Now is the perfect time to pull out all of your best winter picture books. I love engaging children with great read-alouds and using them to springboard discussions and activities. Below is a list of the best winter picture books, broken up by topic. I also share some great activities that go great with these stories. So if you’re looking for some fun themes to use this winter, look no further!

If you don’t care about it being broken into subjects and just want the complete list, click here.

The Best Winter Picture Books About Snow

Snow, in general, is an exciting concept for children. I love finding ways to create thematic phonics and math activities based on the idea of snow!
Here are some of the best picture books about snow.

Non-Fiction Books About Snow For Kids

Let’s face it, snow is magical, even as an adult. But it’s still important to understand the science behind snow. These are some of my favorite non-fiction books about snow.

• Snow is Falling
• Curious About Snow
• Snow
• All About Winter Weather
• The Story of Snow

Some science activities that I love to do after reading these non-fiction books include making fake snow, and exploring snow volcanos!

Fiction Books About Snow for Kids

The best picture books about snow lend to fun discussions and great activities. Here are a few of my favorites!

• The Snowy Nap
• The Three Snow Bears
• Ten Sparkly Snowflakes
• Ten on the Sled
• The Snowy Day
• The Mitten
• Good Morning, Snowplow

Here are some ideas to help you implement snow-themed activities after reading these books.
Salted Snowflakes

All you need is some glue, salt, and watercolor paint for this fun snowflake craft.
Mitten Math
We use this hands-on math center to practice numbers and counting.

Salt Tray Letters
An engaging way to work on letter formation is with “salt trays.” Using their fingers children practice tracing the snowflake letter card they pick. We use the recording sheet to keep track of which letters we’ve worked on and which we still need to practice.

The Best Picture Books About Snowmen

Do I even need to talk about why kids love snowmen? I mean, even I love snowmen! They’re just too stinking cute! Below is a list of the best picture books about snowmen.

• Snowmen at Night
• Snowmen at Play
• All You Need for a Snowman
• Snowman’s Story
• How to Catch a Snowman
• Sneezy the Snowman

Fluffy Snow Paint

One of my favorite snowman crafts is made by creating our very own fluffy paint! You can get the directions here.

Snowman Ten Frames
I found these adorable snowman mini-erasers at Target and just knew that I had to incorporate them into our learning! So I threw them into a sensory bin that was filled with rice and snowman number cards. My kids pick number cards from the bin and then also grab the correct amount of erasers. They then use their ten-frame card to create the number.

Snowman Shapes
We practice forming two-dimensional shapes with these snowman shape cards. I have them laminated so that children can use play-dough and it won’t stick or ruin the paper. These are a great winter center.

The Best Picture Books About Arctic Animals

Lastly, I want to share some of the best picture books about arctic animals. Here you go:

• Reindeer
• Arctic Fox
• Penguins
• Polar Bears
• See What a Seal Can Do
• Walrus

I hope you enjoyed this list! I’ve compiled all of these winter picture books and more into one place for you. Now you can easily shop for these books simply by clicking here.

The post The Best Winter Picture Books appeared first on Mrs V's Chickadees.

Gingerbread Man Crafts for Preschool and Kindergarten

Gingerbread Week always turns into Gingerbread Month for me. There are just so many ways to incorporate the gingerbread man into your learning. Here are some of my favorite gingerbread man crafts for preschool and kindergarten students.

Gingerbread Man Craft: Stained Glass

This gingerbread man craft is perfect for preschool and kindergarten students. I really love watching them work on creating their stained-glass gingerbread men, and the final product looks beautiful displayed on the windows. To make these follow the steps below.

1. Cut out a gingerbread body on brown construction paper
2. Fold the body in half and cut out the inside of the body
3. Place the remaining body on clear contact paper and trim the edges. Leaving the middle of the body sticky
4. Provide students with pieces of tissue paper in varying colors and sizes
5. Instruct them to fill all of the space with tissue paper. It is okay if the pieces overlap
6. Turn them around and enjoy!

Here is a video that shows you exactly how to make this gingerbread man craft. If you want to incorporate some fine motor work, you can give children full sheets of tissue paper. Instruct them to rip the paper into smaller pieces. This encourages them to use their hand muscles and improves fine motor skills.

