January… we meet again. It’s officially winter.
That means sweaters, scarves, hats, gloves, boots, and socks… or foot prisons if you hate wearing socks (like me).
But regardless, cold weather means dressing warmer. And sometimes we need to teach our students what is and is not appropriate dress for cold weather.
So this month I chose a book that is not only repetitive and fun, but has adorable drawings and offers so many teachable moments for students to learn what to wear in cold weather.
The Jacket I Wear in the Snow is a book written by Shirley Neitzel and illustrated by Nancy Winslow Parker. It’s a fantastic January read aloud!
I would classify this book as an early-ish reader. The pieces of winter clothing are pictured within the sentences, which is perfect for assisted reading.
For my students practicing basic sight words, I would have them read the sight words only and identify the pictures of clothing.
By the time we read this book, we have already briefly discussed the season of winter. We probably have talked about snow and how to build a snowman. And in those discussions, we have talked a little bit about how we can’t wear flip flops in the snow.
I mean you could… but for the sake of my little ones’ literal minds, we know that we don’t wear flip flops in the snow.
After reading the book and learning the names for all of the different articles of clothing we wear in the snow, we will use flash cards to practice telling where and/or how to wear a hat, or gloves, or pants (and boyyyy does it get funny sometimes!)
{ Grab the flash cards here. }
Extension Activities:
• Bring in winter pieces of clothing for students to wear. Take a picture of them, print out the picture, glue it on a piece of paper, and then have them label each piece of clothing by writing it’s name.
• Have students run a donation in your school for gloves/mittens. Collect the donations and then donate them to a local church or charity for the winter months.
• Make sensory snow! ( Find the recipe here )
• Create a sensory bin filled with cotton balls and other “winter items” for students to find. These items could be shaped erasers, trinkets from the dollar store, or simple pictures of articles of winter clothing. Students can then graph the results of the items they find.
• Copy a page or two of the book. Do a search and find for basic sight words. Use highlighters or Mr. Sketch markers to circle or color in the sight words. Great for early readers!
