Winter Animals Book Companion February Preschool Kindergarten 1st 2nd Special Ed

About this resource

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

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

the winter clothes, 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 your favorite winter animal 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 "your favorite winter animal read-aloud"),

an original circle-time chant ("Hang It Up!," 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 (hedgehog, fox, sheep, cow,

squirrel, hat, sock, gloves, scarf)

• Day 1, Sort (farm animal or woodland animal?), at 3 levels: Level 1 errorless matching, Level 2

the standard two-group sort, Level 3 a third group added (farm animal, woodland animal, or not

an animal) — 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 F, at 3 levels: Level 1 glues 5 matching F's, Level 2 finds F among 10

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

sound (fox is the key word)

• 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 hang up the winter

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

• Day 5, a book craft, the winter clothesline: 6 pieces to color and cut (a big sitting fox,

a knit hat, a scarf, a sweater, a mitten and a sock) in straight-edged cells, then dress the

fox and glue it under a clothesline in front of a snowy barn; a small color model shows the

finished craft

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

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

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

10 winter clothes to cut and glue into 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)
• 19 ink-saver twin pages (outline art for a photocopier) covering the sort, count, letter,

writing, fine motor and core-word pages, so those color pages are optional, not required (the

craft and pure-coloring pages are color-only by design)

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 animals theme (farm and woodland animals

staying warm, with warm clothes on a line). 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 animal and clothing pictures.