Do you want to learn how to EASILY turn your critter clinic into a gingerbread house? It’s officially winter in the speech therapy office! Which means gingerbread themes, holiday themes, snow and more! Do you use the beloved Critter Clinic (affiliate link) in your speech therapy sessions? My students have always gone bananas for it! You can grab it on Amazon or Target if you don’t have one yet!
WHY THE CRITTER CLINIC IS A FAVORITE
The Critter Clinic Vet Set is one of my favorite items to use in speech therapy. This cute portable pet hospital includes two plush animal friends and features 6 colorful room doors with matching keys. The set includes a stethoscope, mirror, syringe, tweezers and thermometer, which store neatly away in a rooftop compartment. In addition, a convenient carrying handle makes transporting it easy for my students. Th Critter Clinic is wonderful for students because it helps them work on so many basic skills. We can use it to focus on language skills such as prepositions, adjectives, colors and many other basic concepts. It also works on fine motor skills when students have to use the keys to open the doors. Plus-it’s hands on and engaging!
However, even the most beloved Critter Clinic can get a little stale in therapy when we use it ALL the time. You can EASILY fix that and turn it into a fun gingerbread house for the winter season! Check out the critter clinic turned gingerbread house below!
GINGERBREAD BASIC CONCEPTS
First, grab the Gingerbread Basic Concepts packet . In it, you will find candy pieces plus some plain printer paper for a snow roof to jazz the Critter Clinic right up! Now it’s a gingerbread house! You can choose to do this ahead of time or have students decorate it during a “following directions” activity in your session.
GINGERBREAD ORNAMENTS
Next, add these adorable gingerbread ornaments (affiliate link) to use in place of the regular animals inside the little doors! Luckily, they come as a pack of 6 so there should be plenty to use with the set. These mini gingerbread people are also great to use with students to discuss basic concepts or adjectives. For example, you can tell the students to “Put the gingerbread boy in the purple door.”
ACTIVITIES TO USE WITH THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE
Then, once your Critter Clinic is turned into a magical gingerbread house, it’s time to learn! In the Gingerbread Basic Concepts Packet, there are multiple sentence strips to print out and laminate to use with students. Concepts are targeted in 25 direction strips on pages 13-17 targeting such prepositions like:
- in
- on
- in front of
- over
- under
Finally, let your student pick a sentence strip and then follow that direction to build the gingerbread scene using the house! Watch the magic happen! They will have tons of fun and be learning at the same time!
NO CRITTER CLINIC ? NO WORRIES!
You don’t have a critter clinic but still want to use the Gingerbread Basic Concepts Pack for winter? No problem! The pack comes with EVERYTHING you need including a printable gingerbread house to laminate and use easily in your room!
CHECK OUT MORE GINGERBREAD IDEAS
– Articulation Hat for Gingerbread Man: 100 Trials
–Gingerbread Language File Folder Games
–Gingerbread Speech Therapy: Toys, Activities and Teletherapy Ideas
Do you have gingerbread in your therapy plans?!
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