Fun with Snow

With winter finally here since it is so cold outside, I started a snow lesson with my Kindergarteners. We read some books about snow and talked about what they like to do in the snow, then looked at photographs of snow taken by Snowflake Bentley. We counted the sides of each snowflake in the pictures to learn that all snowflakes have 6 sides. Some great conversation books about snow include those below. The Snowman by Raymond Briggs always gets them excited because there are no words so the kids have to follow the comic strip panels to tell the story themselves. There are lots of things they point out like he 'warms' himself by the freezer and is scared of the stove heat. Snow by Cynthia Rylant is a great book for teaching even older kids about metaphors and similes but is a good conversation starter for younger kids too. All the Snowmen series books are tons of fun too. Kids love snow and talking about snow so they are always excited to see the snowflake pictures and to talk about their favorite things to do in the snow (which makes those text to self connections!) Another site they love is this one to make snowflakes. It works great on an interactive white board and usually each student can make a cut and you end up with a very pretty snowflake!