When I began teaching, I thought that I had to follow my yearly curriculum by the week. No….by the day. After a few years into my career, I realized how oh-so-wrong I was! Never did I anticipate all the crazy hiccups that came with the job.
Furthermore, the flexibility of the job was by far the hardest part for this OCD teacher. Probably one of my favorites to teach (my unit on Community Helpers)was pushed to the side. It was January and, well, it hadn’t been taught. But you know, January is meant for snowmen and penguins, NOT community helpers!
Challenge Accepted!
If you know me and my teaching style, I love integrating literacy with just about everything! Have you seen the book collection of a kindergarten teacher? The piles and piles of books didn’t stop me. I was determined to find a winter themed book that tied in with community helpers!
Snowmen At Work
Have you read this book? Oh goodness! The laughs I heard as I read this book. Snowmen at Work was exactly what I needed to tie in community helpers with a winter theme. Who knew a book about snowmen could work for a social studies unit!
After we read the book, we had quite a discussion! Students didn’t think about a pizza delivery man being a community helper, which led to a ton of other questions.
As a result, my students came to the conclusion that community helpers are ALL around us. I knew tying literacy into this unit was a must. After reading this amazing book, I wanted to see how creative my students could get with using what they learned with community helpers. First, I handed out the snowman themed writing paper.
Next, they had to write about what their snowman would do at night while everyone was sleeping. It could be in first or third person…whatever they chose!
Finally, we shared our short stories with partners. They had so much fun sharing their stories. The smiles and laughs filled the room and showed that a lot of learning happened that day!
Grab this FREE snowmen writing paper by clicking on the box below!
Need more winter activities? Check these out!
