Easy Winter Speech Therapy Ideas to Simplify Your Post-Holiday Sessions

by Erin Larsen December 30, 2025

Hey SLP friends! 👋

Let’s be honest for a second: coming back after the holiday break is a whole thing.

You’ve just spent a couple of glorious weeks eating cookies for breakfast, losing track of what day it is, and pretending emails don’t exist. And now? Suddenly we’re expected to jump right back into schedules, IEPs, data collection, and sessions like nothing happened?!

No thank you.

But… since the school calendar doesn’t actually care about our feelings (rude), I’ve found a few ways to ease myself back into therapy mode without stress, chaos, or the classic “it’s January and I’ve already used all my ideas” panic spiral. And today, I’m sharing them with you.

✔️ Step 1: Pick ONE Resource to Rule Them All

One of the BEST things I do after break is choose one resource I can use across almost my entire caseload. Not a dozen materials. Not a full cart. Just one.

Because here’s the thing: our brains are still in holiday mode. We’re not ready for complicated. We’re not ready for color-coding 42 unique activities. We just need something reliable and adaptable to get us through those first couple of weeks.

For me?
That’s always my Winter Drill Cards.

They hit language.
They hit articulation.
They hit phonological processes.
They hit winter-themed fun without requiring me to dig for anything new.

And the best part? You can use them digitally if the thought of printing, cutting, laminating, and hole-punching before January 10 makes your soul leave your body. Just pull them up on your iPad and go. Zero prep. Maximum sanity.

⭐️ CLICK HERE TO GRAB THEM FOR YOURSELF ⭐️

✔️ Step 2: Pair With the Easiest Winter Activities Ever

Once you’ve got your go-to resource, the magic happens in the add-ons. I like to grab a simple craft, book, or sensory activity and pair it with the drill cards to build full, engaging sessions without reinventing the wheel.

❄️ Easy Sensory Snow (2 ingredients!)

This one might be the easiest sensory bin you ever make. Two ingredients. Zero effort. Endless language opportunities.

You’ll need:

½ cup hair conditioner
3 cups baking soda

Mix it together slowly until it forms a cool, fluffy “snow.” That’s literally it.

Use it to:

Build snowmen
Describe the smell, temperature, texture, or appearance
Hide objects (or drill cards!) for seeking, labeling, requesting
Add number slips to tell students how many repetitions they need

It’s cheap. It’s fun. And it works across SO many goals.

❄️ Winter Book Pairings

Grabbing a book you already own is one of the easiest ways to support language, narrative skills, vocabulary, and conversation.

Here are a few wintery favorites:

1. If It’s Snowy and You Know It by Kim Norman
Great for actions, sequencing, rhyming, describing, and joint attention.

2. The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett
Perfect for comparing/contrasting with The Three Bears, exploring story elements, and adding visuals.

3. Polar Bear Island by Lindsay Bonilla
Great for inferencing, discussing character motives, and problem-solution work.

Pair the drill cards with a read-aloud and you’ve got a full session plan without pulling from 30 different bins.

❄️ Simple Winter Videos

Videos are such an underrated therapy tool—especially after break when attention spans (both ours and our students’) need a little gentle warming-up.

Try these:

✔️ SciShow Kids (YouTube)
TONS of short, informational videos that work beautifully for WH-questions, vocabulary, summarizing, and writing extensions.

✔️ San Diego Zoo Live Cams: Polar Bears
Such an easy way to work on describing, inferencing, compare/contrast, perspective taking, and keeping kids engaged.

These can also double as background visuals during drill practice.

✔️ Step 3: Give Yourself Permission to Keep It Simple

Listen, the first week back does not need to be your most Pinterest-worthy week of the school year. It doesn’t need to be themed down to the socks you wear. It doesn’t need to be elaborately planned.

If you have:

One solid resource
One craft or sensory activity
One book or video

You are golden. That’s more than enough to target articulation, phonology, grammar, inferencing, describing, sequencing, social language, and carryover without draining your energy or your time.

January sessions should feel calm, predictable, and low-prep—for you and your students. And truly? When you keep it simple, you’re setting everyone up for success.

So go ahead. Ease back in. Use what works. Let winter do the heavy lifting.

Happy speeching!

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