1-2-3 Come Do Some Snowflake "Craftivities" With Me!

As long as we have to have winter, it might as well snow!  I'd always give my Y5's some time at our classroom windows, when the snow was falling heavily.  It's so lovely and sparkly.  They'd squeal with delight and chatter about a possible pending snow day.  I think I was as excited as they were at the prospect of a stay-at-home and snuggle day.

Our snowflake theme was a real favorite.  I'd start things out by sharing "Snowflake Bentley's" story and exquisite snowflake photographs.  If you don't own these books, I highly recommend them. 

I found that if I pre-folded coffee filters and demonstrated how to snip them into a snowflake, my students did a much better job, than when I used regular paper, which was way too thick for them to cut. 

Singing a rousing round of Frosty the Snowman got the wiggles out, and my students' behavior was really pretty stellar, in part, because they were working towards spelling the words Hot Chocolate, so they could receive that treat. 

They could earn a letter a day, which helped build self-esteem and confidence, as they worked together to achieve a goal.  I did the same thing with spelling Frosty The Snowman.  When they earned all of the letters, we'd watch the video at the end of the day. Click on the link to see it posted on YouTube.

The article today, shares some of my favorite snowflake activities.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.  

Start things out by printing, laminating and trimming a set of snowflake alphabet cards.  Use them as a border, independent center or to play a variety of games with.  I've also included a blank set so that you can program with whatever.  Click on the link to view/download the snowflake alphabet cards.

I think home-school connections are very important.  I designed a bulletin board activity each month, where students spent some quality time with their families, doing a themed-writing prompt craftivity. 

This family snowflake was the one for January.  Use blue foil wrapping paper for the background and suspend some plastic snowflakes from the ceiling for that extra bit of pizzazz.  Click on the link to view/download the Family Snowflake "craftivity."

Another awesome bulletin board involving snowflakes, is my Snowflake Writing Prompt Strips.  Run off a variety of color choices so that you will have a really vivid bulletin board.  These look wonderful on a black background spritzed with silver glitter spray. 

Students can write their resolutions, favorite things about winter, or something for your Martin Luther King Jr. activities.  I had my kiddo's write what they dreamed they'd some day be.

Click on the link to view download the Snowflake Writing Prompt Bulletin Board Craftivitiy.

One of the biggest down falls of snow with little ones, is that it's such a chore geting them dressed in all of their winter gear.

It would take some of my slowpokes so long, that by the time they waddled like a penguin out the door, the bell would ring to come inside!

To expedite things, I made up this poster of the order of how they should dress.  Before I did this, I invariably had more than just a few kiddo's start by putting their boots or mittens on first.  We've all been there I'm sure. 

Having a race to see who could be the first one dressed, or which team got lined up the quickest, really helped too.  Click on the link to print one for your hallway. Getting Dressed Poster

A matching easy reader about getting dressed is entitled: Let's Go! Let's Play in the Snow.  It's a great way to review ordinal numbers too. The packet includes traceable word cards, picture cards, a graphing extension, a compound word worksheet, as well as one on contractions.   Click on the link to grab it.

Finally, one has to make a few snow angels before everything melts.  Review 2D shapes with this Shapely Snow Angel easy reader.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  I design and blog daily, so I hope you can breeze on by tomorrow to see all of the newest FREEBIES.

"The Eskimos had 52-names for snow because it was so important to them.  There ought to be as many for love." -Margaret Atwood

A Winning Lesson With Word Art!

Verbs are something that can be a bit boring to teach, so liven up your lesson with Word Art!

I made these New Year word art pictures using a list of positive verbs and then turning them into a picture using Tagxedo.

Turn it into a reading and writing lesson by showing your students the posters and my alphabetical list of 88 positive verbs.

Read the words aloud and have students circle the ones that they want to promise and do in the New Year.

They need at least 1 for each letter of the alphabet.  Challenge students to make their own word art poster and list. This is a nice way to incorporate technology in your day.

Students can also make a New Year’s dictionary of their promise words.  I've included a cover, simply add lined paper.

For more skill building, I’ve included trace and write pages. 

Fill in and laminate a set and then cut them apart and store in an envelope, so students can arrange them in alphabetical order.

Make up 2 sets so students can play “Speed” against each other to see who can alphabetize the words the quickest.

Any of these activities make fun Daily 5 Word Work lessons. Encourage students to look up any words they don’t know and to use their new vocabulary.

Make a copy for your word wall.  Make sure you do your own to use as a sample.  If students do the word art activity, you have an awesome January bulletin board.

Have them mount their finished work on various colors of blue construction paper.  Arrange on a background of aluminum foil and sprinkle some paper snowflakes on the corners of each one.

At the end of the month or school year, ask students to re-visit their list.  Have they done all of the words they circled? Have they added anymore?

This evaluation can then become a writing prompt of why or why not, and how they can improve etc.

Click on the link to view/download the New Year Word Art activities packet.

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful. I hope these New Year's ideas have helped and that you have the best New Year yet.

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us." -Hal Borland