Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningStopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening seemed to be the perfect book to row after the busy holiday rush.  This was, by far, our most easy-going row of the year and it was just the right thing to get us all back into the swing of things.

Story Sensory Bin:

I set out a “build the winter farm” story sensory bin activity in our Learning Lane.

The kids were SUPER excited to put this together and they worked as a team!

This bin provided endless play opportunities when they needed a brain break!

Setting the Scene:

Jordan and I read Sleep Tight Farm which was just perfect for this row, because it was about all the farm activities that go on during the winter season.

Jordan decided to reset the scene after reading Sleep Tight Farm.

We read Jingle BellsJingle Bells and added a few to our bin too!

BIBLE:

We chose to memorize Psalm 19:1 for this row.  I created a Bible printable pack to accompany this book. You can purchase it at our TPT store.

There’s even a FREEbie tracer in the Preview!

Jordan traced his Bible verse and added it to his lapbook.

He also worked on the puzzle too.  We flipped over pieces until he could say it by heart.

S.S. & HISTORY:

We read Papa Is a Poet: A Story About Robert Frost.  I love when we can find a children’s book about the author.

Reading this picture book allowed us to “see a glimpse of Robert Frost’s life”.

Book Cover Page:

It’s become a tradition for Jordan to create his “nod” to the illustrator or author by drawing a title page in his lapbook.  He was VERY creative with this particular cover.

First, he covered three-fourths of the page in a black slick crayon stick.  I LOVED it and encourage him to scratch the tree into his black background.

He wasn’t too impressed with the etched result, so he brought out white craft paint and started to paint the trunk, snowy branches, and falling snow.

He finished the cover with a snowy ground cover for the remaining one-fourth of the page.  He gave this cover quite a bit of time and was VERY clever with his choices.

I always ask him to put the title and author on his cover page, but he asked me to add the title.  His artwork turned out lovely!

LANGUAGE ARTS:

We continued to work through our Sonlight Language Arts program and added some seasonal grammar activities too!

Spelling:

I gave our weekly spelling activities a “Polar Bear Ice Fishing” theme.  I created starting sound mats and brought out our magnetic letters so Bub could finish spelling the words.

He seemed to enjoy this activity, especially when it came to spelling “throat”…what a ham!

The following week I made little ending sound cards and he had to use these to build this week’s spelling words.

Alphabet Match:

I made a Winter Penguin Alphabet Pack to use with Parker.  I set out all the letters of the week we’ve learned so far.

He matched all the lowercase snowflake letters to the uppercase penguin letters.

Rhymes:

Almost weekly, our Sonlight IG includes some rhyming words in Parker’s copywork.  I made a set of Winter Rhyming Cards.

One day he worked on sorting the rhyming cards by the word family (or short vowel sound).

We loaded them into our Carson-Dellosa Publishing Differentiated Instruction Cubeseducational cubes and played a few rounds of our roll-a-rhyme game!

I made a Penguin and Snowflake CVC Rhymes Grammar Pack for Parker to work on.  He matched the rhyming word cards to the CVC picture cards.

I printed the Seek, Find, and Color the matching rhymes worksheet (same pack) for Parker.  He LOVED this activity!

Synonyms:

Since Jordan was working on synonyms this week, I created a Snowman Synonyms Grammar Pack.  I printed a copy of the Seek, Find, and Match the Snowflake Synonym activity.

He used his magnifying glass to find the hidden words and colored in the matching synonym on his Snowflake Synonym worksheet.

He informed me that he didn’t need the magnifying glass to read the “hidden” words, but I think he still enjoyed this activity.

I printed a copy of this activity for Parker too!  He REALLY enjoyed looking for the hidden words!

He used the smelly dot paints he got for Christmas, which made this activity an even BIGGER hit!

MATH:

The kid’s continued to work on their Horizon Math lessons, but we inserted seasonal fun activities here and there.

We brought out our winter counters (snowflakes, jingle bells, and blue & white gems) and Jordan worked on making patterns.  I’d say the patter (i.e. AB or ABCC) and he would build the pattern.

We brought out some wood pieces and Parker measured the perimeter in non-standard (snowflake counters) and standard units of measure (inches).

SCIENCE:

Animals in Winter:

We read several books about winter and animals in winter.

After reading about animals in winter, the kids were very familiar with woodland animals that migrate, hibernate, or adapt.

Animal Tracks:

We read Animals%20in Winter (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science)Animals in Winter and I brought out our animal track cards along with the snow dough Jordan and I made earlier in the week,

I gave each kid a lump of dough and they picked the animal track cards they wanted to make.

They quickly found that some of the tracks were harder to make than others.

They used pencil points, fingers, and other tools to mimic the tracks on the cards.

This was a really cool science activity to pair with this book!

 

They turned out really cool! No one wanted to end this activity, it was fun AND educational!

Nature in Winter – Sink or Float:

We read several books and stories about nature, winter, and winter themed poetry.

We also read quite a bit about trees in winter too!

We went for a nature walk and collected various items.

I laid out the items we gathered and printed a copy of our Nature in Winter – Sink or Float Experiment worksheet for each kid.

The kids picked four items they wanted in their experiment and wrote their predictions.

They each took turns dropping in items and writing the results. This was a quick and easy winter science activity.

ARTS & CRAFTS:

We read No Two Alike while sipping tea and eating a snack.

Afterwards, I gave everyone a pipe cleaner snowflake and a cup of beads. There’s a tutorial in our Stopping By Woods playlist.  The kids quickly dumped out their beads and made their own beaded snowflake.

No two were alike, but they were all beautiful!

This was a really wonderful and laid back row. We had fun exploring the wonders of the winter season!