Snowballs Book Companion December Preschool Kindergarten 1st 2nd Sped

About this resource

One theme, one week. Read the same book every day at circle time: a snowy day means more and more

snowballs, rolled up into a snowman with a hat, a scarf, buttons and a carrot nose. After the

read-aloud each day, pull one simple activity: sort what goes on a snowman and what doesn't, count

snowflakes, find the letter S, put the steps of building a snowman in order, then build a snowman

craft with a hat, a scarf, buttons, a carrot nose, coal eyes and a broom. Every student page has one

short instruction with a picture, so a paraprofessional can run the room from it too.

This week pairs with **Snowballs by Lois Ehlert** (or any book about building a snowman 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 ("More Snow, More Fun,"

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 (snow, snowman, hat, scarf, gloves,

sun, carrot, broom, buttons)

• Day 1, Sort (does it go on a snowman, or not?), at 3 levels: Level 1 errorless matching, Level 2

the standard two-group sort (8 cut-and-glue pieces), Level 3 a third group added (on a snowman, a

winter thing, or not winter — 10 cut-and-glue pieces), both levels agreeing with the Day 5 craft on

what actually belongs on a snowman

• Day 2, Count the snowflakes, 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 S, at 3 levels: Level 1 glues 5 matching S's, Level 2 finds S among 10 look-alike

letters, Level 3 says 10 pictures aloud and glues the 5 that start like "snowman"

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

"snowman," Level 3 writes the letters and the word independently on primary lines

• Day 4, a life-skill sequencing page: 5 picture pieces (4 real snowman-building steps — look

outside, roll a snowball, stack the balls, decorate it — first/next/then/last, plus 1 that does

not belong)

• Day 5, a book craft: color and cut a plain 3-ball snowman body, then a sheet of 11 pieces (a hat,

a scarf, a carrot nose, 3 buttons, 2 coal eyes, a broom, a star and a snowflake — every cut a

straight dashed rectangle) and glue them onto the snowman standing on an open snowy-ground scene

• 2 fine motor pages: a tracing-paths page and a cutting-practice page (4 strips, easiest first)
• 4 core-word pages for the word of the week, "more": 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 "more"), a snowman to color (every

accessory already drawn on, for the simplest level of this task), and 10 winter pictures to cut out

and glue around 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, 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 building a snowman out of rolled snowballs. 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 snowman, hat, scarf, carrot, broom and button pieces are drawn

here. The sorting activity ("does it go on a snowman, or not?") is a simple classroom sorting task,

not a scientific or clinical claim.