Have a Following Directions Picnic in Speech!

I try to get my kids outside during our speech sessions as much as possible during the warm weather because nobody wants to be stuck inside on a nice day! My Cooking Themed Directions provide a fun, hands on way to work on following directions with play food and are perfect for having a picnic during speech therapy!

They target the following concepts: before/after, first/then, first/second/third, not, between, either/or, don't/unless, and at the same time. There are two different options for game play. For option one, give each student a cooking mat and play food. Choose the set of directions you would like to use with your group (or mix the directions to target different concepts). Place the cards face down in the middle of the table. Have the students take turns choosing a card from the pile. The student should place the food in a bowl/on the mat in the correct order. If the student chooses a cooking utensil, he should place it on his mat. The first student to collect all 5 different cooking utensils wins the game!

There are also fruit and vegetable cards included if you don't have a set of play food available!

Don’t have time to print and cut all of the direction cards? Then use the direction charts and play game option two! Give each student a cooking mat and play food. Choose the charts you would like to use with your group (you can even print one chart for each student for easy data collection!). Place cooking utensil cards face down in the middle of the table. Set a timer to go off in intervals. If the timer goes off during the student’s turn, he should choose a cooking utensil card and put it on his mat. The first student to collect all 5 different cooking utensils (or the student with the most cooking utensils at the end) wins the game.

There are also visuals to help explain the targeted concepts to the students before game play!

The play food items required to follow these directions include: banana, grapes, strawberry, apple, orange, corn, and carrot. However, if you have your own set of play food that you would like to use with this activity, you can email me (after your purchase is complete) and I will send you a new set of direction cards and charts using your specified items. These are the sets I bought at the Dollar Tree.