When It Starts to Snow (preschool book club)

With our refreshed excitement for extending stories, Hannah and I are first tackling our winter-based books before moving to the warmer weathered stories.  When It Starts to Snow is a simple book about where animals go when the weather gets cold.  Hannah's favorite part of the story is identifying all the animals and their habitats on the last page.  Here are some activities we've enjoyed through this book.

another winter book and red rectangular house

standing in the brick house she built for herself

When It Starts to Snow Activities (courtesy of Itty Bitty Bookworm Curriculum):

• look at the pictures, predict what the story is about
• build a birdhouse
• make popsicles and check on them every ten minutes as they start to freeze
• spray water on black construction paper, freeze it all, then look at the ice formations
• hide acorns in your tactile box for children to find like squirrels
• dress up in winter clothes
• make a birdfeeder with pinecone or bagel, peanut butter, birdseed, and string
• Read related stories
• The Big Snow by Berta Hader
• The Mitten by Jan Brett
• discuss real/non-fiction versus pretend/fiction
• choose a favorite part of the story and explain why it is your favorite
• sprinkle glue and hole punched holes onto a picture to make a snow scene
• look at geese flying in a row, kids walk in v formation, discuss how geese fly in v for two reasons: easy to keep up and less wind resistance so they can fly farther without having to rest
• make a red brick house out of red rectangles for the boy and other animals
• cut a hole in a shoe box and child makes a little mouse house
• complete the sentences: 
• When it is windy, I fly a kite.  When it is cold/hot/rainy...
• A shell is a home for a turtle.  A... is a home for a...
• the deer looks for moss and grass; go outside and find them yourself, identify different types and why the plants choose to be in that climate/habitat
• count piles of cotton balls and write the total number for each pile, add and subtract with them, writing out the number sentences (4+2=6), or ask child to place a certain number of balls in each spot
• talk about gray skies in book, mix black and white paint to make gray, paint your own gray sky or a painting of what the sky looks like right now
• animals seek shelter inside fallen trees, go outside and carefully find where animals may live in little hidden areas
• draw a picture of what you like to do in the snow, write about your drawing
• discuss how and why beavers live in their lodge in the water, collect twigs and sticks and make a beaver lodge in your yard