During wintertime, it's easy to add "snow days" fun into your learning. Start with my snowman vowels sort freebie! Play with snowmen as you sort long vowels from short vowels in a simple phonics file folder game or classroom center. While you're at it, here's another wintery idea: Make learning fun with snowman breaks during the day.
More...
It's easy to set up this activity! Print out the two "children" pages and attach them to a file folder. Then, cut out the snowmen. Your student(s) should sort the snowmen into the correct side of the page. Which child made each of the snowmen? Which child made the most snowmen? I've included a recording page if you wish to have your students write down the words from the snowmen.
This activity requires kids to read the words and say them aloud to hear the sounds the words make. The long vowel snowmen have words with two-letter phonograms, such as /ea/ and /ow/, as well as silent "e" words. It's a perfect activity for kids to review phonics rules even after they've learned to read.
Get access!
Long & Short Vowels
Snowman Sort
This will be sent directly to your email address!
I based this simple activity on one of the games in one of my best sellers, Long and Short Vowels set of worksheets and center games. Check out this not-seasonal product in my Shop or at TPT if you are interested in more long and short vowels activities.
Another idea related to snowmen is to take breaks throughout the day with a snowman in mind. This is perfect for those days when your children/students really wished for a snow day and did not get one: you are still doing school! Tell them it's snowman time, and watch them smile.
I've shared two songs you could sing during "snow breaks" below.
I'm a Little Snowman (sung to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot)
I'm a little snowman, short and fat.
Here are my buttons. Here is my hat.
When there's snow and ice, I laugh and play.
When the sun comes out I melt away.
Once There was a Snowman
Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman.
Once there was a snowman: Tall, tall, tall!
In the sun he melted, melted, melted.
In the sun he melted: Small, small, Small!
Later, you could also take a dance break to Walking in a Winter Wonderland. I don't know why it's commonly considered a holiday song: it's perfect all winter long!
In the book In the Snow by Huy Voun Lee, Xiao Ming and his mother walk in newly fallen snow and his mother shows him Chinese characters by writing them in the snow. They discuss how the characters look like the items they are describing. Despite our lack of snow in Chicagoland this season,we made our
Read MoreOne thing we like to look at when it snows (or the ground gets wet!) is to further investigate animal tracks a bit more in depth. To practice my daughter’s measuring skills, I made an animal track measuring activity to help us better understand the sizes of the animals’ tracks we learned about before. Measuring
Read MoreWhen the kids come inside from playing in the snow, I always let them have some hot cocoa to help them warm up. I decided to sneak a tiny bit of learning in on a day when it was too yucky to go outside! We practiced “marshmallow math” at the kitchen table. Marshmallow counting was perfect
Read MoreWhether it’s bitter cold outside or the snow is coming down just a bit too much, some days we find we’re stuck inside a bit too much. Homeschooling is hard, but when we’re stuck inside due to the weather, our moods go downhill. Are you facing the same difficulties? When regular school is not a great
Read MoreI mentioned previously that one of my favorite books about snow is about Snowflake Bentley, the first person to photograph the intricate designs of snowflakes. Here are some videos to correspond with the book Snowflake Bentley, and lessons about snowflakes in general.More…Snowflake Videos Related to Snowflake BentleyWatch a narrated version of the book Snowflake Bentley by
Read MoreIn my writing class, we read a few of these snow day books and then create a chronological story about a snow day of our own. The following snow day books helped us get our ideas flowing as we brainstormed and wrote our own snow day stories. More… Favorite Snow Day BooksWhen I was a kid,
Read MoreDuring our only big snow (so far) this winter, we experimented with melting snow. In The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, Peter learned snow melted inside when his snowball melted in his coat pocket (get the book). Although our observations about melting snow were not scientific or controlled, our simple observations comparing melting snow
Read MoreIt is time to start thinking about Back to School. For those of us who homeschool, by August it sometimes actually is back to homeschool time! Are you getting overwhelmed at the thought of homeschooling kindergarten? Are you homeschooling for the first time? It’s not that bad. Below are some of my thoughts on my
Read MoreTo begin my hands-on American History class at my homeschool co-op, I decided to introduce the world explorers by playing our Guess Who?-inspired game: Guess the World Explorer! Not all of the kids knew details about the various world explorers, so we revisited the information cards to learn as we played.Setting up the World Explorers
Read MoreIf you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’ll know I love incorporating learning moments into familiar parts of our lives, especially reading favorite picture books. Here are some of our favorite preschool picture book lessons. Some of these book-inspired preschool lessons I’ve blogged about. To see the picture book preschool activities
Read MoreIn the book In the Snow by Huy Voun Lee, Xiao Ming and his mother walk in newly fallen snow and his mother shows him Chinese characters by writing them in the snow. They discuss how the characters look like the items they are describing. Despite our lack of snow in Chicagoland this season,we made our
Read MoreWhen the kids come inside from playing in the snow, I always let them have some hot cocoa to help them warm up. I decided to sneak a tiny bit of learning in on a day when it was too yucky to go outside! We practiced “marshmallow math” at the kitchen table. Marshmallow counting was perfect
Read MoreI am so excited about this year’s plan because we are starting out with STEAM the center of our minds! At our co-op, I’m teaching an upper elementary-level STEAM Challenge class. Besides that, I’m super excited about the ideas in the book STEAM Kids, a fantastic book full of gorgeous and creative ways to implement science,
Read More