Activities for The Snowy Day Book

There are a lot of great winter-themed books that lend themselves to activities in the classroom or at home, and it’s great to read and explore winter books after the holiday break because it makes getting back to school a little more fun (and maybe gets kids dreaming of snow days, too).

Of course one of the classics of winter literature for kids is The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. It’s a classic because it expresses the joy of exploring on a snowy day, which can get kids thinking about what they would like to do on a snow day.

Kids can draw their own snowman and snow angel, or write about or draw what they would do on a snow day.

Homeschoool Creations has a good free printable activity pack that includes some writing practice, drawing and cutting lines, vocabulary, writing practice and sorting winter clothes and summer clothes.

Homeschool Share has a printable Snowy Day lapbook that includes sequencing cards, making a snowman with simple shapes, counting snowballs in the pocket, things that are white and more.

Make your own pretty snowflakes with this craft idea from Mama Jenn. These would be so cute to decorate the classroom with!

Deep Space Sparkle has a fun process art activity for making kids playing in the snow just like Peter did.

I love this little Peter doll from Wildflower Ramblings, which you could make for use in retelling the story, or kids could make out of paper instead of felt.

Anita Bremer has a 79 page activity guide on her Teachers Pay Teachers site that includes story elements, vocabulary, making connections, comprehension activities, a craft and more. Mrs. Wills Kindergarten has another set of paid resources, including writing and drawing prompts, that are part of her January activity pack on TPT.

Here are some more “Snow Day” Books

Snow Day! by Barbara Joosse – A delightful picture book suitable for young children. The story captures the joy of a snowy day

Snow Day by Mercer Mayer – Another charming picture book that explores the magic of a snowy day. Recommended for early readers

The Snow Day by Komako Sakai – A beautifully illustrated book suitable for children who enjoy quieter, reflective stories.

Did you know that October is Squirrel Awareness Month? I didn’t know we needed more awareness of these little creatures, but let’s take it as a sign to learn more about squirrels!

Let’s start with some fun facts via Kids Konnect: did you know there are five subfamilies and more that 280 species of squirrels? The smallest are pygmy squirrels and the largest, the Bhutan giant flying squirrel, can be longer that 4 feet (1.2 meters).

Tree squirrels can climb down trees so fast because their ankles can rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to grab the tree bark as they go down. While most squirrels don’t survive their first year of life, they can live five to 10 years in the wild and squirrels have been known to live up to 20 years in captivity!

Rhythms of Play has more fun facts and tips for observing squirrels if you want to add some real life nature to your nature study.

We always like to start these collections with life cycle and parts of the animal printables, so let’s grab the squirrel life cycle an parts of a squirrel worksheets from Montessori Nature. (It doesn’t look like these are free any more but they have a whole unit study on squirrels you can buy that includes life cycle and parts activities, characteristics of different kinds of squirrels, a printable poster, information about predators and more.)

Grab the squirrel lapbook printable (free with email address) from Homeschool Share to learn the parts of a squirrel, where they live, what they eat, whether they hibernate and more. There’s also a nut taste test printable, a place for making observations about squirrels, life cycle of an oak tree, games and more.

Simple Everyday Mom has some cute squirrel themed worksheets including tracing the letter s, labeling the parts of a squirrel and a letter s maze. She also has more activity pages with a squirrel theme, including matching, a more traditional maze and a counting and graphing activity.

Work on letter recognition with this squirrel and acorn game printable from Teaching Mama. I love the idea of hiding the letters in a fall themed sensory bin for kids to find, identify and match to the letter on the worksheet.

For older kids you can do this “if I were a squirrel” writing prompt from Lesson Planet.

And throw in a little counting with these squirrel and acorn tens frame printables from JDaniel4’s Mom, which you can use to count real acorns or any other little fall themed thing you have handy.

Have you read?

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