Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and it’s time to use this fun holiday to work on speech and language! Use the ideas below to incorporate speech and language skills into Thanksgiving activities.

Speech and Language Activities for Thanksgiving

Cook Together

An important part of Thanksgiving is cooking and eating delicious food. Cooking is a fun activity to do with your child and you can work on sequencing, following directions, and vocabulary at the same time. There are several recipes you can make for Thanksgiving some of my favorites are stuffing and turkey shaped sugar cookies.

Turkey Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts can be fun and helpful for language development at the same time. Cut out turkeys and put Thanksgiving vocabulary words or targeted sounds for articulation on them. Next, have your child go on a scavenger hunt looking for the turkeys. As he or she finds the hearts, have him or her formulate sentences with the words on the turkey. This is also a good opportunity to work on prepositions by having your child use prepositions to describe where he or she found the turkey such as, “I found the turkey under the table!”

Turkey Says (Simon Says)

Simon Says is a great game to play to work on following directions. Add a Thanksgiving twist to this classic game by calling it “Turkey Says.”

Thanksgiving Arts and Crafts

Making Thanksgiving-themed arts and crafts is a great opportunity to work on various language skills. You can work on:

Following directions-for example, “Put the turkey’s feathers on the body.”

Prepositions- for example, “Put the turkey on the table.”
Adjectives - for example, have your child describe the turkey they created, “The turkey is big and round.”

Thanksgiving Books

There are several books about Thanksgiving that you can choose to read depending on your child’s reading level. Some of my favorites include:

1. Where is Baby’s Turkey? By Karen Katz

2. Five Silly Turkeys by Salina Yoon

3. The Night Before Thanksgiving by Natasha Wing

4. How to Catch A Turkey by Adam Wallace

5. Thanksgiving is For Giving Thanks! By Margaret Sutherland

As you read each story ask questions related to the book and have your child identify the objects in pictures. This will also help improve vocabulary.

I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with lots of love, laughter, and lots of yummy food.

Jennifer Price M.S., CCC-SLP Lead Speech-Language Pathologist & Owner