Snow Storyhour

Book:  If I Were a Polar Bear, a pop-up book by Rives.  This book reads much better backwards, I don't know why. I start at the end and work my way to the front.

Book: Wild Tracks by Jim Arnosky, j591.479. This book shows the tracks of wild animals, which is pretty cool. Next year, make white sparkly felt tracks so the kids can see the shapes on the rug and measure against their feet.

Play: I had a felt snowman to assemble. "Let's make some snowballs," I said. We scoooped up the snow, we packed it tight, and then we threw it against the black flannelboard. They got into it.  Then we looked at the snowballs we made. How many were there? What were the sizes? I called on children to move them around, and they made a snowman shape very quickly. "Hmmm, what else do I have here?" and I pulled out my carrot (yum yum), my black top hat, my black rocks called coal, etc., and then what did we make? A snowman! What should we call it? "Frosty!" shouted Alex.Very fun.

Book: Blizzard by John Rocco.  Great story.  With the brief sincerity of a truthteller, Rocco tells of how he saved his family from starvation during a long blizzard because he's light enough to walk on top of the snow. Riveting.

Song:  "It's so cold, I feel like a hot potato," I said. "No, hot chocolate," Carson said seriously. But we sang 1 potato anyway. Maybe I should make up a hot chocolate song. To Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star:  "Chocolate, chocolate in my cup, Nice and warm, I'll drink you up.

Book: Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck  by Lisa Westberg Peters.  This is more a book about birds in spring, but I  lack a good readaloud  for this storyour.

Book:  Snow by Manya Stojic. Cute. Next year: Don't forget your baggy of baking soda to crunch for a snow noise! For this and other sound effects, go to http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/index.php#s

Songs:  Lots of favorites.

Craft:

Ooooooh, love these beautiful snowflakes! I got the large snowflake stamps from Oriental Trading and I made the smaller ones. The nicest thing about this craft is that it didn't matter at all if the images turned out a little smeared or incomplete -- that's what snowflakes really look like.

How to make stamps in mass quantity:  Take peel and stick foam stickers and stick them to lids. Baby food jar lids work well for the large stickers and milk bottle lids work well for smaller ones.  Use two thicknesses so the stamped image will be raised enough to stand out from the surrounding metal. If you have enough stickers, put another on the inside of the lid to make them easier to identify.

Oliver and McKenna working on their beautiful art projects.