Play-Based Speech Therapy: Christmas Tree activity

I don’t do that many crafts in my speech room, but I do love intentional hands-on, play-based activities that let me target multiple goals. This week in speech we have incorporated a Christmas tree for some fun festive sessions. Scroll the bottom of this post to get this printable ideas list!!

I got all my supplies at Target (Hobby Lobby has a lot of mini tree ornaments too). I have a $10 burlap-wrapped 13 inch tree (if you have space, I recommend getting something taller), lighted star topper, stringed beads, pipe cleaner candy canes, and mini ornaments. Total investment was $20.

Here are my ideas:

Sequencing: What are the steps to decorating a Christmas tree? Use words like “first, next, after, then, last, finally,” etc.

Requesting: Have all the decorations (garland, ornaments, star, etc.) in a container out of reach & have the child ask for each item. Have a variety (different colors/sizes) of each item for higher-level requesting. For example, “May I have the blue ornament with stripes?”

Prepositions: After the tree is decorated, identify common prepositions. “The star is above the tree.” “The blue ornament is below the green ornament.” “The garland is around the tree.” “The skirt and presents are under the tree.”

How-To Writing: Focus on written expression, syntax, grammatical structure, etc. using a combination of sequencing & illustrations using the How-To Writing: Everyday Activities in my TpT store.

EET: Implement strategies used in the Expanding Expression Toolkit to describe a Christmas Tree.

Vocabulary: evergreen, artificial, garland, flocked, needles, skirt, pre-strung or pre-lit, multicolor, trimming

Articulation: make “ornaments” with cut-out paper articulation pictures of their target words. I use the small ornaments from my Christmas Dice & Dot resource.