1. The weather outside is...

Jill McDonald's Weather book is the perfect addition to your session. It is beautifully illustrated with lots of visuals to incorporate into activities. Each page talks about a different type of weather, and what items you might need during these weather events. This book is perfect for addressing clothing and sound associations, sentence comprehension, descriptions, when and why questions, and making inferences. Utilize our communication board for extra support. Use pictures from the text to create a sorting game. Example: Sort the clothes needed into their weather categories. 

Once associations are mastered, level up the activity by asking when questions or making inferences like, "When it's______, I need_____." or "I see/hear____, it must be______." These pattern phrases help add structure to the concept. 

Have students act out the weather events, like whooshing wind, to create a more engaging and interactive activity. This can be a great group activity in cooperative play as they decide who gets what event and when to take their turn in the story. For students with mobility restrictions, have them choose which weather event for YOU to act out. Kids love having some control over what WE do for a change. 

2. Rain, Rain, Rainbow:

Game time! Fill up the rainbow before your watering can. We love a game that allows for repetition and this one delivers. There are 29 spots to fill on the cloud during set-up where students can drill "put on", "drop", "plop", or "drip" as they sort the pieces into their spots. Allowing students to help set-up the game will give students more control and provide a functional opportunity to assess or address following directions skills.

Students will choose a piece from the cloud and determine which color it matches on the rainbow, or if it belongs in the watering can. This multi-player game is great for working on colors, counting, location concepts and turn-taking.

"Dump it in! Dump it in! Dump it in"! Keep winning & losing equally exciting by having students dumping the chips back into the bag or box: winners dump pieces from the rainbow and losers dump pieces from the watering can. This also helps with cleanup. We live a win-win. Assist as needed.

4. Weather Sensory Tube

However you choose to use it in your session, the weather tube is the perfect themed object for a calming brain break, reward, or even descriptive language task. Use your weather tube to describe sounds, physical features of the tube, and the actions of the beads inside.

5. Count on Weather

The 12 weather counters are the perfect visual representations for each type of weather. They pair well with the Weather book and can be used with the previously mentioned association activity. Example: "Oh no! I see a snowflake coming, what clothes do we need?"

These counters are perfect for number concepts, but can also be used for no-prep compare and contrast tasks. Each object has a pair that matches in shape, but differs in color. After reviewing same/different, students can sort by color or shape/element. Students can also pair elements that are the same and explain how they are different.

To keep things fun and interactive, students can press the shapes into dough to make a weather scene. This is great in a group setting, because the scenes can turn truly chaotic depending on the amount of elements present. This leads to great group discussion and funny picture descriptions while working on cooperative play. This allows for opportunities to target wh-questions, utilize vocabulary discussed in the session, and target theme-based artic words.

** Look out for our BONUS weather themed activity from our featured SLP of the month, Erin @harre_slp! **