December Read Alouds for Speech Therapy

December doesn't have enough school days for me to use all of the books I want to use! There are so many great read alouds to use this month, but I only chose 4 to share with you today. I tried to vary the themes, I don't want to do all Christmas stuff this month because I have students that don't celebrate, so I went with one Christmas, a couple of winter, and gingerbread!Jan Brett is a favorite of mine, mostly because of her beautifully illustrated books. The Wild Christmas Reindeer is about a girl named Teeka who is trying to get the reindeer ready for Christmas! She learns a lesson about not being so bossy (hello, social skills) and letting the reindeer be. This one is a bit long, so I wouldn't choose it for my littlest students, but it is a great option for your older children.

Snowmen At Night by Carolyn Buehner is a fun story that I can read year after year and my kids never get tired of it! The creativity of the story, where the town's snowmen come to life at night, lends itself to fun discussions that can be used to target so many skills. It has awesome vocabulary and the events in the storyline make it a good one for working on sequencing. The illustrations are also beautiful and my students love finding the hidden pictures after we read the story!

Bear Can't Sleep is the newest book in the series by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman. Bear is getting ready to hibernate for winter, but he is having trouble falling asleep. This bear book, like all the others, are great stories for speech therapy because of the interesting pictures, rhyming storyline, and interesting vocabulary. The forest animals all help Bear, so it's also good for working on social skills. You can find companion activities ready to go, here.
I had no idea Gingerbread Friends existed until I saw it in our media center last week! I was so excited to read it…it is the follow up to Gingerbread Baby, but this time the gingerbread is lonely and wants some friends. After causing a ruckus in a bakery, the gingerbread discovers that Mattie has a big surprise for him at home. Just like above, this Jan Brett book has great illustrations and the story is fun, so it will engage all of your students. You could even pair this one with Gingerbread Baby and do compare/contrast with the two stories.