Let’s Get Cooking!: Theme For Preschoolers Through High Schoolers!

A cooking theme is perfect for all your students, from preschoolers to adults working on life skills!

You know I love to use themes in my sessions because it makes them fun for the kids and easy for me, plus so many other benefits of speech therapy themes! I find I can follow the same routine and just change up the theme so it feels fresh and new, but we’re working on our goals with less prep work for me!

Cooking is one of my favorite themes because everybody’s gotta eat! And there is so much you can do to make it just a little extra fun and student buy-in!

My Cooking Themed Language Therapy Unit for Speech Therapy includes everything you need, all the stimulus materials and quality graphic organizers you need for just about your whole caseload!

Simple Ways to Have Fun with a Cooking Theme for Preschoolers and up!

Cooking Themed App

Sometimes speech therapy can be just a bit more fun with an app! My students love Cookie Doodle where they can mix up their own batch of digital cookies. It’s great for following directions and learning how to follow a recipe without the hassle of buying and gathering all the ingredients and tools.

Cooking Themed Toys

You can continue the cooking theme with some play-based therapy if you throw in some play food. Lots of kids love the Melissa and Doug cookies and pizza sets.

Or, if you don’t have the toys, some simple play dough tools are all you need to have some great cooking pretend play.

Cooking Activities

Ok, this is a no brainer, but if you’re theme is cooking, let’s get cooking! Able2Learn has a bunch of visual recipes for special ed students that are perfect for those kids who need extra supports. Simple recipes like a snack mix don’t require a stove or oven if you don’t have access to one!

Cooking Themed Songs for Preschoolers

Your younger students might love a song! Some simple, cooking themed songs are Patty Cake and Do You Know the Muffin Man.

Target Language with a Cooking Theme

There are lots of other simple ways to include the cooking theme into your therapy:

• Practice putting ingredients “in” a bowl and mixing it (real or play!)
• Model/identify different attributes (sizes and colors) of ingredients or treats: take a BIG scoop, make a little cookie, etc.
• Work on body parts and simple directions by putting a cookie on your head, on your hand, etc.
• Follow one step directions or work on early vocabulary by prompting the child to select specified ingredients
• Ask simple wh- questions about what you’re cooking: What tastes sweet? Where do we put the ingredients? Who is stirring the bowl? When do we eat cookies?
• Go on a kitchen utensil or ingredient scavenger hunt using multi-step or multiple modifiers to find your ingredients or tools to make a recipe. (Example: Find the green spoon under the table).
• Talk about opinions and foods you like and dislike
• Name parts of food items (Example: Pizza – crust, cheese, sauce, pepperoni, etc.)
• And most importantly: Listen to what your child says and recast and expand!

Cooking Themed Language Speech Therapy Unit

My themed language units includes all the materials you need to target:

• Core vocabulary (make, give)
• Basic concepts (half, in)
• Describing (food, food groups, cooking tools)
• Cooking verbs (cook, bake, boil, add, chop, etc..)
• Tier 2 vocabulary (prepare, edible, melt, blend, fresh)
• Prefix/suffix (over-, -ful)
• Inferencing/predicting
• Sentence combining
• Comprehending narrative texts
• Comprehending non-fiction texts
• WH questions
• Comparing and contrasting
• Storytelling

We’re talking over 100 pages of cooking themed goodness, with gorgeous photos, helpful icons, and systematic instructional materials.

Other SLPs absolutely LOVE my cooking themed pack. Here is some feedback I’ve received:

“These themed units have been my go-to this school year! I especially love this theme because food/cooking is something that most students can relate to, but it takes it to the next level for learning and language objectives. So thorough and covers any language target you need!”

— Amber H.

“I love how flexible this product is. I’ve used it with students in several grades from 1st to 8th. It’s one of those activities that you can have open on your desktop and plan all of our sessions around. It also spurred conversations about where food comes from and piqued interest in cooking or helping around the kitchen in my students.”

— Deanna G.

Have fun in your therapy sessions and get the work done!

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