The Snowy Day

We all love a good snow day here in Kentucky and "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats is such a fun book for me to read to my class every winter.  I truly enjoy all seasons and the changes they bring, but as soon as cold weather hits, all I can think about is the magic of falling snow!  Being at home with a winter wonderland of white falling is definitely one of my favorite things in life (don't hate me!) and I love sharing that excitement with my students.

We have still been doing small groups of students for three hours per day, but I've tried to make this time fun and educational. (Side note: We are still learning on Google Classroom the rest of the time.)  I've worked hard to find that balance of letting them experiences the joys of kindergarten that they have been missing out on all year, but also taking advantage of these face-to-face learning opportunities.  Kids love a good art project and we had a blast with our puffy paint experiences, so I gave them another chance to use it!

We started out by reading "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats.  This book received a Caldecott Medal for its illustrations and it's one of my favorite things about this book.  The white snow and the little boy in his red snowsuit are iconic and always stand out in my mind when I think of this story!  If you haven't read this book or don't have your own copy, check it out on YouTube.  There are so many good read alouds there if you need a book you don't have and it works in a pinch.  I also like to use this super cute animated version, which I used with this lesson.

Click here to find the book on Amazon

After reading the story, we talked about all the things Peter did in the snow.  Then, we used this set of pictures to help with our story retelling.  To start out, I had the students color and cut out each piece from the story retelling set.  Then, they glued the "snowy hill" onto a piece of blue construction paper.  This is when I let them make some more puffy paint.  You can check out this blog post for details on how to make your own.  They painted the snowy hill, which gave them a guide so it didn't end up all over the paper and their hill had shape, but I let them have control over how it turned out.

After painting the snowy hill, we watched the animated version of the story.  As each event happened in the story, the students added a story retelling piece.  They don't actually need glue for this part and can just place it on the snowy hill.  My kiddos thought that it was so neat for everything to stick in the snow and everyone's picture turned out a little different since the pieces didn't have to be in a specific place.

To complete our project, each of the students did a little Q-tip painting to make snowflakes on their background.  They loved sharing their pictures with each other and retelling the events of the story. 

'Twas the Night Before Kindergarten

‘Twas the night before kindergarten, and all through the school, some pink furry unicorns were breaking the rules…..wait, what?!  Hahaha  Okay, so there were pinky furry unicorns, but we didn’t break any rules!  We were just running around school in our pajamas doing a read aloud!

Kindergarten is such an important and special year in a child’s life, but things are anything but normal right now.  With COVID still on the loose, we are starting school virtually in my school district, so I won’t get a traditional first day with my students.  I’ve tried to think of things to make it extra special and I hope I’ve done that for them this year!

I found this super cute book and ordered it.  I wasn’t sure if it was going to be “the book,” but once I received it, I decided it was perfect!  "The Night Before Kindergarten" talks about preparing for kindergarten, feeling a little scared, posing for pictures and all the other "normal" things one might experience on the first day.  They won't get that exact experience, so I thought it was a good idea to read and discuss how things are going to look a little different this year.  I grabbed the adorable and comfy unicorn pajamas I found at Walmart and got cozy in my classroom to do a special night before school read aloud for my students.  I felt so silly and wasn’t feeling very confident in myself, but once their parents shared their reactions, I knew it was worth it!

My Kinderbesties and I always like to have a really good time with lots of laughter.  So, of course, we had to go around the school for a mini photo shoot in our matching pajamas.  We have the best time and I’m glad they’re always on board with my silly ideas.  They never hesitate, but just dive right into whatever fun and exciting things we come up with.  I can’t wait to see what fun things we do next for our kiddos!