Educational Snow Day Activities Disguised in Winter FUN.
By Kelsey Coaldrake
Speech-Language Pathologist
This winter has been full of snow days. Or in last week’s case, cold days. This means, the kids are stuck inside and probably bouncing off the walls (hopefully not literally).
I am all for a true snow day, letting the kids relax, play, and enjoy a day off. But as these days keep coming, the kiddos are missing out on school and maybe even their speech and language therapy sessions! So what are some fun, secretly educational, activities you can do at home?
Build a Snowman!
If it’s a traditional snow day and not a cold day, head outside to enjoy the snow. You can work on following directions to help your child build a snowman by giving them step-by-step instructions. They can be simple for younger kids (Put a hat on top of the snowman), or more complicated for older kids (Put a hat on top of the snowman and then find two sticks for the arms). If your child is working on temporal directions (before, after), you can tell them to make the snowman in a specific order. For example, “Before you put the eyes on the snowman, give him a carrot nose,” Or “Wrap a scarf around the snowman’s neck after you give him 3 buttons.”
Create a Snowman Craft!
If you are truly stuck inside, try this snowman craft. Give instructions a step at a time for younger kids with help as needed. For older kids use “before” and “after” and combine steps so they must be completed in the order of the direction given.
What you’ll need:
Paper plate
Cotton balls
Orange and black construction paper
Ribbon
Glue
Scissors
5-6 buttons (optional)
Googly eyes (optional)
Steps:
1. Flip the paper plate over and glue cotton balls to cover the entire surface.
2. Cut out an orange triangle for the carrot nose and glue it to the middle of the face.
3. Glue two eyes above the nose.
4. Create a smile using the buttons and glue below the nose.
5. Cut out a hat from black paper and attach using glue on the back edge of the plate and the bottom front of the hat.
6. Cut ribbon to measure the length of the bottom of the hat above the brim and attach with glue.
After you make your snowman, either real or craft, you can practice language and memory skills by visualizing the snowman! Download the helpful handout on visualizing below. Then, download the 7 structure words for younger kids or the 12 structure words for older kids here.
Practice describing the snowman that you created using the structure words. Encourage your child to close their eyes and picture the snowman in their head. Then go inside (if you made a real snowman) or hide the craft snowman and have the child describe the snowman from memory. After your work is done, curl up with a couple cups of hot cocoa and a good book.
Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center has locations in the Iowa City, IA area and Des Moines, IA area. We provide individual speech-language therapy and tutoring as well as offering small group academic programs. At Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center our passion is to help kids achieve effective communication skills and gain academic success. Contact us for more information on how we can help your child succeed.
info@enrichmenttherapies.com
740 Community Drive, Unit A
North Liberty, IA 52317
319-626-2553
infodm@enrichmenttherapies.com
5530 West Pkwy, Suite 300
Johnston, IA 50131
515-419-4270
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