It’s nearing the most wonderful time of the year! The holiday season is filled with lots of joy and fun activities in the classroom! One of my favorite items to use during the holiday season is Simply Special Ed’s holiday book companions. They even include differentiated activities to use with your learners at many different levels. We all know how hard it can be to find lessons for all of our unique learners in a self-contained setting.
Do I Need the Book?
If you have never used one of these book companions before, it is made super simple! You provide the book, and the rest is provided for you with multiple fun activities to accompany the book you are reading. Too late notice to buy a new book? Not wanting to spend the extra money for a new book? Check your local library for the book, ask other teachers in your school if they have it, or search for a read-aloud video on YouTube. There are many ways you can find these oh-so joyful holiday books without having to buy anything extra this holiday season.
I Would Love a Holiday Book Companion!
Great news!
Simply Special Ed offers a variety of holiday book companions available on their site. There are Christmas book companions that include “I Got the Christmas Spirit,” “Pick a Pine Tree,” “Santa in the City,” and “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell.”
There are also general December-themed book companions that can foster inclusivity and help students learn about December holidays around the world! These include “Hanukkah Bear,” “Latke, the Lucky Dog,” “Li’l Rabbit’s Kwanzaa,” and “The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever.”
What Does it Include?
These book companions include a variety of activities to complete in class, along with the corresponding read-aloud. To accompany your holiday read aloud in a self-contained class where planning lessons can be a challenge, these book companions are perfect!
They include 3 levels of comprehension quizzes for all of your different learners! They also include visuals for a whole group lesson and a fun visual craft. Even more for all of your unique learners, there are many different versions of vocabulary, story sequencing, and story map worksheets.
These worksheets can be done independently, with a teacher, or with a para, depending on the level of your learners. These would also provide great center activities! They could be spread out over the teacher center, the para center, and the independent work center. The whole group visuals could be done during the whole group read-aloud time as well. There are so many fun and engaging ways to include the holiday book companions throughout your school day and enhance your read-aloud time!
The visual crafts provide perfect December decorations for the classroom as well! The visual crafts can target following visual directions, fine motor skills, identifying colors, or even simply learning to sit for a certain period of time to complete an activity.
There’s even more! Still stuck on how to implement these book companions in the classroom? Well, they come with teacher directions and a teacher planning guide for a whole week!
Take a load off lesson planning this winter with these holiday book companions! I hope you and your students enjoy these engaging and fun books and activities for the holiday time! 🙂
You bought the holiday book companions and you fell in love? Well, don’t fret, there are many many of these available. Check out this blog on summer book companions.
