There is something magical about Jan Brett books! I love reading them during the winter as Christmas gets closer and her stories make for a great author study. This week we are spotlighting The Animals’ Santa. It is such a sweet Christmas read aloud and a perfect edition to a unit of Jan Brett books. Your little learners are going to love it! - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
It is Christmas Eve and all the forest animals’ are talking about the animals’ Santa. However, Little Snow does not believe he is real because no one has ever seen him. Despite his brother trying to convince him, Little Snow gets mad and eventually breaks the ice. That night, Big Snowshoe thinks about the broken ice and decides to make a chime. When everyone is sleeping, the chime sounds and the animals come out of their homes. All of a sudden, clover lands at the rabbits’ feet and each animal gets a present! The animals wonder if it could be the animals’ Santa. When a snowy owl flies through the sky and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, Little Snow truly believes!
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
This book lends itself to so many meaningful lessons! Whether you want to focus on reading comprehension, writing, grammar, or a social emotional lesson, The Animals’ Santa is a great resource!
- Introduce your students to new vocabulary words.
- Examine the cause and effect of events in the story.
- Stop during the story and have students practice making predictions.
- Engage students in descriptive writing activities.
- Practice writing book reviews.
- Study quotation marks and types of sentences with examples from the book.
- Review action verbs with your class.
- Share strategies and tools for anger management.
NO-PREP PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES:
If you are looking for “ready to go” activities for the first day of school, be sure to check out the book companion. With it you’ll receive all of the following resources to align with this specific book:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
With so many great skills to teach you’re probably thinking there is no way you can get to them all. Not so fast! These activities have everything you need to teach a comprehensive read aloud for this book!
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett
- The Hat by Jan Brett
- The Night Tree by Eve Bunting
- Red and Lulu by Matt Tavares
TRY OUT A SAMPLE COMPANION
It's hard to explain how amazing the Starts with a Story book companions are because there is just so much goodness included in each one. It's best if you experience using one for yourself. Sign up below & we'll send you an entire book companion to try out for FREE!
