Winter Themed Picture Book Activities
We just had a white Christmas, so snow and cold are fresh on my mind. So is planning for the first weeks back to school from winter break. You know those weeks where everyone is finding their groove again and sometimes it is nice just to have a book to read. I love to use picture books to extend or add to my lessons. In this post, I wanted to share a few of my recent discoveries for winter themed lessons. I will list ways that I have used these books, but also hope that you will explore them on your own to see what new ways you can incorporate them. I often shop at my local used book store, but I did include links so you could preview the books if you are interested.
Snow by: Uri Shulevitz
This book was just a fun read aloud. It was also a lot of fun to give whiny voices to the Negative Nelly adults in the book. Am I the only one who automatically gives a voice to a character as soon as they show up in a picture? I also used it to review and identify verbs. It has lovely describing words telling about the movements of the snow. My students listened for verbs in the first read and acted them out. I wanted to reinforce the “doing” part of an action verb. We then brainstormed a list of our own action words/verbs. We wrote them out on snowflakes. The last task we completed with this book was planning and writing snow haikus. This happened over multiple lessons. The haiku was a fun exercise because of the emphasis on syllables (5-7-5 pattern). It really encouraged my students to do some nice planning in their writing process so they could make sure they had five syllables in their first line, seven syllables, and then five again.
There Was An Old Lady… (Series)
So this picture includes two fall examples, but we most recently read the one where she swallowed some snow. Through the adventures of The Old Lady you can do a lot of work with predicting. She swallowed a _____ and a ______, what do you think she might make at the end? You could also practice inferring….I think it might be this because. Modeling to students how to read a bit and then pause to reflect and ask yourself questions is a nice way to encourage active reading. We want students to engage with text, even if it is simple and silly text, but we cannot forget that this needs to be modeled and practiced. Sequencing is also a skill that can be reviewed with this series. She swallowed this first so it could help with this. My students made a first, next, then, last outline for their own There Was An Old Lady story. They had to plan the objects their character would swallow in order to make a creation at the end. As you can see in the picture, they came up with good ideas. The picture in the forefront was an old lady who swallowed a gingerbread man. After they drew their pictures on the outside, they wrote out (in much simpler form) their story with the final fold being the creation that all of the objects made. We did the writing piece under the folds of the paper and did not title it until after they shared it with their friend. The friend could look at the picture clues to see if they could guess what the Old Lady would make at the end.
Tracks in the Snow by: Wong Yee
This was a short read, but if you used it right you could pack a punch of activities with it. We reviewed what it meant to make a prediction. We discussed how we can make a guess about something and then at the end we can check our guesses to see if we were right. I reviewed what it meant to use evidence or details given in a book to infer. This is a fun book because you need to look for clues to help the character figure out their question. Before we read, I gave my students sticky notes and told them it was their job to pay close attention and look for clues in the story. When they heard a clue, they would raise their hand, we would pause and discuss, and then they would number and draw it on a sticky.
Before we got to the ending, they had their clues laid out in order and they drew and wrote a prediction on one final sticky. When we read the last page they could see if their predictions were correct. They then completed a writing task where they described what made them make the prediction that they did.
Over and Under the Snow by: Kate Messner
This selection gave us a few options for activities. As you might have guessed from the title, it can easily be used for reinforcing prepositional phrases. As we were discussing prepositional phrases, I gave my students a big ball of cotton loosely pulled out. I told them this was to be the snow. We then used Hatchimals (my daughter is a huge fan so there are plenty around for convenient use) and practiced placing the Hatchimal based on the prepositional phrase I said aloud. For example, place your critter under the snow, in the snow, by the snow, above the snow, and so on. It made the concept a bit more hands on. We then read the book aloud and I gave them the task of listening for a preposition in the story. When they heard one, we would pause and check to see if they were right. In our final activity, my students drew a snow scene of their own. Using ideas from the book and some of their own, they used prepositional phrases to place creatures at various places in their picture.
I then had them create sticky note labels with prepositions and place them on their picture. Original plan was to have them write on their picture, but neither of them wanted to ruin their work. They would then give me a sentence verbally using their prepositional phrase. For example, “the shrew was under the snow.”
Immi’s Gift by: Karin Littlewood
I think this is a lovely book to show how cultures can connect across distances. The beautiful illustrations make for great discussions on details and setting. Students can discuss cause and effect as well. For example, why would the character be dressed in that clothing and why would they live in that type of home? Why would the character be moving on? You can bring back in discussions about making predictions to discuss where they think the character might be receiving the treasures. This book has an unexpected ending and I think that is part of the fun. For their follow up activity, I had my students paint a watercolor picture of an object that was meaningful to them and would represent who they are.
I hope these suggestions might give you some easy lesson planning ideas or at least a new addition to your collection. I would love for you to comment below with your favorite books or activities you have for the books I have listed. I am always looking to add to my own library! Happy reading!
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