Create Your Own Gingerbread Man Activity

Another favorite gingerbread man craft is one that really highlights children’s creativity. This gingerbread activity makes an amazing bulletin board display when it’s done. Let me show you how to do it. I send this gingerbread craft home as a family project, however, this can easily be done as an in-class activity as well.

1. Photocopy a gingerbread body onto brown construction paper
2. Prepare directions for the families. I have pre-made family directions in my Gingerbread Man Cross-Curricular Unit. The directions should state that they are to create their own gingerbread boy or girl. They can use any materials/supplies they would like.
3. Consider creating examples to show as a form of reference

When you collect the finished products, consider making a bulletin board out of them. I title my board “Mrs. V’s Smart Cookies” and put a large gingerbread house in the middle. Around the remaining board, I display all of my student’s gingerbread boys and girls.   These activities are the arts and crafts portion of my Gingerbread Man Unit which you can see in full here: https://mrsvschickadees.com/product/the-gingerbread-man-cross-curricular-lessons-activities/ If you end up doing these gingerbread man crafts with your preschool or kindergarten class, I would love to see pictures! Share them on social media and tag me @mrsvschickadees!

The post Gingerbread Man Crafts for Preschool & Kindergarten appeared first on Mrs V's Chickadees.

The Gingerbread Man is an excellent theme to incorporate writing activities. Below are some ideas for how you can use different variations of this classic tale to work on story elements, creative writing and other writing skills.

~Some other Gingerbread Man posts you might like include: The 10 Best Gingerbread Man Books

Gingerbread Writing Activities with Story Elements

Using different variations of The Gingerbread Man is a great way to focus on story elements.

Characters: Comparing and contrasting characters makes for a great lesson, especially when you use two very different books. My favorite books for this gingerbread man writing activity include a classic Gingerbread Man story and The Gingerbread Cowboy. The characters are extremely different and it’s fun to see how this impacts the course of the text.

Setting: Just like the characters, you can also compare and contrast the setting of many gingerbread man books. One of my favorite books to get students writing about the setting is The Gingerbread Boy. This book takes place in New York City. The hustle and bustle of Manhatten is depicted throughout the text and illustrations. It is a perfect opportunity to have children write about how the setting of the text can change the whole story.

Here are some printables I use to get my students writing and illustrating about story elements.

Making Predictions With The Gingerbread Man

During our gingerbread man study, we practice making predictions. With each book, I like to practice making predictions in a new way. Sometimes we predict pre-reading based on the title and cover. Sometimes we stop mid-way and make a prediction based on what we have read so far. And sometimes we predict right at the very end. One of my favorite things to do is to read a text half-way and have students illustrate their predictions for the ending. Once they finish we complete the book and they go back and illustrate what actually happened. Based on that information, they answer the writing prompt “Was your prediction correct? Explain.”

Great books for this gingerbread man writing activity include The Gingerbread Baby and The Gingerbread Girl.

Both of these texts have surprise endings so it’s always fun to hear the predictions made by your students.

Gingerbread Man Writing Journal

Because we read SO many gingerbread man books, keeping a gingerbread journal is important. This journal has pages with specific titles on the top and an editable page. Children are free to write anything they want about the book of the day. Before we start the journal we discuss different ideas for writing, such as, their favorite part, their least favorite part, something that surprised them, a character they liked, etc.  It’s always great to give students free reign and see what they want to write about. At the end of our gingerbread man unit, I staple all of these writing pieces together and send it home. Family members rave about this journal once it goes home!

Gingerbread Man Creative Writing

The possibilities are really endless when it comes to gingerbread man writing activities. It’s one of my favorite units to teach throughout the school year. I hope this post gave you some inspiration for your own classroom.

The post Gingerbread Man Writing Activities appeared first on Mrs V's Chickadees.

The 10 Best Gingerbread Man Books

The Gingerbread Boy

The Library Gingerbread Man

The Gingerbread Cowboy

The Gingerbread Man Loose in School

The Gingerbread Pirates

The Gingerbread Bear 

The Gingerbread Man

SaveSave

The post The 10 Best Gingerbread Man Books appeared first on Mrs V's Chickadees.