Winter Break Activities from AlphaPlus

Winter Animals is made in Google Slides and gives learners a choice of stories or songs to listen to:

• Deer: A song called Deer Dancing Round a Broken Mirror by Bruce Cockburn and Rik Emmet.

• Owl: A TVO short about Kenojuak Ashevak and her painting, The Enchanted Owl.

• Raven: The Raven and the Owl, an Inuit legend put to song. There are two versions: one by The National Film Board of Canada and one by Becky Han.

• Fox: The Fox and the Whale, a 2016 Canadian animated short film directed by Robin Joseph.

• Skater: a 1980 animated film from the National Film Board of Canada narrated by the author of the story, Roch Carrier. There is a link to a 2023 riff on this story called the Hockey Jersey.

There are follow up activities in a Google Form and a Jamboard.

Winter Break is a drag-and-drop and Answer Garden conversation starter where learners can think about what they will do on the break.

Winter Poem is a poetry activity based on the poem Dust of Snow by Robert Frost. Learners can read and listen to the poem and then examine the rhyming pattern (ABAB). They can then compare that rhyming pattern with the rhyming pattern in Catch a Little Rhyme by Eve Merriam (AABB).

Merry Christmas is an advent calendar of Christmas songs.