Winter Writing and Snowman Craft and Free Books Online!

It seems that Christmas break went oh so fast!  I was happy to get back to school yesterday and see all of my kiddos.  We got right to work.  We started our writing before Christmas.  The prompt was this:  Imagine that your snowman came to life. Tell about your adventures.  So we started by reading the books Snowmen At Christmas, Snowmen at Night  and Snowmen All Year by Mark Buehner and Caralyn Buehner.  These books were all online on the website We Give Books.  You can get there by going to www.wegivebooks.org .  If you don't know about this site, you have got to visit it.  You can create an account for free and read all of the wonderful books that are there.  So we read the three books over a couple of days and then brainstormed all of the things we could do with our snowmen.  Finally, students wrote their stories and made their snowman craft to go with their writing.  They turned out so cute! 

 

This snowman writing activity came from my January Writing Unit.  It has three different kinds of stories for students to write.  The imaginative narrative is the snowman story.  For the persuasive/opinion piece, students are asked to decide if they think a penguin would make a good pet.  They have to write a paper to persuade the reader.  The third piece is an informational piece that students write about polar bears. Students read the included short passage on polar bears and then write about them.  Each writing has graphic organizers to help students organize their information, decorative writing paper for the completed stories and a craft.  Here is a look at the unit. 

 

If you want to see it in my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking HERE!

 

I tried to read some blogs and tips while I was home on break.  One thing that I saw that I loved was from Angela Watson.  It is called Daily Connections.  It is a way to list your students in groups and each day, you focus some special attention on those students.  I am doing this and it is a great way to build stronger connections with my students.  Angela posted this idea free in her Teachers Pay Teachers store.  You can get to it by clicking HERE!  I love this idea!  I think that strong connections with our students make for great learning relationships with them as well as making lasting positive impressions on these young little minds! 

I hope you have all had a great first few days back!  Oh, and "Let It Snow!!!"

Sharon