Red and Lulu Book Companion December Preschool Kindergarten 1st 2nd Special Ed

About this resource

One theme, one week. Read the same story every day at circle time — two cardinals live in a little

tree, the tree is cut down and taken to the city as a Christmas tree, and the birds are separated in

the move — then pull one simple activity after the read-aloud each day: sort, count, find the

letter, stay safe if you're separated, then build a craft where they find each other again. Every

student page has one short instruction with a picture, so a paraprofessional can run the room from

it too.

This week pairs with **Red and Lulu by Matthew Cordell** (or any story about finding your way back

to someone you love that you already have). Not affiliated with the author or publisher. You need

your own copy of the book; nothing from it is reproduced here, and every picture in the file is our

own drawing or a licensed picture set, not the book's artwork.

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, an original circle-time chant ("Together Again,"

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: the cover

art, 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 (tree, bird, nest, city, truck,

snow, star, light, gift)

• Day 1, Sort (bird or not a bird?), at 3 levels: Level 1 errorless matching, Level 2 the standard

two-group sort, Level 3 a third group added (bird, Christmas thing, or toy) — 10 cut-and-glue

pieces on every level

• Day 2, Count the gifts, at 3 levels: Levels 1 and 2 count sets of 1 to 5 with a 5-piece numeral

strip to cut and glue; Level 3 counts sets of 6 to 10 and writes the number, no cutting

• Day 3, Letter R, at 3 levels: Level 1 glues 5 matching R's, Level 2 finds R among 10 look-alike

letters, Level 3 says 10 pictures aloud and glues the 5 that start with the /r/ sound

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

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 for staying safe if you get

separated — stop and stand still, raise your hand, find a helper, hold a hand and stay together —

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

• Day 5, a book craft: color and cut an 11-piece city Christmas tree (a big pine tree, a star for the

top, a string of lights, Red and Lulu — two cardinals — three gifts, two ornaments and a ribbon bow

— every cut a straight dashed rectangle) and glue it into a city-square coloring scene with a lamp

post, buildings and stars

• 2 fine motor pages: a tracing-paths page (4 dashed paths from a bird to the tree: straight, wave,

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

• 4 core-word pages for the word of the week, "together": 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 tree to color, and

10 birds to cut out and glue around it — together again

• 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, counting 6 to 10 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 two-cardinals-finding-their-way-back December

theme. It is not a claim about any student's age or rate of progress, and it does not reproduce

any book, its text, or its artwork — only our own tree, birds, lights, gifts and city-square

pieces are drawn here.