January National Celebrations Speech Therapists Can Use in Therapy

Hey speech friends! 👋🏼

January can feel a little… long. The holiday sparkle is gone, students are adjusting back into routines, and we’re often digging for fresh ideas to keep therapy engaging without a ton of prep. The good news? January is full of quirky, meaningful, and totally kid-friendly national celebrations that are perfect for sparking communication, vocabulary, and connected learning.

Here are some of my favorite January themes you can easily bring into elementary (and younger!) speech sessions—without reinventing the wheel.

🎉 January 4: National Spaghetti Day

Yes, it’s silly. Yes, kids love it. And yes—it’s packed with language opportunities.

How to use it in therapy:

• Sequencing: Have students “make” spaghetti using playdough, paper strips, or a sensory bin. Walk through steps like boil, stir, pour, mix, eat.

• Describing: Use a simple EET-style breakdown to describe spaghetti: shape, color, category, parts, texture, function.

• Articulation Practice: Hide articulation cards in a bowl of pretend spaghetti and have students “serve” different pieces as they practice.

Low prep, high engagement, and you can use this theme with mixed groups easily.

📚 January 18: National Winnie the Pooh Day

This day celebrates A.A. Milne’s birthday (and Pooh Bear is basically perfect for language therapy).

How to use it in therapy:

• Books: Winnie the Pooh, Pooh’s New Friend, or Pooh’s Snowy Day all make great read-alouds for younger learners.

• Social-Emotional Language: Pooh and his friends show BIG, CLEAR emotions. Have students identify how characters feel, why they feel that way, and what might help them.

• Inferencing: Ask questions like “What do you think Pooh will try next?” or “Why do you think Eeyore is sad?”

• Vocabulary: So many tier-2 words hide in Pooh stories—helpful for expanding descriptive language.

This is a cozy theme for the middle of winter and perfect for mixed groups or literacy-based therapy.

🧤 January 15: National Hat Day

This one is extremely easy to carry into therapy—and requires almost no materials.

How to use it in therapy:

• Sorting & Categorizing: Print or draw different hats (baseball, winter, fancy, silly, work hats). Sort by season, purpose, shape, or color.

• Functional Vocabulary: Talk about who wears each hat and why.

• WH-Questions: Ask questions like “Which hat keeps you warm?” or “What hat would a firefighter need?”

• Play-Based Practice: Let students try on hats or use paper hats during pretend play to practice greetings, requesting, turn-taking, and imaginative language.

Hat Day is simple, but students love the novelty—especially if you show up wearing a silly one.

📖 January 27: National Chocolate Cake Day

This day pairs perfectly with sequencing, verbs, descriptive language, and pretend play. And no—you don’t have to bring actual cake (but you can if you want to be the favorite SLP in the building).

How to use it in therapy:

• Sequencing & Procedural Language: Walk through how to bake a cake using real visuals or pretend materials.

• Spatial Concepts: Put the “cake” on, under, next to, behind, or between objects.

• Following Directions: Use multi-step directions like “Put the frosting on the cake, then add two sprinkles.”

• Articulation: Hide target words in a bowl and have students “mix” their sounds.

The theme feels extra fun for younger students and works beautifully with simple crafts.

🐧 January (All Month): Penguin Awareness Month

This might be the easiest (and most versatile!) theme to stretch across multiple sessions.

How to use it in therapy:

• Nonfiction Language: Read penguin facts and work on main idea, key details, or compare/contrast.

• Describing Practice: Penguins are perfect for talking about attributes, habitats, actions, and life cycles.

• Pretend Play: Create a mini “Arctic world” with cotton balls, plastic penguins, or pictures to model verbs, prepositions, and functional vocabulary.

• Narrative Skills: Have students tell a story about a penguin adventure—great for character, setting, problem, and solution work.

Penguins are universally loved across grade levels and always a hit in groups with mixed goals.

January celebrations are such an easy way to bring novelty and structure into your sessions without adding extra planning time. Each theme naturally supports core speech and language skills, and kids love the sense of surprise and fun that comes with working on something “special.”

If January has felt long or you’re needing a fresh spark, choose one celebration each week and turn it into a mini-theme. Your students will stay engaged, you’ll stay sane, and therapy will feel a bit lighter during these chilly winter weeks.