Christmas Calendar Countdown for Speech Language Development: Motivating and Sugar-Free
There is nothing more motivating for a child than counting how many sleeps until Christmas. This calendar was a huge hit with my client's last year so I decided to share it for the upcoming holiday season. The best thing about it is that this Christmas Calendar Countdown is Sugar-Free! It is a great activity for children 3 years until about 9 years of age.
Materials for Christmas Calendar
-1 sheet red construction paper or foam for nose, mouth and hat
-1 sheet pink for face
-1 sheet constrution for hat band
-2 googly eyes
-12 cotton balls for hat band and mustache
-2 sheets 8.5x14 (legal size) paper for Santa's beard
Markers, tape, glue
-24 paper clips for attaching practice words or activities.
*This Christmas Calendar was created using dollar store items. It is very inexpensive to make.
Instructions for Christmas Calendar
The Beard
Tape the two pieces of legal size paper together. Draw lines across the legal sized paper approximately 1 inch or 2.5 cm apart for a total of 24 lines and 25 spaces. You or your child can number the beard starting at the bottom from 1-25. Cut a small semi circle where the face will attach. Trim the edges of the paper into a beard shape.
The Face
Out of pink paper, cut a softball size u-shaped face. Cut a nose and a mouth out of red paper. Glue eyes, nose, mouth, and mustache to the face.
The Hat
Out of the red paper, cut a Santa hat shape to fit the top of the face. Out of the white paper, cut a hat band for Santa’s hat fur. Glue the hatband on the hat and have your child glue the cotton balls on the hatband and one or two for the pom-pom. Attach the hat to the face and your Christmas Calendar Countdown is complete!
How to use the Christmas Calendar
Everyday, with your assistance, your child will cut a piece off of Santa’s beard. To target speech language development your child can complete one of following activities prior to trimming Santa’s beard.
Speech Practice
Attach pictures or written words with the target sound to each section of Santa’s beard using paperclips. Before they trim off the beard, have them say their target word and then add it to the day above. By the time Christmas comes your child will be practicing 25 words!
Language Practice
Attach pictures for target language activity. For instance, if your child is working on using “is verbing”, attach pictures of action words. Your child will practice making sentences using the language targets everyday until Christmas!
Your child can also practice counting the days . Watch out for the hard numbers 13, 14, 15, 16, 17!
Reading Practice
Depending on your child’s reading level, you can attach letters, three letter words or site words to the calendar and follow the instructions under speech practice.
Enjoy the Christmas Countdown Calendar and remember to connect with SpeechAbility on Facebook for updates on new activities and blog posts.
