Preschool Speech Therapy Themes to Use in November and December

Not even sure WHY you would want to use themes in therapy?? Well, themes are fun, flexible, and  make planning a breeze!

As a speech-language pathologist, you know how important it is to keep therapy sessions engaging, meaningful, and, most importantly, effective. One of the best ways to do that is by using themes to guide your play-based therapy. Themes help structure your sessions while making learning fun and relevant for kids of all ages. But beyond just making therapy enjoyable, themes offer a ton of practical benefits that can help you stay organized, save time, and ensure your therapy aligns with your students’ interests and educational needs.

Let’s take a deeper dive into how themes can make your therapy sessions more impactful—and we’ll even share a freebie with you featuring a fun list of themes to try!

1. **Quick, Affordable, and Easy Planning
One of the biggest hurdles for any SLP is finding the time to plan engaging and effective sessions for a full caseload of students. Themes can make your life a lot easier. When you have a specific theme in mind, you’re already half-way there—ideas for activities, materials, and language goals will start flowing instantly!

For instance, if you choose a “Zoo” theme, you can easily incorporate a variety of activities, such as animal-themed books, pretend play with zoo animals, and animal sounds to target articulation, vocabulary building, and sentence structure. These materials are often easy to source and low-cost, and once you have a few theme-based resources, you can use them across multiple sessions. This saves you time and money while keeping things fresh and engaging for your students.

2. Stay Organized Across Your Caseload
A diverse caseload can present its challenges, especially when each child has unique goals. But themes offer an easy way to keep things organized and adaptable. A zoo-themed week can look different for each child—one child may focus on animal sounds, another on basic animal names, while a third might work on creating sentences with action verbs like “jump” or “run.”

Themes also allow you to easily rotate through different targets across your caseload. Plus, you can modify a theme to accommodate children’s varying levels of skill and interest.

 3. Teach New Skills in Context
Children learn best when they can see how the skills they’re developing apply to the world around them. Themes provide a rich context for teaching new language skills, whether it's vocabulary, grammar, or social communication.

For example, during a “Winter” theme, you can teach words like "snow," "ice," "cold," and "snowman." You can target sentence-building using phrases like, “The snow is falling,” or practice questions and answers like, “What do you see in the snow?” The key is that these words and phrases come alive in a natural, meaningful context.

Plus, the hands-on, play-based nature of these sessions gives kids a chance to practice using these skills in a real-world way, making the learning process more engaging and relevant.

 4. Incorporate Child Interests to Boost Motivation
Want to really get kids excited about therapy? Let them help pick the theme! Whether it’s a child’s love of dinosaurs, space exploration, or superheroes, incorporating their interests into your sessions can dramatically increase motivation and participation.

Themes allow for personalization in a way that keeps kids interested and invested in what they’re learning. And when you tie a theme to something they’re passionate about, the therapeutic benefits are even greater. You’ll see increased engagement, more spontaneous language use, and faster progress toward their goals.

 5. Easily Integrate School Curricula with Themed Therapy
Incorporating themes into your therapy sessions also makes it easy to tie in classroom content. Whether the school is focusing on holidays, seasons, or specific topics in science or social studies, you can align your sessions with what’s happening in the classroom.

For example, if the school is teaching about “Winter Sports,” you can target language goals like following directions ("Put on your skis"), asking and answering questions ("What’s your favorite winter sport?"), or describing actions ("The skater is spinning"). This not only helps reinforce what the kids are learning in school but also creates a cohesive learning experience.

 A Fun, Themed Therapy Freebie for You!
We’ve put together a handy list of themes for you to try in your play-based speech therapy sessions. You can use these themes throughout the year to keep things fresh and exciting. To make things even easier, we’ve included **a freebie** that features these themes along with some activity ideas to get you started.

Here are just a few themes you can use in your therapy room This November and December:

• Holiday Themes:
  • Kwanzaa
  • Hannakuh
  • Thanksgiving
  • Remembrance Day
  • Christmas
• Year Round Themes:
  • Farm
  • Zoo
  • Ocean
  • Pets
  • Jungle
• Seasonal Themes:
  • Gingerbread
  • Winter
  • Baking
  • Hockey
  • Skiing 
  • Mittens
  • Arctic Animals
  • Snow
  • Winter Sports
  • Toys
  • Hot Chocolate
  • Snowmen
  • Turkey

These themes can be used in a variety of ways to target different goals, from vocabulary building and sentence construction to social communication and articulation practice.

Ready to Download Your Freebie?
We’ve created a downloadable **freebie** that features these themes along with activity ideas for each one. Whether you're looking for books, games, or crafts that align with the theme, we’ve got you covered. Just click [**here**] to grab your freebie and start planning your themed therapy sessions today!

In Conclusion: Themes Are a Game Changer 

Using themes in play-based speech therapy is a simple, effective way to make sessions more enjoyable, organized, and educational for both you and your students. They provide structure, increase motivation, and make it easier to teach new skills in a fun and meaningful way. With themes like “Zoo,” “Winter Sports,” and “Hot Chocolate,” your therapy sessions will be engaging and productive all year long!

So why not make your next therapy session a themed adventure? Download our freebie and start exploring the endless possibilities of play-based therapy! Your caseload—and your students—will thank you.