Snowman Day

I love January because it is finally cold here in Arizona and we are able to explore some of our favorite winter days!  Last year we celebrated snowman day in December, and when we were planning this year we decided to extend it to January!  I am so glad that we did because we were able to do so much with it, and didn't have to worry about how busy it was during Christmas!!

For math I did a few different snow and snowman themed math centers!  The students' favorite activity was "building" their snowman!  They had different pieces they needed for their snowman and they were able to answer different math problems to build their snowman.  These problems ranged from telling time, adding, multiplying and place value.  It was a great review activity where they were able to practice many different skills!

Another one of their favorites during math was coloring their snowman to make a glyph!  We are then going to go through and graph the data so we can find out how many of our friends have never seen snow before!

We met up with our first grade friends in the afternoon and we put together a fun snowman craft!  My friend Ashley, from Adventures in a First Grade Jungle, created a cute craft for us to put together!  The kids love it, and then it is awesome to see how different they look even when they start from the same pieces!

You can check out more of my fun January ideas on my Pinterest board!!

Follow Mrs 3rd Grade's board January on Pinterest.

Let it Snow! Books to share on a Snowy Day.

Let it Snow!

One of the reasons I live in the Arizona desert is the snow-free winters. I don’t hate snow, I just don’t want to live with it. But these snow-free winters mean a lot of our students have never seen snow and that’s a shame because the snow can be a lot of fun. 

So…. I use books to bring the fun of snow into the classroom without living in the cold and mess!  

Thomas’ Snowsuit by Robert Munsch, Very funny book about the difficulties of putting on a snowsuit.  (You can listen to the author the book aloud on his website!)

The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino and Jon Nelson, Ph.D. This link will take you to a free teacher's guide!

Snow by Cynthia Rylant,  a young girl enjoys a day in the snow. this link will take you to a brief activity guide for the book.

Snow Day by Lester Laminack, This delightful story puts a twist on "Snow Day." 

A Perfect Day by Carin Berger, This book paints a picture of a perfect day in the snow.

Snowballs by Lois Ehlert In this beautiful books students will enjoy the collages used to make the pictures.  The link goes lesson ideas for this book.

Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner, A wonderful informational text about life over and under the snow. The link will take you to lesson ideas.

Blizzard by John Rocco This book is based on true experiences by the author.  The link will take you to a book trailer.  

The Missing Mitten Mystery by Steven Kellogg, After a day of playing in the snow a little girl discovers one of her mittens is missing!  Where could it be?  The link goes to a site with free lesson ideas.

Polar Bears by Gail Gibbons Another wonderful book filled with interesting facts about these giants of the north.

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen  In this nighttime adventure a girl and her father go searching for owls on a moonlit winter night. The link takes you to lesson plan suggestions.

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Brigg,  (the link takes you to Snowflake Bentley's official website)  I saved my favorite book for last.  This beautiful book was introduced to me by a good friend who lives in Vermont.  One year she sent me the book along with a snowflake print from Bentley's collection as a Christmas gift.  I instantly fell in love with the book and used it in my classroom every year.  

You can download these free activities to go along with this very special book.

I hope you're having a wonderful winter with your students. Maybe a few of these books will find their way into your snowy lessons.

Snow Kids

Good morning everyone!  This month we are bringing you all kinds of wintry ideas!  Living in Arizona makes it a little difficult to understand and appreciate what a real winter is.  (But being from Canada, I know!)   Even so, we do lots of fun winter themed activities throughout the winter months. One of my all-time favorite winter activities is these Snow Kids!

I love incorporating art with writing.  Even more I LOVE incorporating student pictures into their work.  This activity has all three tied into one!  For this activity I read a few books about snowy days.  Especially since we live in Arizona I like to show videos about snowy days.  Last year I showed them a skiing video with an avalanche and they loved it!  I put it on my staff website and they kept watching it all throughout the year!  Together we brainstorm a list of activities that we would like to do on a snowy day.  Then I pass out the snow kids papers and have them write their own sentences. After they were finished writing and coloring I cut out the circles for their faces.  I tape their pictures behind and mount the finished product on blue paper.  Put them on display - they're sure to be a crowd pleaser!

Check them out here.

On a snowy day I like to drink hot chocolate and go ice skating!  Luckily I can still do both of those things while living in Arizona!  Better yet, I don't have to suffer through the cold to do it!  ;)

What's your favorite thing to do on a Snowy Day???