The Snowy Day was perfect for January! And it helped that it actually snowed for the last week of our study! Snow seems to be rare where we live in Washington, not sure that’s a bad thing, but the timing was just right to squeeze out a few fun snow days for a winter study.
We continued following the Before Five in a Row guide and used the Homeschool Share lapbook. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I detail the plan for our first year of homeschooling in Our School Year. But just a recap, we read a new story- which quickly becomes a favorite- every two weeks and use the Before Five in a Row guide to structure our lessons. We also supplement it with a lap book found here, and use other stories or nonfiction books, craft ideas, activities, etc. that enhance each lesson. I absolutely LOVE the Before Five in a Row program and explain more about it and our homeschool style here!
For The Snowy Day, we also incorporated the Before Five In A Row Winter Study (you can find it here) and read A Whistle for Willie, also by Ezra Jack Keats. I’ve been trying to incorporate stories by the same author that continue the story of the characters we are currently reading about. So, we read A Whistle for Willie and incorporated a few crafts and study ideas found here. Micah was excited to see what else Peter was up to! This is the first time we’ve done this, so we’ll see how it goes!
Let’s dig in to our study!
Daily
Bible Study
Our bible verse for The Snowy Day was Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Micah hasn’t yet memorized a Bible verse, but I still like to start our mornings by reciting the verse suggested by the Before Five in a Row study guide. So, for The Snowy Day, we would recite Psalm 90:12 during our morning time and try to keep it in mind throughout the day. Basically, that looked like me reminding Micah to make the most of each day exploring God’s wonders, carefully of course, living according to the Lord.
Alphabet
We focused on the letter S for- you got it- snow! We ‘studied’ S like we have been learning all the letters so far. Each day we would re-address the letter S and it’s sound, and find things that begin with it. Simple and fun!
Looping
In addition to these daily studies, we looped a few subjects. Looping just means doing one or two of these subjects a day going down the list and repeating them until the week is over. For The Snowy Day, we had two loops going on at one time. This allowed us to do something new every day while also hitting on all the topics I wanted to.
Throughout these two weeks we focused on seasons and weather, specifically winter and snow. So, after a few days discussing these concepts, we looped through different science experiments and art projects each day. How that looked is one day we would focus on science and the next day we would do art. We simultaneously looped through different games and activities, readings, and discussions. So one day I would pick a game, the next day I would choose a new supplementary reading, and another day we would have a discussion about something within the book that were reading.
Here’s a summary of our study with The Snowy Day.
Before we began looping our lessons, we took a few days to study the seasons and weather. First, we studied seasons, and then we discovered different types of weather. We stayed here for a few days exploring the different seasons and weather, eventually focusing on winter and the weather winter brings. Hello snow!!! We talked about how we should respond to the cold, snowy weather. What clothes do we wear? Shoes? What keeps us warm? To contrast, we also talked about different clothing choices for other seasons and weather.
Now we were ready for snow! But we had to wait a few more days. So instead we experimented with ice for one of our science lessons. We discovered what ice is, how water freezes to make ice, how ice melts to make water, and what effect ice has on other things. There is one part in the story where Peter tries to put a snowball in his pocket for later and then goes inside to discover that the snowball is gone. So, we talked about what might’ve happened to the snowball while we did our ice melting experiment.
We also learned all about snowflakes. I incorporated a little math through counting here because each snowflake has six points that Micah could count. So, we went down a little rabbit trail of shapes where Micah discovered, or rediscovered, several shapes and counted the points of each. It wasn’t my intention for him to identify each shape by this property, rather, it was an exposure activity. And he got to work on his counting. I also briefly introduced hexagons, and we talked about the six points in a hexagon and how snowflakes and hexagons both have six points but look very different. And of course, to finish it off, we made snowflakes for one of our art projects. Micah experimented with using watercolor similar to the snow in the story to make his snowflakes.
