"Blizzard" by John Rocco Book Companion Activities

This winter picture book companion is a perfect accompaniment to John Rocco’s book, Blizzard. It’s the ideal interactive read-aloud for winter or for educating your students about family, community, compassion, blizzards, and being prepared. Students will love the engaging and fun activities, and you will appreciate the time saved hunting for high-level resources to teach reading concepts that students frequently struggle with.

With 34 print-and-go reading activities to choose from, this resource is ideal for customizing learning to your student’s specific needs and academic ability. Students will investigate characters, identify story elements, determine the theme, sequence events from the story, practice writing Haiku poetry, explore and use new vocabulary, discover cause-and-effect relationships, explore plot elements, investigate imagery, and much more! The activities provided are designed to enable students to apply higher-level thinking skills, to encourage students to provide text evidence to support their thinking, and to challenge students to express their own thoughts and/or perspectives.

This Resource Includes:

• See, Think, Wonder
• Story Elements
• Cause & Effect (ANSWER KEY included)
• Problem & Solution
• Character Inside & Out
• Character Traits - 2 differentiated versions included
• Character Perspective
• Character Summary
• Sequencing
• Plot Map
• Setting Influences the Plot
• Summarizing
• Making Connections
• Making Inferences
• Theme - 2 differentiated versions included
• Thematic Statements
• Visualizing
• Sensory Details
• Winter Imagery
• Reader Response Questions (ANSWER KEY included)
• Vocabulary Matching Cards
• Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle (ANSWER KEY included)
• Vocabulary Word Search Puzzle
• Blizzard ABCs
• Blizzard Bag
• Story vs Author’s Note
• Wait… There’s More!
• Book Review
• Design a Book Cover
• Haiku Poem Planning Sheet
• Haiku Poem Template
• Blizzard Research One Pager

Need ideas for different ways you can implement these activities?

• Focus on different reading skills each day for targeted instruction and have students complete a corresponding printable to check for understanding.
• During centers, students can independently read the story again and complete an activity that reviews a previously taught concept.
• Work with students on a reading concept they struggle with during guided reading or strategy groups.
• Students work with a partner(s) or in literature circles to complete additional reading activities.
• This resource is for extension read-aloud activities only. The book is not included.