A Snowy Day

This week Rebekah and I are starting a unit on snow based on The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. I am using the lapbook from Homeschool Share, but I also found some resources off a blog that linked to here. What a great find!

Just as Rebekah and I were starting our morning devotion I happened to look up and out the window to see rain and snow falling. The snow was light at first, and of course the kids were both enthralled, but I told Rebekah that if it stopped raining we'd go out and play in it later.

We read through the book and after discussing some of the story we started Rebekah's first lapbook. Rebekah finished cutting and gluing her snowman together while Joshua ate an early lunch, and then she played the match game with some pictures that I copied from preschoolprintables.com and cut which were intended to be for Memory. You could see the picture on the back of the paper, so I spread them out face-up all over the floor and let Rebekah find the matching sets one at a time.



Next we "ice skated" to music. I played some Brahm's music, and Rebekah, with her feet in shoe boxes, and I moved to the music as if we were ice skating. Joshua even joined us in making turns around the room. He loves to spin to music!

By this time the snow was sticking to the grass some, so we took advantage of playing outdoors after Rebekah and I had our lunch. This was Joshua's first real experience with snow. He was not crazy about being bundled up, but he seemed to enjoy the outdoors for a little while.

Rebekah catching snowflakes on her tongue





Believe it or not, we were actually able to make some tracks in what little snow we got. I showed Rebekah how to do so, just like Peter did in The Snowy Day. Once she made her own tracks she grabbed a stick like Peter did in the story and added a third line to go with the tracks her feet made.



Joshua had a bit more fun before we went inside.


Once the kids were out of their wet clothes and changed Joshua went down for a nap, and Rebekah and I discussed melting and freezing. We put some ice cubes in a small cup and let them sit out all afternoon, checking every so often to discover the ice shrinking, melting, and turning into water. In the meantime, Rebekah and I made marshmallow snowflakes with one large marshmallow, several toothpicks, and several small marshmallows. They ended up looking much like a molecule diagram. The most fun was eating the marshmallows once we finished our craft.



After the ice had melted completely, and Rebekah learned that ice melts into water when it gets too warm we divided the water between two small cups. Rebekah placed one cup in the freezer and one in the refrigerator and told me which one she thought would freeze to ice. We checked them later to find out that she was correct and we discussed why. We then played the "Freeze/Melt" game. I played some fun, upbeat music for Rebekah to dance to, and when the music stopped Rebekah froze and then melted as if the sun had come out and melted a snowman. When the music started again she got up and danced until the music stopped. This was a fun twist to "Freeze Dance" that I've played with my former students in music class.

We are really having a lot of fun with this snow unit! Having a little snow today just made it better! I'm looking forward to some more activities I have planned to do with Rebekah this week.