A Walk Through Our 2014 New Years Themed Speech & Language Therapy Sessions

This week during speech we had New Years themed sessions.  As a result, we ended up practicing a large number of pretend countdowns from the number 10 that ended with loud shouts of, " HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!"  The countdowns were fun to practice because many of our younger students were fast asleep when the actual countdowns were needed on Tuesday night.  We had several ways to do a countdown such as: putting in the puzzle pieces in a clock and number puzzle or pointing to the numbers as they they repeated 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1- HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 

Once they completed the countdown they attempted to make a lot of noise by trying out many types of instruments (we named them as we tried them) and then they even got to taste New Years themed carbonated apple juice in fun party cups. They loved the fizzy drinks!

We took the opportunity to also practice many time concepts such as the days of the week, the months of the year, yesterday/today/tomorrow and discussing which months include the seasons of Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. Also, as they entered the speech room they practiced putting the correct time on our practice clock near the door.

Out in the hall the kids took the scooter around and collected beads (which they put on and named the colors as they did) and then named the party item that was near the beads (which they put in a party hat). Some kids collected only items, some, articulation cards, some practiced phonemic awareness as they named the first letter of the party item.

At the end of the hall a fun game was done. The students had to throw balls into party hats and attempt to get to 100 points as they answered "WH" questions about New Years Eve or winter, and repeated phrases such as the full date including the New Year.

They made several types of crafts such as their own "sparklers" which were foam stars where the students added stickers spelling their names and decorated them with other small colored stars. After the star was decorated we added a colored straw to be used as the handle- fun and easy!

Another fun craft we did were these easy clocks. Click on "these" to go take a look at them over at Oriental Trading Company. With the completed clocks we practiced many sound targets such as the final k sound as it appears in word "o'clock" and "tick tock". We also discussed time concepts such as: "show me two thirty" and worked on counting to ten. 

We completed several worksheets that included many important speech, language and articulation goals. Such as these from 3 Dinosaurs, these from Speech Room news, this freebie from Innovative Teacher, this freebie for articulation from our store, and worksheets made by Jennifer Drake.

Please see below to see pictures of the activities described above.

We wish you tons of happiness in the next year friends! 

Thank you and best wishes,

Shanda and Manda SLPs