I think all kids should learn how to make a paper snowflake...don't you?
It's just one of those childhood memories that I have held onto.
We would make a ton of them, big and small, detailed and simple. It was great fun.
I wanted to relive this joyful activity with my class so I came up with a way to integrate snowflake crafting,writing, and science.
First we made snowflakes. Many of my kids had never done it before.
Now they are hooked and want to make an endless number of them!
We choose our favorite and turned it into a character for a story we were about to write.
We added eyes, mouth two arms and some mittens.
Our snowflake characters were ready to go on an adventure!
We reviewed our learning about the water cycle and how snowflakes are formed.
We recorded this on our brainstorming sheets.
We decided to write an adventure story about our snowflakes in three parts.
The first scene would have the snowflake falling from the sky.
The second scene the snowflake would land.
And finally, in the third scene, he would melt and evaporate...up he would go!
Students drew three pictures detailing what would happen in their stories.
In this one, the snowflake landed on the wing of an airplane!
This snowflake never did melt and evaporate...it got made into snowcream, placed in the fridge and made friends with the milk and baby bottles!
Before actually writing down the story, students met with a writing partner to tell their stories.
We call this the oral rehearsal. It gives students a chance to think through their entire story and get feedback from a peer before writing. This step really helps my young writers.
Then students were ready to write!
They loved seeing their writing displayed and enjoyed reading each others!
I have added the materials for this lesson to my TPT store. I threw in a bonus snow poem and nonfiction passage and question set about snow too.
You can check it out here:
Please visit me at my new Youtube channel!
I will be sharing more activites there!
Happy Writing!
youngdor8@gmail.com
