All About Winter - FREE ACTIVITIES
These adorable FREE activities to go along with The Mitten will be emailed to you within minutes!
We love using this story throughout the month of January, and even more activities are included in my unit shown below.
ALL ABOUT WINTER
Winter is almost here! We sure enjoy winter here in Idaho, and I have so many fun things planned for this unit.
We are going to be:
reading and learning about the lifecycle of snow
learn how snowflakes are made
what animals do in the winter (hibernate and migrate)
reading skills including cause/effect, retelling and sequencing with our favorite winter books The Mitten and Sneezy the Snowman
… plus so much more!
I use my enrichment units to enhance our read aloud stories.
I read one book each week, and then we dig deeper and explore the science/social studies connections, practice our reading and writing skills and learn more about each theme. We have so much fun!
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We love learning all about winter… let’s get started!
This video shows a few of the activities we love:
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JANUARY/WINTER READ ALOUD BOOKS
To get started with our All About Winter Unit, I show students the winter slideshow.
It is so fun to be able to really build background before I read each book.
We have the time time to dig deeper and explore each theme even more.
This really helps students with so many reading skills and with their comprehension.
WEEK 1 - LIFECYCLE OF SNOW
We start this unit with Curious About Snow - since kids are SO curious about where it comes from and how it is made.
I realized that many students have misconceptions about snow, so I build their background and we discuss the new vocabulary before getting started.
Eight picture vocabulary posters show students the lifecycle of snow. They can write the definition and draw a picture on the coordinating Snow Vocabulary activity pages.
I have these posters hung up for the entire unit and we refer to them often.
We then talk about the word unique, and one of a kind.
I tell my students snowflakes are unique - just like them. No two are the same.
I have my students build snowflakes with Q Tips and draw the picture to match.
Additional vocabulary posters (shown below) are included if you want all the words on two pages only.
Students can cut out and match the snowflakes - since no two are the same.
We then learn all about the lifecycle of snow! Students are fascinated by this, and they love the cut and paste activity to make their own lifecycle.
We then discuss activities we can do in the snow and activities we cannot do in the snow.
This cut and paste activity is a super cute way to check for understanding.
Depending on where you are your students live, this may be an easy task or more challenging if your kiddos have never been around snow before.
WEEK 2 - ANIMALS IN WINTER
We read Animals In Winter and discuss the words adapt, migrate and hibernate.
Students absolutely love studying winter animals, and they are so engaged!
We learn so much about animals, and sometimes I spread this over two weeks since there is just so much content to cover.
We learn about four animals that migrate and four animals that hibernate.
All of the reading passages follow the same format focusing on the words are, can and have.
After reading the passage, each animal has a coordinating graphic organizer/note taking page.
This makes it so easy to incorporate reading and writing, and it is no prep for you!
Students love to read, learn and take notes about each animal.
This is such a cute station activity! Students can sort the picture cards into “Animals that Hibernate” “Animals that DO NOT Hibernate” and “Animals that Migrate.” Then they can make two different flip books (hibernate/migrate).
Students love these picture cards, and there are so many activities you can do with them.
By the end of this week, we have learned so much about how animals survive the long, cold winter months.
WEEK 3 - THE MITTEN
I think it is safe to say The Mitten is a primary classroom favorite during the winter months. I’ve read this book to my own children so many times I am pretty sure I have it memorized.
But it is so good, and I actually never get tired of reading it.
After learning about animals in the winter last week, this is the perfect next book study.
We will be practicing so many of our reading skills including sequencing and retelling.
This is the perfect book to practice putting events (or animals) in order.
There are cut and paste activities as well as pocket chart cards.
A couple different versions are included in the unit.
One has the numbers on the cards, and the other just has the animals so student have to remember which order they go in.
Use one or both!
These mini readers have a page for each animal, and they make an easy no prep literacy center or whole group activity.
This Winter animals book and the sequencing cards are FREE! I’ll email them to you (at the top of this blog post.)
I always love to see what students will write,
“My mitten is big enough to fit….” (two versions included!)
Count, compare and write numbers with this Mitten inspired math page.
There are so many fun activities for the week you read The Mitten. Students will ask to read it over and over again.
Don’t have the book The Mitten? The only activity you have to have the book for is the retelling page.
The other activities can enhance any winter animals book.
WEEK 4 - SNEEZY THE SNOWMAN
Have you read this book before? You are in for a treat! Sneezy is another class favorite for a winter read aloud.
One repetitive line my class loves to chant is, “Make me brand new!”
Poor Sneezy the Snowman keeps doing things a snowman should not do. He ends up melting each time, but thankfully he has good friends who rebuild him and make him brand new.
We continue to practice retelling and sequencing like we did last week. I love doing this two weeks in a row, because I see so much growth from repeated practice with this skill.
Both a color and BW version of the retelling activity is included. You can laminate the color version to be reused in a center.
We then practice cause and effect with pocket chart picture cards.
Students love this, and then they have a cause/effect cut and paste activity to complete.
Next, we talk about what we would need to build our own snowman.
The kids love to look at the picture word banks and then pick the five items they want to build a snowman.
This is an excellent activity to practice writing lists and the picture word banks provide the perfect scaffolding for those reluctant writers.
These snowman activities will keep your kiddos busy, engaged and learning all week.
The only activity you have to have the book Sneezy the Snowman book for is the retelling activity page. All of the other activities can be used with any snowman themed book.
Ready to get started with your winter unit?
I share my free lesson plans with weekly blog posts HERE
READ THE REVIEWS ON TPT
“Loved the Fall version so much I had to have Winter too! Thanks so much!”
“Very clear, engaging and easy to use.”
“I love these "All About" packages!!!!”
“I am always so happy with the products I purchase from Keeping My Kinders Busy! They are fun and the kids get a chance to practice their skills. Plus they are always so affordable!”
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We do enrichment units every month! It is a fun way to practice our reading skills and dive into thematic science and social studies units.
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