Stuff the Stocking and Decorate the Christmas Tree: 2 Holiday Themed Games!

The last few Holiday Themed Freebies!  Parents don't hesitate to use these activities over the Christmas Holiday to work on speech and language goals!!!  

Go to the bottom of this blog to download these FREEBIES!

Game #1:  Stuff the Stocking:  is a fun quick game you can play while practicing on your child's target sounds.  The object:  to correctly produce the target sound in the appropriate context (word, phrase, sentence, etc) in order to place the picture on your child's stocking.  Once all squares have a picture on them...the stocking is full.  Whomever fills their stocking first...wins! 

You don't have small enough target pictures to fit the squares?  No problem! Go online and print several pictures of different "candies" and fill your stocking with "candy"! Yummmmmm!

I used Microsoft PowerPoint clip art for all of these pictures.  Since I needed these particular sounds (K, F, S) I decided to add them to this download.  If you are working on these sounds too, feel free to use these pictures for personal use. 

 

Remember: ONLY target the sounds your child is working on with his/her speech pathologist and ONLY in the context (isolation, syllables, words, phrases, sentences, etc.) with which your child can be successful.  Repeated incorrect production will yield nothing more that incorrect productions in the future.  Your speech pathologist can explain to you which level of complexity to work on .

Game #2:  Parents, you have probably seen several very similar activities out there.  I feel you can never have too many materials in your arsenal to keep things fresh.  So, these are my versions.  For Decorate the Christmas Tree, I like to make a big Christmas tree from butcher paper but if you are parent at home, you most likely won't have access to your own personal stash so I added an plain tree template you can start with.

Here is a page of ornaments you can use to decorate your tree.  (I like to use contact paper with sticky side facing out and let the children put the ornaments anywhere they would like on their tree!)  It's how they obtain their ornaments that count!

I will do several things to keep this game interesting:  

1)  Pin the ball on the tree:  this game requires a few practices of the articulation or language target (speech sound in words, phrases, sentences, etc) before they are blindfolded and pin their Christmas ball to the tree.

2)  "Ornament Fishing":  I paperclip articulation pictures to Christmas ornaments, and have my kiddos use a fishing rod (with a magnet on the end) to "fish" their ornament.  Before they place it on the tree they must practice their target word first.

3)  Hide N Seek:  Yes this is exactly what it sounds like...you hide the cards and your child seeks!  There are 2 versions you can do:  A) hide the target pictures and after your child finds and practices the target they choose a Christmas Ornament from a bucket and place on tree.  B) hide the ornaments and after practicing a few target pictures let your child seek, find and place the ornament on the tree!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these cute little Freebies!  Remember the goal is to practice your child's speech and language goals in a fun and motivating way.  Keep it light and don't get stressed out if your child can't obtain that sound or remember the word correctly.  Model, model, model the correct way to say something!  Your child will eventually learn that skill.  Good luck!

Click below for your downloads:

Decorate the Christmas Tree

Stuff the Stocking


Enjoy!  Happy Talking!

**Materials are for personal use only.  Communication Station: Speech Therapy, PLLC reserves the creative rights to all materials made and distributed via communicationstationspeechtx.blogspot.com**