School Tools Book Companion September Preschool Kindergarten 1st 2nd Special Ed

About this resource

One theme, one week. Read the same back-to-school story every day at circle time, and pull one

simple activity after the read-aloud each day — sort, count, find the letter, pack a backpack

in order, 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 well with *There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books!* by Lucille Colandro.

Not affiliated with the author or publisher; you need your own copy of the book. Nothing from the

book is reproduced here — no text, no illustrations, and the Old Lady character is never named or

drawn anywhere in the file.

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 once, with the not-affiliated line, as "your

favorite back-to-school read-aloud"), an original circle-time chant ("Backpack Day," 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 (backpack, pencil, crayon,

scissors, book, ruler, notebook, paintbrush, apple)

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

two-group sort, Level 3 a third group added (school tool, food, 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 P, at 3 levels: Level 1 glues 5 matching P's, Level 2 finds P among 10 look-alike

letters, Level 3 says 10 pictures aloud and glues the 5 that start with the /p/ 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 (packing a backpack for school): 5 picture pieces (4 real

steps — open your backpack, put in your book, put in your pencil, zip it up and go to school —

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

• Day 5, a book craft, Pack Your Backpack (2 pages): 7 pieces of our own coloring-book line art

to color and cut on straight dashed lines — a big open backpack (straps, zipper, front pocket,

a name tag to write on) plus a pencil, a ruler, kid scissors, a crayon box, a glue bottle and a

book — then glue the backpack into a white classroom scene (cubbies with hooks, a window, a rug)

and glue the tools so they peek out of the top; a small color picture of the finished craft

shows the goal

• 2 fine motor pages: a tracing-paths page (4 dashed paths from the pencil to the backpack:

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

• 4 core-word pages for the word of the week, "out": 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 box to color, and 10 school

tools that came out of the box 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 school-tools 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 school-supply pictures.