party hats are a great activity for a student’s first time back to speech after the new year. It is an easy activity, involves hands-on coloring to students engaged and you can just print it and be ready to go very easily without much prep!
Finally, my final favorite New Year’s Day activity for speech and language students are these New Year’s headbands. Once again, it is a fun craft for students to do to ease back into work after being off for the holidays. There are 2 different styles of crowns to choose from when printing.
This product is also one of many products that I use to get 100 trials (at least) of practice! Each page includes one crown with 10 blanks to color. Give your student one headband and have them practice a skill 10 times before coloring one star or firework. Once they have completed 100 trials of practice, add construction paper and turn the paper into a headband to wear home. Students are very motivated by this hands-on activity.
Here’s to hoping that the year 2021 is better than 2020. Thank you for supporting me and being here. I hope that you have a great and prosperous new year with your families and students!
What are your favorite New Year’s Day activities to do with your speech and language students? Please share!
Join the SRN newsletter!
I'm so glad you stopped by! If you'd like to keep up with the newest posts and get exclusive free downloads, please sign up for the newsletter! Your first freebie is ready as soon as you subscribe and confirm your email!
