Thanksgiving is such a fun theme to use in your speech and language therapy sessions. There are tons of great vocabulary and activities.
There are several different themes that are perfect for November speech therapy that have a Thanksgiving theme. Some of them include food, turkeys, gratitude, family, friendship, Thanksgiving holiday, and more!
Here are 21 easy Thanksgiving-themed ideas to use in your speech therapy activities this month.
Turkey and Thanksgiving Themed Ideas:
- Read a Thanksgiving-themed book. Turk and Runt and Duck and Hippo: Give Thanks are 2 of my favorites! (Check out my next post for a list of the best Thanksgiving books for speech therapy!)
- Practice following directions with a Thanksgiving theme. Use props/pictures and create your own directions for students to follow.
- Check out a NO PREP Thanksgiving themed activity by clicking HERE, or find it at the end of this post.
- Print and cut out Thanksgiving-themed shapes. They can all be the same, or they can be different. Write target vocabulary on them and hide them around the room. As you practice the vocabulary targets, say “where” you found the picture. For example, “I found the turkey under the table!”
- Cut out some paper turkeys. Write target words/vocabulary on each one and fling it off of a parachute. Practice the words as you find the turkey. While using the parachute, you can also target up/down, high/low, fast/slow, etc.
- Sing a Turkey song. A couple of great ones include “Ten Little Turkeys” by The Learning Station and “The Turkey Hokey Pokey Dance” by Kiboomers.
- Practice and role play Thanksgiving dinner and how to interact with relatives and friends. Talk about what is considered polite in your culture [e.g., taking only a little bit of food unless told otherwise, saying “thank you” (if possible), what topics are inappropriate while eating (e.g., bodily functions), etc.]. You could also discuss how to advocate for yourself. For example, how to ask for more food, how to refuse a hug or unwanted touching, etc.
- If you’re in a school, walk around the school/classroom and look for Thanksgiving decorations. Describe what you see. Or, find some pictures online (make sure to find them in advance to make sure they are appropriate) of store ads and describe what you see.
- Using feathers and craft glue, make a turkey on a brown piece of construction paper. Draw the face using markers. Label the different parts of the body.
- Using lots of feathers, spell out letters and names. You could also line them up and talk about which line is long/longer/longest, short/shorter/shortest, etc.
- Create a donut turkey using a small donut, toothpicks, round (rings) colored cereal (like Fruit loops), and raisins (for the eyes). See the photo above for an example.
- Create a turkey using modeling dough and additional items such as googly eyes, toothpicks, twist ties, pipe cleaner pieces, and disposable straw pieces. Describe your turkey. Talk about what it looks like, but also tell a story about it. What does your turkey like to do? What does your turkey like to eat? Is your turkey similar or different than your friend’s?
- Create your own turkey using different colored pieces of construction paper. Cut out different shapes and sizes and glue them together. Describe your turkey.
- Create a simple Thanksgiving themed sensory bin. Use a filler such as feathers or brown crinkle paper. Add tongs or measuring cups. Add objects to find such as mini Thanksgiving/turkey erasers or flash cards. That’s it! You can also add a small container to school the items into such as a plastic container or bowl.
- Taste some turkey lunchmeat during snack time. Try it with different condiments/sauces. (Make sure to check for allergies first!)
- Create a turkey cookie. Grab some double stuffed chocolate sandwich cookies, peanuts, candy corn, raisins (or chocolate chips), and chocolate frosting. (Make sure to check for allergies first!) Place the candy corn (turkey feathers) inside the cream around the top half of the cookie. Add the face (peanut beak and raisin eyes) using the frosting to stick it on. Voila!
- Make a farm (dirt and a fence) on a piece of poster board or butcher paper. Put turkey cut-outs on it with your target vocabulary written on them (or pictures). Have students take turns choosing a turkey from the farm and practicing their speech and language targets.
- Have an outline of a turkey. Draw different facial expressions on it. Or, use modeling dough.
- Practice setting the table. Learn about where the different utensils go. Name the vocabulary as well as spatial concepts and prepositions. For example, “The napkin goes UNDER the utensils.” “The plate goes BETWEEN the fork and spoon,” etc.
- Plan your Thanksgiving meal. What foods do you need? When is it? Who are you inviting? Do you want decorations? Etc.
- Draw or plan a trap to catch a turkey for Thanksgiving. What materials do you need? What steps do you take to make it?
The BEST No Prep Thanksgiving-Themed Activities:
I LOVE using categories and following directions activities because there are so many ways to implement and use them with mixed groups.
✅ Want to make your life easier? Use DIFFERENTIATED NO PREP activities because it requires basically no time to prep and covers so many students on your huge caseload.
✅ Use no prep worksheets and activities in your session and send home unfinished activities for homework. Win-win!
✅ Engage your students with themed activities and target holiday-themed vocabulary at the same time, making the vocabulary relevant for your students.
➡️Includes enough activities for multiple sessions including 25+ worksheets and 780 directions!
➡️Save your precious time for other tasks by using these NO PREP print and go activities.
➡️No access to a functioning printer? Use these worksheets digitally by opening an editing app and digitally drawing right on the page
➡️Homework is already prepped for you! Send home additional printed worksheets for at-home practice and carryover.
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