16 Easy Winter Themed Activities for Speech and Language Therapy

Winter is such a fun theme to use in your speech and language therapy sessions. There are tons of great vocabulary and activities. 

I will admit that growing up in southern California meant that I definitely didn’t have the most well-rounded view of what “winter” is…So if you currently practice in California, it can still be fun to talk about what winter is like in other areas of the country/world.

A winter theme is great for speech and language because you can use it across multiple months. It can be used in December, January, AND February! 

Themes that can be used across multiple months are great because it means less planning for you as a super busy SLP. AND, it means students can dive deeper into those themes for even more connections.

The “winter” theme can be broken up into additional themes such as snow, snowmen, cold/hot, arctic animals (e.g., polar bears), penguins, winter clothing, winter sports, and so much more!

Here are 16 easy winter-themed ideas to use in your speech therapy sessions the next couple of months.

General Winter Activities for Speech Therapy:

• Read a winter-themed book. Froggy Gets Dressed and Stranger in the Woods (by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick) are two of the best winter-themed books!
• Practice following directions with a winter theme. Use props/pictures and create your own directions for students to follow.
• Print and cut out winter-themed shapes (e.g., snowflakes, snowmen, snowballs, penguins, polar bears, etc.). 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 polar bear under the table!”
• Cut out some paper snowballs or snowflakes, write target words/vocabulary on each one and fling it off of a parachute. Practice the words as you find the snowball/snowflake. While using the parachute, you can also target up/down, high/low, fast/slow, etc.
• Sing a winter song. One great winter song that includes movement is “Snow Man Freeze Song” by The Learning Station. *Make sure to watch videos in advance to check for appropriateness for your students.*
• Make a snowman using construction paper. Talk about the steps it takes to build the snowman. What items do you need? What do you do first? Describe your snowman.
• Create a snowman by printing (or drawing) an outline of one. Using large (or mini) marshmallows, dip them in white craft paint to create a “stamp.” Stamp the snowman.
• Create a simple winter themed sensory bin. Use a filler such as cotton balls or white crinkle paper. Add a scoop, tongs, spoons, or measuring cups. Add objects to find such as mini arctic animal erasers, flash cards, and wood blocks (i.e., ice cubes). That’s it! You can also add a small container to hide the items into such as a miniature box.

• Using lots of cotton balls, spell out letters and names. You could also line them up and talk about which line is long/longer/longest, short/shorter/shortest, etc.
• Practice describing different winter themed items using photos. 
• Check out a NO PREP winter themed activity by clicking HERE, or find it at the end of this post.
• Create a snowman using modeling dough and additional items such as googly eyes, toothpicks, twist ties, pipe cleaner pieces, and beads. Describe your snowman. Talk about what it looks like, but also tell a story about it. What does your snowman like to do? What does your snowman like to eat? Is your snowman similar or different than your friend’s? Target fringe vocabulary words such as squish/squeeze, mold, roll, and pound/smash.
• Write some speech target words or vocabulary on white pieces of paper. Practice saying them as you write them. Then wad the papers up and have a snowball fight! As you pick them up, open the snowball and practice the targets. Don't want to encourage throwing at each other? Try to toss them into a trashcan like a basketball hoop. Or throw them at targets on the wall.
• Cut out some white circles, colored shapes, and winter clothing items. Create a snowman by following directions or describe your snowman. Make sure to use all of your good speech sounds!
• Whatever toys your students love to play with, turn it into a winter scene by dumping cotton balls on it! It's really fun with toy doll houses and plastic gardens.
• If it snows in your area, bring in a container of snow for your students to play with. Use droppers to drip colored water in the snow to create a picture.

Winter can be such a fun theme to use in therapy, especially if it actually snows where you live! 

🤔 But what if you don’t really have access to a lot of materials? Or you don’t have a place to store them?

No problem! Just grab some NO PREP differentiated winter categories and following directions activities.

🤔 No access to a functioning printer? 

No sweat! Just open these worksheets in a PDF reader on a device and mark-up the page digitally.

🤔 Need help coming up with a homework idea?

Just print a few extra worksheets to send home as homework. Simple enough!

Cross something off of your to-do list and save time planning by checking out these NO PREP winter themed activities below!

Check out the winter activities by clicking HERE.