Cooking doesn’t always require a stove, oven, or even a kitchen table. As an SLP and mom, I’ve learned that speech and language activities can happen anywhere, even if you don’t have access to a kitchen.
By focusing on the idea of cooking, gathering ingredients, sequencing steps, mixing, and creating, you can build communication skills anywhere.
6 Speech and Language Activities That Cook Up Communication Anywhere
1. Snack Sorting in the Car or Classroom
Think of this as ingredient prep, just like a chef lays out vegetables before cooking. Give kids Goldfish, trail mix, fruit snacks, or pretzels and let them sort by:
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Color (red, green, yellow)
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Shape (round, square, fish-shaped)
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Size (big vs. small)
This introduces categories and descriptive words while mimicking how cooks organize their materials. Add sequencing, “First we eat the red, then the green.” Or make predictions, “Which pile will be bigger?”
Speech & Language Targets:
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Vocabulary expansion (colors, shapes, sizes)
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Sequencing and following directions
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WH-questions (“Which one will you eat first?”)
Snack sorting shows kids that cooking always begins with sorting and preparing ingredients, even if your “ingredients” are fruit snacks in the backseat.
2. Grocery Store “Cooking”
The grocery store is basically a giant kitchen pantry. Instead of heating or mixing, kids can “cook” by collecting ingredients.
Prompts to try:
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“Find me 3 ingredients for a pizza.”
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“Which fruit should we add to our smoothie?”
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“What else do we need to make tacos?”
This builds sentence expansion, question and answer practice, and new food vocabulary. It also sets the stage for pretend cooking once you’re back at home, in the classroom, or at the park.
💡 Extension idea: If you’re making tacos, have kids pretend shop for shells, lettuce, and cheese by grabbing real items or picture cards before they “cook” with them. This makes it feel like a full cooking experience while targeting language skills.
Speech & Language Targets:
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Food vocabulary and categories
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Question answering (“What do we need?”)
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Expanding utterances (“I need cheese.”)
You can try my Play-Based Taco Visual Recipe Resource for a ready-to-use taco pretend play activity with visuals and sequencing.
3. Pretend Picnic Recipes
Picnics are a fun way to turn the outdoors into a kitchen. Spread out a blanket, set out some snack items, and let kids combine foods into their own recipes. Crackers, cheese, and fruit might become a sandwich. Pretzels, peanut butter, and raisins could become “ants on a log.”
💡 Extension idea: Bring toy plates (or plastic) and cups so kids can serve their “meals” to each other. Turn it into a restaurant game where one child takes the order, “What would you like on your sandwich?” while the other prepares it. This blends pretend cooking with social exchanges and makes language practice more natural.
Speech & Language Targets:
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Turn-taking and sharing
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Sequencing (first, next, last)
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Descriptive words (crunchy, sweet, salty)
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Social communication (asking, offering, serving)
Picnics highlight one of the most important aspects of cooking. Kids see that recipes don’t just make food. They create experiences where people connect.
4. Recipe Role-Play Without Food
No snacks? No problem. Cooking can be pretend too. Use toy food, paper cutouts, or drawings to role-play recipes.
Ideas to try:
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Pretend to make a smoothie, pizza, or cake by “adding” ingredients
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Use action verbs (“pour,” “stir,” “sprinkle”)
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Build storytelling by acting it out like a cooking show
Speech & Language Targets:
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Verbs and action words
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Imaginative play and storytelling
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Social exchanges (“What do you want on yours?”)
This activity mirrors real cooking steps, giving kids the same practice without needing actual ingredients. It’s also the perfect time to use a resource like my Play-Based Taco Visual Recipe. Kids can pretend to grocery shop for the ingredients first, then role-play building their tacos. It’s engaging, functional, and works great even if you’re not in a kitchen. I also have other Play-based visual recipe resources you can use the same way, depending on your students’ interests or goals.
5. Sensory Bins = Recipe Bins
Sensory bins can become cooking pots. Instead of flour or sugar, fill them with pom-poms, buttons, or beads. Create “recipe cards” with visuals, 2 red, 1 blue, 3 yellow = soup. Kids scoop and pour, narrating as they go, “I put in two red. Now I stir.”
Speech & Language Targets:
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Following multi-step directions
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Using color and number vocabulary
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Sequencing steps (“first scoop, then pour”)
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Narration and sentence building
This teaches the same process kids use in cooking, measuring, combining, and mixing.
6. Visual Recipes on the Go
Cooking-themed learning doesn’t stop with pretend play. My Visual Recipes Bundle includes no-cook recipes that you can easily take anywhere, during therapy sessions, in classrooms, or even on a picnic blanket.
One fun example is Apple Pie in a Cup from the September set. Kids layer graham crackers, apples and whipped cream while following step-by-step visuals. They can also pretend to grocery shop for ingredients before “cooking” it. The best part is they’re cooking independently with minimal prep, no oven or stove required.
Speech & Language Targets:
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Sequencing (“first crush crackers, then add apples)
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Describing food textures (“crunchy, smooth, sweet”)
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WH-questions (“What goes on top?”)
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Social interaction (taking turns adding layers, sharing cups)
These recipes give kids hands-on practice with cooking language while making something tasty they can eat right away.
Start Today!
Cooking is about more than kitchens. It’s about preparing, combining, following steps, and creating something together. That’s why these activities, snack sorting, grocery store games, picnic recipes, role-play, sensory bins, and visual recipes, are all powerful ways to bring cooking into speech and language activities without the oven or stovetop.
When you do have kitchen access, my Visual Recipe Cards and Bundles can take it even further, giving you structured, engaging, and language-rich recipes to use with your students or children.
Cooking up communication is possible anywhere. You just need the right ingredients.
