Winter is A'Comin'.....

Well, it seems to be when it snows the day before Thanksgiving!  Yikes, not in Virginia, people!  We had 70s on Monday...what happened?  A friend of mine posted this perfect graphic:


Well, we're not the beach, but take that off, and it definitely describes the state!

I wanted to let you know some of the activities I've been working on for the kiddos.  We're going to be doing the "Hour of Code" for 2nd-5th this coming week (the next week, they're putting the "Holiday Shop" in the library, so we're doing coding - with the help of the ITRT - a week early).  I have 2 combined Autism classes, a PreK of 4 yr olds and a Special Needs PreK of 2 and 3 yr olds.  I've been in this long enough now I find that creating activities comes much easier than just finding things!

Of course, being a librarian, I pair everything with a book, so don't be surprised to find book recommendations in a lot of my newer packets!  I think books do such a good job of introducing topics.  It's been a habit of mine before, especially with History and Science, and even more now!

I know I've already shared the "Build a Snowman" packet with you.  For my special needs, having these sorts of activities are so important!  Expect to see some each season.  That being said, they need to know how to dress for winter, right?  That, and using some books to introduce winter created this freebie packet:

For my K and 1 students, I'm going to focus on Hibernation this week.  That's where this comes in:

It's not many pages, but I have at least 3 different activities prepared for the animal cards in this packet.  It'll definitely be enough for the kids to show me what they know, but also have some fun as well!  As always, packets are differentiated for different learners.
 
I hope you continue to stay warm.  Tomorrow is another 60 degree day with Tuesday being a high of 39....craziness!!!!