Many states have seen their first snows of the season, and the holiday feeling is in the air! As you prepare your holiday traditions and classroom activities, remember that audiobooks can be a valuable tool these days before break (and during break, too!). The Tales2go library even has a dedicated section for holiday themed titles, aptly named “Happy Holidays.” [Use the Search button and select "Happy Holidays" from the Genre menu.]

If you’re looking for some new activities, here are a few ideas to get you started!

For your classroom: Snowflake story sorter

Use this special snowflake to help students organize their thoughts about their favorite winter stories. It has each of the five important parts of a story as a separate arm of the snowflake, with space to record the title and author in the center. If your students cut out their snowflakes, they'll make a perfect story snowstorm for your bulletin board! Click the name above to open the file and print as many as you need!

For school and home: Incorporate the spirit of giving

Consider making holiday cards while listening to a holiday story. The Season of Giving is a wonderful time to reinforce the virtues of thinking about others. Organizations like Cards for Hospitalized Kids and Operation We Are Here collect and distribute holiday cards. Cards can be simple or elaborate, in this case it really is the thought that counts. To make the activity even more locally meaningful, look up your nearest USO center, assisted living facility, or hospital and ask if they might have a collection for holiday cards.

Check out some of these child-designed cards found on a quick search of Pinterest (click here to look at our Pinterest board with these ideas and many more):

For times when you need a little break:

We’ve just added many new meditative sounds to our collection. Make sure to take a few moments for yourself – and encourage your children to do the same – this holiday season. Shower or bath times are a great time to turn on a meditative title and let your stress wash away! 

Some new titles in the Happy Holidays section:

• God Rest Ye Merry, Soldiers
• The Christmas Santa Almost Missed
• Christmas with Grandma
• The Missing Snowman
• The Nutcracker