Let's Build a Snowman

In this lesson, children find information about animals in winter by listening to read-alouds of paired factual and fictional books and by using online resources. They also learn to organize the information using a K-W-L graphic organizer. By itself, this lesson may not be active and concrete enough for younger children, but when coupled with other snow, snowmen, winter, and animal experiences it could be a good way to introduce the children to making their own K-W-L charts and thinking about what animals need to survive the cold winter weather. The extension activities suggest building snowmen to feed the animals which sounds like a wet and cold, but fun learning experience. (author/nmb)

This lesson has children listen to stories about animals in winter and translate what they learn to a KWL chart. Since children are such concrete thinkers and active learners, make sure that the feeding of the animals (making birdfeeders, etc.) is incorporated into the lesson. This is a great topic to encourage advocacy and community activism!

For young children that do not have a personal association to winter habits of animals, this would not be a very meaningful lesson, but the resource offers suggestions for classrooms in climates where snow is unlikely to be a shared experience for children, and remember that the technique could easily translate to other concepts such as rain, or even sunshine, which children may have more personal knowledge about.

You may also find ideas on the Planning Options pages of the REC.