The Winter Solstice

Teach your class about the reason the days get shorter and the nights longer.

Teach your class about the WINTER SOLSTICE!

Find it here.

This book is informative with delightful picture your class will enjoy!

One of my favorite books to read at this time is "The Shortest Day" by Wendy Pieffer.

The illustrations are beautiful and the explanation about the Winter Solstice is easy for young children to understand.

The reading always follows with a discussion where I write down the KEY facts children recall from the story.

I remind the class to watch carefully and see what they notice about simple changes that winter brings.  They are free to share them with the class on a daily basis when we do our daily calendar/weather activity.  It's amazing but praising one child for sharing encourages others to become more alert and bring things they have seen.  If the class is slow to bring ideas in I often will start a day off sharing something.

Informational Text in three forms.

Graphic Organizers for gathering key facts.

During reading on December 21st I prepare the mini books for the class.

During our reading groups we read the book and highlight the key facts.

The level of support needed to read the book will depend on the level of the group.

I encourage them to color the pictures and read through the book again independently or with a partner.

Pages for helping students gather their thoughts to write an informative piece to showcase.

Groups leave with one of these three activities to complete again depending on the level of the student.

Another idea is to complete the Let's Find Out together in the group and then have them complete one of the other two independently.

I always like to follow this activity up with this fun filled packet that has a number of curriculum related activities for centers. If you are going to use this packet complete the Winter Solstice the day before December 21st.

This story is delightful and it's sing song repetitive pattern makes it fun for the children to follow along.

I post the 18 vocabulary cards by the story or you can put them on your word wall or in your writing center.  If laminated they are ideal for sorting syllables, parts of speech and ABC order either in small groups, parent helpers, or centers.

I use the parts of speech and the word search in the word work center.

Whether in sunny Florida or snowy Michigan you can have your class build a snowman after reading the story.  This is a simple dice game partner activity.  Your class will LOVE it!  Who will dress their snowman first?

I gather the students on the rug to read the story.

Following the story I have them complete one of these three activities independently.

For students needing support I call a small group back to work together and we focus on ordinal numbers.

Our writing assignment includes writing about winter.

These are the graphic organizers for students to gather their thoughts.

Included in the packet are a class cover for a book to showcase student writing.

Find the packet here.