Wonderful Wintertime

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Woof! Woof!: The focus of this lesson is to encourage children to learn about and understand seasonal concepts through reading, expressive language, and art.

 

Teaching with Clifford's Big Idea: Believe in Yourself
Children build confidence in themselves when they begin to feel secure in their decisions. By giving them opportunities to make choices and express themselves in the learning environment, they grow in self-esteem and knowledge.

Teach: Snow! Snowman!
Objective: The following activity nurtures essential:

• language and literacy skills
• auditory comprehension skills
• fine motor skills

Ask children if they have ever played in snow or remember the first time they ever built a snowman. Have children express their ideas on how to build the best snowman. What kind of clothing is best for snowy winter days? Read Clifford's First Snow Day by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic). In this story, Clifford goes outside in the snow for the first time. He sleds, skates, and helps build a snowman. After reading, hand each child a snowman outline and crayons. Explain that they are to listen and carefully follow directions to color the snowman's clothing pieces with the correct color. Sample instructions: Color the snowman's cap green; Color the snowman's nose orange. When finished, have children compare pictures. To extend language, brainstorm sentences about the snowman's clothing and activities: Example: The snowman's nose is an orange carrot!

Practice: Indoor Snowflakes!
Objective: The following activity nurtures essential:

• language and literacy skills
• fine motor skills
• creative expression skills

Introduce the concept of adjectives, or describing words. Model the use of adjectives in our language. Hold up several Clifford books for children to see. Share that Clifford is a "big" and "red" dog. Encourage children to express their use of adjectives. Describe things in the classroom, clothing, and what Clifford looks like, etc. Transition to art area by directing children to "drift" like snowflakes. Begin folding and cutting out traditional snowflakes. Help children write words associated with wintertime such as cold, chilly, icy, wet, dry, light, white, floating, drifting, sparking, freezing, slippery, frosty, windy, blustery, etc. on both sides of snowflakes. Hang flakes around classroom. Create additional snowflakes as children discover more wintertime adjectives.

Extend: Knowing how to dress on a summer or winter day is an important life skill!

• Present children large box filled with summer and winter clothing pieces and accessories. Divide children into "summer" and "winter" groups. Set a timer for several minutes and let the groups compete to dress a group member in appropriate seasonal clothing. Switch groups and go at it again!
• Have fun "adjective hunts" by using Clifford books

Clifford's Library: These books support Clifford's Big Ideas and reinforce valuable early literacy skills:

• Artic Alphabet: Exploring the North from A to Z by Wayne Lynch (Firefly Books)
• Snow Bear by Jean Craighead George (Hyperion Press)
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Viking Press)

Reproducibles:

• Snow Much Fun Printable Activity

Groundhog Day
Thousands of people gathered today in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and watched as the famous groundhog, known as Punxsutawney Phil, came out of his burrow at Gobbler's Knob and saw his shadow.

Books for Teaching About Winter
Provides a list of books to support teaching about winter.

Winter Holidays - Celebrating Diversity: Lesson plan based on Clifford The Big Red Dog, by Norman Bridwell
Woof! Woof!: The focus on this lesson is to teach the value of respect and appreciation of diversity by introducing children to new holiday celebrations, customs, and traditions through reading, language and art.

LESSON PLAN	Winter Weather Day 4: What Makes the Wind Blow? Activities for teaching students about wind properties. This lesson plan includes a hot-air balloon experiment and wind-themed poetry writing.
UNIT PLAN	A Week of Winter Weather Familiarizes students with aspects of winter weather, such as wind, through scientific investigation, vocabulary lessons, and poetry writing.
ONLINE ACTIVITY	Winter Weather Maker Investigate how weather is made and make a snow storm.
BOOK INFORMATION	Winter Poems This highly praised collection celebrates winter through the voices of some of the world's greatest poets. Twenty-five poems by William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Wallace Stevens, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and others are accompanied by glistening acrylic paintings of snowy landscapes. "Fresh, inviting, and a source of delight." — School Library Journal