Snow Lesson Plans for Elementary Students
Winter and Snowman Themed Reading, Writing and Science Unit
Jan 14, 2009
Teachers can fight the winter doldrums with a snowman themed unit. Instead of complaining about the chilly weather elementary students can learn all about it while increasing their writing and science skills.
What is Snow? Elementary Science and Writing Lesson
Primary teachers can immerse students in the topic of snow by engaging their five senses.
- The teacher begins the lesson by bringing snow into the classroom and having the students observe what it looks like. The teacher will list the descriptions on the board. The students will then look at the snow with a magnifying glass and add more descriptions to the observation list. The teacher explains that snow is made of tiny snowflakes that form in the clouds when it is really cold outside.
- The teacher will then let students taste, smell, and feel the snow. Each student will receive a small bowl of clean snow and a spoon to use to describe what the snow tastes and smells like. They will then feel the snow with their fingers and use adjectives to describe the texture and temperature of snow. The teacher will add all the new descriptive phrases to the list on the board.
- The elementary kids will then go outside to listen to the snow. The teacher will have them quietly walk on the snow and talk about what sounds they hear. The students will listen to the sound the trees and branches make when they are covered in snow and the sounds the cars make while driving on the snow. The teacher will add all of the snow sound observations to the snow list.
- The class will use the descriptions from their snow list to write a composition answering the question, “What is snow?” and describing what it looks, tastes, smells, feels, and sounds like.
Snowman Book Reading Comprehension Lesson
The teacher will use the fictional snowman book, Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner [Dial Books, 2002] to increase students’ reading comprehension.
- As part of a winter snow themed unit students will read Snowmen at Night to find out why snowmen sometimes look a little droopy in the morning. After reading the book the class will discuss the story and answer comprehension questions from the teacher.
- The teacher will create a snowman-shaped story map for the students to fill out. The students will list the details of the book and an outline of the plot. They then write what their favorite part was and decorate the worksheet.
Snowman Science Experiment Lesson with Observation Journals
Elementary students will use the book Snowmen at Night as the inspiration for a winter science experiment.
- The class will go outside and work in groups to build three or four large snowmen. The teacher will take a “before” photograph of each snowman and the students will draw a sketch of the snowmen in their observation journals.
- The class will make drawings and write observations in their journals of the snowmen one or two times a day and document how the snowmen change based on the weather. The observation journals can be used by the kids during Writer’s Workshop time to write stories about what their snowmen are during when no one is around.
- Teacher’s who do not have snow in their area can have someone in a colder climate build a snowman and email pictures of it to the class. The teacher and the snowman builder can also set up webcams for the students to observe the snowman live and ask questions about details they cannot see.
Primary kids can have fun this winter learning about snow, snowmen and what snowmen do at night!
For more winter themed lessons teachers can read: First Grade Bear Writing Project Lesson Plans, How to Teach Elementary Kids to Make Predictions, and The Polar Express Elementary Lesson Plans.
