Christmas Train Book Companion December PreK K 1st 2nd Special Ed

About this resource

One theme, one week. Read your favorite winter train read-aloud every day at circle time, and

pull one simple activity after the read-aloud each day — sort, count, find the letter, get ready

for the ride, then build a craft. Every student page has one short instruction with a picture, so

a paraprofessional can run the room from it too.

This theme pairs with your favorite winter train read-aloud (use whichever one your class already

has). No specific book or author is named here or in the file; nothing from any story is

reproduced.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (57 pages)

• 1 Start Here week plan: what to do after the read-aloud each day, plus what else it practices
• 1 book-and-words page (naming the read-aloud only as "a winter train story of your choice"), an

original circle-time chant ("Ride the Night Train," written for this unit — no song or story

text is reprinted), and the 9 circle-time vocabulary words

• 9 smartboard slides for whole-group circle time on a projector or interactive board: name the

pictures, sort, count (3 slides), the letter hunt, the life skill in order, and the core word

• 9 circle-time vocabulary cards to cut out and use at the carpet (train, ticket, bell, hot cocoa,

pajamas, gift, tree, night, star)

• Day 1, Sort (train thing or not?), at 3 levels: Level 1 errorless matching, Level 2 the

standard two-group sort, Level 3 a third group added (train thing, snack, or toy) — 10

cut-and-glue pieces on every level

• Day 2, Count and glue the number, at 3 levels: Levels 1 and 2 count 1–5 (5 rows, a 5-piece

numeral strip to cut and glue); Level 3 counts 6–10 and writes the number, no cutting

• Day 3, Letter B, at 3 levels: Level 1 glues 5 matching B's, Level 2 finds B among 10

look-alike letters, Level 3 says 10 pictures aloud and glues the 5 that start with the /b/

sound

• Writing, at 3 levels: Level 1 traces the big letters, Level 2 traces letters and the word,

Level 3 writes the letters and the word independently on primary lines

• Day 4, a life-skill sequencing page: 5 picture pieces (4 real steps to get ready for the train

ride, first/next/then/last, plus 1 that does not belong)

• Day 5, a book craft: color and cut a 6-piece Christmas train (a big steam engine with a cab

window, smokestack, headlamp, cowcatcher and spoked wheels, a boxcar, a coal car, a caboose, a

jingle bell, and a ticket) and glue it on the track in a snowy night scene with pine trees and

a little station

• 2 fine motor pages: a tracing-paths page (4 dashed paths from the train to a star: straight,

wave, zigzag, loops) and a cutting-practice page (4 strips, easiest first)

• 4 core-word pages for the word of the week, "no": a big word card for the talker or core board,

a 12-word find-and-circle grid (6 of the 12 are the target word), a moon to color, and 10 things

you might see on a train ride to cut and glue onto it

• 1 "Who Did What This Week" data page (one row per student, a prompt-level code for each day —

handy for IEP notes and progress reports)

• 1 family letter to send home on Day 1
• 1 credits page (art and font licenses)
• Ink-saver twins of 19 picture-based student pages (the craft and pure-coloring pages are color-only) in outline art for a

photocopier, so the color pages above are optional, not required

Three Levels On Every Academic Task

Sort, count, letters and writing each come in three levels, marked with a small shape instead of

a number so children don't compare theirs to a neighbor's: a circle for starting (errorless

matching), a square for building (the standard task), a triangle for ready for more (a real step

up — a third sort group, 6–10 counting with writing, or beginning sounds).

Cutting Built For Small Hands

Every cutting page carries 5 or more pieces, lined up edge to edge so each cut is one straight

line. Pre-cut them yourself for students who are not cutting independently yet.

Color Or Ink-Saver

Print the color pages, or use the ink-saver twins at the back on a photocopier — most

picture-based student pages have both (the craft and pure-coloring pages are color-only by design).

Who This Is For

Any teacher starting a self-contained preschool or early childhood special education classroom

who wants a whole week of circle time, ready to pull and go: one theme, a different simple

activity every day.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A print-and-go weekly theme unit built around a winter train theme. It is not a claim about any

student's age, diagnosis, or rate of progress, and it does not reproduce any book, its text, or

its artwork — no character art is drawn here, only our own generic Christmas train craft (an

engine, cars and a bell, not any specific book's illustration).