Winter-Themed Lessons with Picture Books Featuring “Snowmen At Night”

If you are looking for a delightful book to go along with cold, snowy weather, check out one I came across the other day, Snowmen at Night, written by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner.

After a little boy notices that the snowman he built the day before looks a bit different, he begins to wonder what snowmen actually do at night. That is the Kick-Off of this rhyming story. The story is presented as a series of Actions of the many activities of snowmen at night! It would be an ideal selection to use with Braidy the StoryBraid Doll.

• Students could be asked to recall the Actions in the story, while you make a list (sipping hot cocoa, sledding, skating, etc.). After, you may sequence the Actions on the list using Braidy Doll and the text.

• Students could then trace/cut a simple Setting icon out of black construction paper and copy a few of the Actions using a white crayon or chalk, as shown.
  
  On the other side of the star icon the students could draw a picture of a snowman at night either doing one of the activities presented in the selection or one of their choosing.
  
  
• If you prefer, you could use the Action bead template found on page 141 of the Braidy manual and attach the actions to the Setting icon with yarn.
  
  
• Included in each winter scene in the above selection there are hidden shapes of a cat, rabbit, Santa face and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. There are other books by Buehner featuring the snowmen, including Snowmen at Work.

OTHER IDEAS…

Before reading Snowmen at Night, you may want to begin by doing an activity similar to one of our previous blogs, modified as needed…

Winter’s Coming! Narrative/Expository Setting Lesson

This offers a great opportunity to review the four seasons and then focus on winter. Depending on your students, they could draw and write about a winter Setting using page 149 from the Braidy Manual.

The Wild Toboggan Ride by Suzan Reid was always a wintertime favorite of my kindergarten students. The book lends itself to talking about changes in Settings and Listing/Sequencing discussions using Braidy and the text.

Jim Aronsky’s Every Autumn Comes the Bear is a beautifully illustrated books in watercolor paintings that shows the changes in seasons. It would go along with the Setting theme. Students could paint their own Setting using watercolors using the Braidy Setting frame (reinforcing the Setting star icon), found on page 135 of the Braidy manual.

Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep! by Maureen Wright,‎ Will Hillenbrand (Illustrator), is a story in rhyme about a bear who finds it hard to hear Old Man Winter’s instruction that it is time for his wintertime sleep. Bear hears something different each time (ex. drive a jeep, go sweep). It is a repetitive tale with a refrain that students will enjoy. Again, this book would fit in nicely with our winter theme.

Also, check out our winter themed blogs presented last year…

Brrr...Winter is here!