Counting Snowflakes and Snowmen!

We have been having a lot of fun with Winter activities this month!  One of the activities we have done is make a fun snowman flip book, a Winter is cloze activity, and a count up snowflake mini book!
I created a little mini book about catching snowflakes for the children to complete and keep!  First we read one of my favourite snowflake stories called Millions of Snowflakes.  It is by Mary McKenna Siddals and illustrated by Elizabeth Sayles.  It is really special and always a hit!
Then I introduced my class book version of Catching Snowflakes that the children chant read with me!

Then we make a mini version for them to keep.

 Because I am trying to introduce plurals I decided to make a version in which the children had to complete the frame on the page with the words that indicate the correct number on each page.

I have also created a version in which the children have to cut out the correct number of snowflakes to match the words on the page.  Right now, my children are more than ready to work on the word version.  They seemed to have a great time with it and were happy to read it and colour one page minimum.  Most coloured more than that!
You can find all versions of the book in my new Winter Fun package!

 I have also posted the mini book Catching Snowflakes as a freebie!

We had a great time making hundreds of snowmen with the snowman flip book activity.

I always do this book the first time it snows if I can!  First I read my favourite snowman book Sadie and the Snowman by Allen Morgan and illustrated by Brenda Clark.  Fabulous pictures and a very clever story! It is about a little girl who makes a snowman many times over during the winter and each snowman is a little different and a little the same.

We talk about how the snowman are each different.  Then I tell the children that although  I only drew four snowmen we can make many more snowmen with just these four! 

They don’t believe me until I staple the four sheets together, and cut the top three sheets between the top circle and the middle circle and between the middle and the bottom circle.  Then by flipping one or more of the strips I can make many, many more snowmen!  (Cutting only the first three pages gives the book a bit more stability).

I have the children make four different snowmen using their colouring materials on the snowman sheet. 

I draw a big snowman on the board  and we label the various parts. 

Then the children label their snowmen using the sentence frames.  I try to get them to add describing words to their  sentence frames by either adding colour words or descriptors.  For eg.  My  snowman has a black hat with a feather.

After they have completed the sentence frames for each part of the snowmen on each of the pages, I staple their book together and I make the cuts. 

Then they take their books with a partner and see how many different combinations of snowmen they can make!  Lots of writing and reading practise!  They always love it !   

I like to read Stella, Queen of the Snow by Marie Louise Gay to my class to help them think of things that make a picture in their head about Winter.  Then we brainstorm different things that mean winter.  The children choose their favourites to complete the Winter is frame.

  I have created two different versions for you to choose from in the Winter Fun package.

After the children have completed the Winter is frame they build these snow children to display their poem on.  I precut the toques and mittens out of wallpaper and precut the neck, scarf, face, and arms.  A quick demo and then the children put it all together!  They were very proud of them and came up with some really descriptive language!