Thank You, Liz Gretz of the Speech Lady Blog for answering our “challenge” to come up with culturally diverse therapy activities!

Heidi Kay over at Pediastaff challenged some bloggers to create therapy activities related to Chanukah and Kwanzaa.  While the activity I came up with is pretty simple in nature, it was a really great motivator.  These chain links can be used in a couple different ways.

Articulation:

I introduced Kwanzaa to the kids first.  I explained what the colors mean and the basic traditions of the holiday. Then, depending on what level they are at, they get to add a link for every sound or sound in a sentence that they produced correctly.  I tried to keep the conversation centered around the holiday.  Whoever has the longest chain at the end of the session gets an extra sticker.

Language:

Because many children at my school do not celebrate Kwanzaa or Hanukkah, they don’t know much about the holidays.  I wrote on the white board “Holidays” and the kids had to either tell a personal story (they get a red link), ask a question (they get a green link) or comment on someone else’s response (they get a black link).  They want their links to be a mix of colors and not all one color.  Whoever has the longest chain at the end of the session gets an extra sticker.  It was a good way to work on pragmatics and other expressive language goals and get kids to talk about their holiday traditions and ask questions about others.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and enjoys spending quality time with family.  I’m seriously looking forward to it and my goal is to be paperwork free by December 22nd! Happy Holidays!

Need More Kwanzaa Ideas or General Information about the Holiday?  Check out our Kwanzaa Board on Pinterest   There you will find websites with videos, readings and many more sources of knowledge on this relatively new festival celebrated by African Americans.