For another day, we talked about snowmen and did a snowman craft. We also discussed the color white, how snow is white and what other things are white. To supplement, we read the poem White Fields by James Stephens. You can find a fun interactive activity in the Homeschool Share lapbook for this poem. There are pictures of a few words in the poem you cut out and have your child hold up when they hear the word read aloud. It was a fun way to have Micah interact with the poem and practice word recognition.
When the snow finally came, we spent all day playing in it! I had Micah gather all of the clothes that were appropriate for playing outside in the cold snow, and we went out! We made a snow man just like Peter, and snowballs to throw just like Peter. And we found sticks to make tracks and trail marks all throughout the snow just like Peter! The best part, though, was afterwards when we all curled up by the fire and drank hot cocoa. I used this time to count with marshmallows. I know, it might seem like I can’t just let a moment happen without a lesson, but honestly, he loves to count! Little things like this are fun for him and it’s a way we can spend fun quality time together.
Science and Art
I know I didn’t explicitly state the different activities we did, but you can see several examples of the science and art activities from the summary above. Our science mostly revolved around weather and seasons, specifically snow and winter. As did our art, really. There are fun science ideas in the Before Five in a Row guide, or you could discover some yourself! Pinterest is a great resource, and we also use Usborne’s 100 Science Experiments.
For art, there are activities in the Homeschool Share lapbook, or you can create beautiful masterpieces if your artistically talented. I think I am somewhere in the middle, so we use the activities in the lapbook, and also use Pinterest for ideas. I try to incorporate as much art exposure and appreciation as I can, though not all our projects are Pinterest worthy.
The Others: Games/Activities, Readings, and Discussions
Games and Activities
At one point in the story, Peter makes tracks through the snow and comes upon a stoplight. The story doesn’t really stop to discuss the stoplight, but just for fun we did. We talked about stoplights and their function, and played Red Light, Green Light. Micah is already familiar with stoplights, the color meanings, and the game, but it was still a lot of fun to revisit. He gains so much confidence and pride in himself when he can show how much he knows. Plus, who doesn’t like Red Light, Green Light?? And while we were driving around, he got to tell me what the stoplight was signaling to us and how we should respond. There are tons of games and activities you could do with this story like this one or the others from our summary.
Readings
Early in our study, we went to the library to pick out more books that correlate with our lessons, and I discovered that Ezra Jack Keats has so many stories available! We actually checked out every single one! There were, excitingly, quite a few stories that continue with Peter’s journey. Micah really liked seeing Peter in a number of different situations. This was our very first book series exposure! And I was surprised to find out that one of the stories, A Whistle for Willy, had a lapbook to go along with it on Homeschool Share! So, when it came time for a reading segment, Micah just chose another one of Peter’s adventures.
Discussions
For the Discussion piece, there were a couple of things we sat down to talk about. At one point in the story the boy wants to join a snowball fight, but he realizes on his own that he is not old enough. And instead of getting upset he moves on to make snow angels and a snowman. So, we talked about not getting upset when we can’t do something, but rather find alternatives and stay positive. There’s another point in the story where the boy remembers the events of his day. So, we talked about our days and our memories of our snow day. I think it’s important to talk about our day and what Micah remembers about it and how he remembers it. Its not only great conversation, it also exercises his memory muscles and gets him thinking.
But Most Important… Have Fun!
The Snowy Day is yet another treasured book we have had the opportunity to add to our collection. It never ceases to amaze me how much we can get out of our stories! Seriously, I know I keep talking about it, but the Before Five in a Row curriculum is amazing! It’s so perfect for our pre-preschool studies! I just want to mention, though, that we don’t spend much time at all ‘studying.’ I work with Micah maybe 30 minutes to an hour, and not every day, mostly we are talking, playing, doing crafts or activities, or going places. It’s all about exposure and experience and getting his little mind thinking! Our goal is to have fun, and my goal is to make learning something fun that he wants to do and not just something he feels he must do to get good grades.
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