Purring about Winter Poems, Plays, and Freebies

Winter has finally arrived here in northern Florida and although we probably won't see snow it sure feels like it. Most of you know that I love to write poems and plays. They are perfect for helping struggling readings build fluency and confidence. Poems are short and so much less intimidating. Try choral reading to help reluctant readers feel safe to take the risk of reading as their voices blend in with the whole group. Poetry is also great for teaching word strategies, fluency, and writing. Plays can be used in the same way. In many plays there are parts for all the boys or all the girls. If you don't have enough parts for everyone, 2 or 3 students can read the same part. Usually the parts are small and practiced over and over again which also helps build confidence and fluency. My ESL students loved performing plays and reading poems, especially ones they could act out.

A few years ago I wrote a Winter play and Poetry packet for Grades 1-2 and I finally revised it. It still includes the play called, "How Will I Know When it is Winter?" There is a Narrator and 9 characters that tell the children what happens to them when it is winter. Day is very short, Weather is very cold, and Snow falls from the sky. What a great way to teach the signs of Winter! Then they can practice matching the picture/word card with the sign of winter card.

If you use interactive student notebooks there is a page to add where students will look at the picture and word. Then they will flip it back and write the sign of winter. You can see the activity in the picture below.

There are also 5 original poems about winter and literacy activities to go with each poem. Here is a sample of a dialogue poem called, "I Love Winter!" which can be done by dividing the class into 2 groups.Then pairs of students can recite it as a center activity. This is a great poem to teach end punctuation as there are questions and sentences with exclamation points. There is a whole class activity using punctuation cards as well as an anchor chart. Then students will punctuate the copy of the poem that has no punctuation marks as a center activity.

If you would like to check out this revised Winter Play and Poems packet just click on the picture below. Download the Preview to see sample pages of all the materials and activities in the packet.

To help your students become fluent with winter words you can download this free Winter Fluency Learning Game. Just click on the image below.

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A Snowstorm of Snow Poems, Plays, Free Resources, and Activities

Everyone is fascinated by snowflakes. Kids want to catch them on their tongues and make them out of paper. Living in Alaska there was plenty of snow but I still loved to go outside and catch snowflakes, especially with my students. I also loved to read books about snow. One of my favorites was "Snip, Snip. Snow!" by Nancy Poydar. It's about a girl named Sophie who is waiting for it to snow. Everyday she has to wear all her winter clothes because it's very cold but no snow. Although the weatherman forecast snow, she wakes up the next morning and there's no snow. When she gets to school she asks her teacher if they can make snowflakes. While they were cleaning up all the paper scraps from the floor, she looks outside the window and sees snow. Sophie is so excited and finally gets to have fun in the snow. I found a free activity packet from Shawna Devoe to go with this book that you can download by clicking HERE.

If you are looking for some fun Snowflake craft ideas, I have found a few websites for you. You can find some by clicking on the image below. You will find all the directions for making this pretty snowflake.

I also found this great website with 30 ideas for making snowflakes. Just click on the image below.

If you are interested in having your students examine snowflakes as they fall, you can click on the image below to get some ideas and activities.

I  finally finished remaking my Snow Poetry and Plays Packet and added more poems, writing, and literacy activities, plus a 2nd Snow Play. Most of you know how much I love to write poetry and plays as well as use them for building fluency and incorporating the 5 key components of a Balanced Literacy program. You can read the description and download the Preview file by clicking on the image below. The Preview file has sample pages of all the poems and activities in the packet.

If you are interested in Winter Poems and Plays you can check out my blog post by clicking HERE.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

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