Thanksgiving Activities for Speech Therapy

Are you looking for Thanksgiving activities for speech therapy? I’ve put together a set of easy activities that are perfect for a Thanksgiving theme! Amazon affiliate links are included throughout this post.

I love Thanksgiving in the speech room! It’s the perfect time to really focus on what we’re thankful for, incorporate history, and work on students’ goals!

However, I know some schools don’t celebrate holidays, so if this is you, I have some great alternatives for you! Check out my posts on Pumpkin Activities, Apple Activities and Turkey Activities!

Thanksgiving Books

There are so many amazing Thanksgiving books that are excellent for speech therapy! I wrote a blog post HERE with many of my favorites! Below are some of the books and extension activities we use every year!

Turkey Trouble is my favorite book to do for Thanksgiving! I have three book companions available for Turkey Trouble:
A print colored companion with a few black and white pages,
NO Prep Turkey Trouble Companion
New Boom Card digital version

I also love using Bear Says Thanks as well! I have a book companion for this one available as well!

This nonfiction mini companion can be used with the book Animals on the Farm: Turkeys, or it can be used without a book at all!

Finally, I love using There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey. I have two freebies available for this book as well! You can find the printable freebie activity HERE, and the digital Boom Card version HERE.

Thanksgiving Games

What is Thanksgiving without games? My students have been LOVING this game with Thanksgiving Pie pieces! It comes as part of the Turkey Talk activity, but you can use it for ANYTHING, including artic. Just decide what targets your student is working on, and let them “earn” pieces of their pie as they answer questions correctly, say target sounds, etc. You can decide at the beginning of the game how many pieces make a “whole” pie. Whoever makes their pie first, wins!

If you’re looking to incorporate movement into your classroom or work on following auditory conditional directions, this Turkey Tom Says activity might do the trick! Play it just like Simon Says!

Thanksgiving Language Activities

I have so many students working on language goals! From idioms to comprehension, verbs, and more, there’s something here for everyone!

If you want to incorporate nonfiction into your therapy lessons, teaching your students the history behind holidays we celebrate is a great way to do it! I use my History of Thanksgiving comprehension packet to teach my older students where the traditions come from! This packet also includes vocabulary cards and Bingo boards for younger students!

To target language skills, I have a Thanksgiving Language Bundle that has all kinds of Thanksgiving-themed language activities, including:
Thanksgiving Social Stories

Thanksgiving Analogies
Turkey Talk (story starters and topic maintenance)
Turkey Tom Says (like Simon Says)
Thanksgiving Syllables
Thanksgiving Apple “WH” & How Questions
Acorn Inferences
Thanksgiving Understanding Negation
Thanksgiving Synonyms
Sort & Stick: Thanksgiving Categories
Thanksgiving Antonyms
Thanksgiving Idioms

There is also a Boom Card Set of the Thanksgiving Idioms HERE!

If you don’t have a lot of time to prep therapy materials, I also use the Thanksgiving No Prep Speech and Language unit to target so many goals! It’s over 100 pages, and truly has something for everyone!

Finally, if you have students working on verbs, grammar, or expanding sentences, this Thanksgiving Verb Freebie is perfect!

Thanksgiving Articulation Activities

I get so many messages about how I incorporate articulation activities into my mixed groups and literacy lessons. The answer is that I do it in SO MANY WAYS! (Maybe that should be a new blog post???) But I made this new Boom Card Feed the Turkey Articulation activity that we have used the past two weeks with the book Turkey Trouble, and my students are LOVING IT! There are cards for all initial sounds (with pictures and words), including /ch, sh, th, and blends/.

Thanksgiving Crafts

When it comes to crafts, I need something easy to prep and quick to complete so we have plenty of time to target goals as well. This is my favorite for Thanksgiving! I found this turkey with feathers in the Target dollar spot a few years ago and laminated it, but you can use any colored turkey! I let the students have dry erase markers and a feather each, and they write what they’re thankful for on their feather. They then take turns sharing with the group what they are thankful for and why, as they add their feather to the collective gratitude turkey. Then, I just erase for the next group!

Finally, I sometimes use a dye cut in the school library to cut out big leaves in various fall colors. The students can write what they’re thankful for, words with their sounds, etc. on the leaves, and we hang them outside our door to make one large speech tree!