Are you looking for activities for the first week of speech?
I have been asked often, what activities do you do in the first week? How do you get to know your students and have them get to know you and each other? How do you build routine and the culture in your speech room? Well, if you don't know by now, I like to let my students know that as long as they work hard (doesn't mean they have to get things correct 100%) and they are respectful and cooperative, we can always have fun! I demonstrate this during the first week of school!

I always like to do ice breakers on the first day. What are icebreakers? Icebreakers are activities that can help get to know your students and have them get to know each other.
Some common icebreakers I use:
- Say your name and give me an adjective using the first letter (Jolly Janice)
- 2 truths and a lie: Students have to say 3 facts about themselves and one should be false. The rest of the group has to guess which it is! They love that they can lie!
- M&M fun facts: I take a bowl of M&Ms and pass it around the table. I tell them to take 4! Once everyone has I write on the board a question for each color M&M. They must answer it depending on which colors they have in their hands. They get so mad when they took 4 of one color!
Then we review class rules and expectations:
- Why do we come to speech?
- How should we walk into the classroom?
- How should we treat each other and the therapy materials?
- For the older students, what are our goals for the school year?
- How do you treat the iPad? (feel free to use this FREE visual)
Learn more about how I build routines in speech by reading this previous blog post HERE!
Then we do some organizational activities:
- Decorate folders which I keep class work in
- Make sure personal information I have is correct: parent's names, telephone number, etc.
- For my students that can walk down to speech on their own, we decorate passes. They fill it out with their speech times to help them remember, they glue them onto construction paper and then I laminate them after school. I put them into the teacher's mailboxes so the students have them for their next speech sessions. It also works as a reminder to the teachers.
I have uploaded a copy of the passes I plan to use this year! I put 2 on a page to save paper! Hopefully you can use it as you get ready to go back to school!

You can grab a copy for yourself by clicking the button below!! I hope this helps you as you get ready to go back to school! Students can have fun coloring the emojis and filling out their own speech passes. I like to glue them onto construction paper and laminate it for them this way it stays strong for the entire year (well close to it as long as they don't lose it!).
Click Here To Get This Freebie!
I broadcasted live on Facebook to share my favorite activities! Feel free to watch for yourself: