Are you looking for a fun way to brighten up the cold winter days? All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle and illustrated by Barbara Lavallee is a wonderful book to read aloud and it lends itself especially well to being made into a story box. For those of you who don’t know, storyboxes are a way to bring books to life for young children who are blind or visually impaired, including those with additional disabilities. Instead of relying on illustrations to support the story, story boxes use real objects and tangible symbols to help to make the meaning clear. As the story is told, children can feel the items described in the story, such a carrot, bottle caps, a scarf, mittens, walnuts, and a fanny pack.
In addition, the story uses numbers, and sizes of snowballs, so this is a great way to reinforce counting and concepts of size.
Materials
- Items mentioned in the story (carrot, bottle caps, a scarf, mittens, walnuts, and a fanny pack)
- a box in which to store the items
- accessible label for the box (with braille, large print and a tactile symbol)
- All You Need for a Snowman in print and braille
Procedure
Gather all items needed for the story and create a story box.- Read the story aloud and invite each child to examine the item mentioned in the story as it appears.
- Ask children to take turns reaching into the story box and finding the item that is mentioned.
- Talk about how to use each item.
- Make a snowman out of playdoh or clay and practice making balls of different sizes.
Variations
- Make snowflakes out of clay, paper or flannel and count them.
- Bring in some real snow, if possible, and make it into snowballs of different sizes.
