Snowmen at Christmas

Welcome to Wild About Books Wednesday! If you're new around here, each Wednesday I discuss how to use a specific book in speech/language therapy. I love using books as a springboard for language! They present with limitless possibilities! If you're a blogger, please consider linking up! I love reading your ideas and learning about new books! Just use the picture at the bottom of this post to link back to me.

I'm a Christmas addict. Seriously, one year my mom broke into my house (okay, she had a key) and took down my Christmas tree in February! Apparently, it had been up long enough. I disagreed. haha.. So... although it's not yet Thanksgiving, I'm going there. Yep.

I absolutely ADORE the "Snowmen" books by Caralyn and Mark Buehner. The illustrations are marvelous and they celebrate above all things - the imagination. Snowmen at Christmas tells the story of a boy who makes a snowman on Christmas Eve. He begins to wonder, what do snowmen do to celebrate? As he falls asleep at night, he begins to imagine what they might do. His imagination runs wild as he sees all the neighborhood snowmen trek to the town center to throw a Christmas party! It's a wonderful book that can be used to build language with the correct scaffolding!

Here are some ideas:
1) Visualization - the pictures in this book are so rich and vivid! Show your students what the illustrator visualized and challenge them to make pictures in their own head! Visualization is one of my favorite strategies to use to support comprehension.
2) Rhyming - this book is written in rhyme. If you have students with phonological awareness goals this book is definitely one to look into! You can have conversations about rhyming on each and every page!
3) Sequencing - this book is great for sequencing! You can sequence the entire book or just bits and pieces. For instance, discuss the sequence for building a snowman or the sequence for decorating the town's square.
4) Comparing/Contrasting - students can compare/contrast how they celebrate with how the snowmen celebrate!

Lastly, I made a book companion for this book! It has a variety of prep and no prep materials that can be used to address a wide range of goals! Here's a peek: