Meaningful Literacy Experiences - Winter Style!

Jan Brett's The Hat

This horse is wishing for a "hat" like Hedgie's.

He can find one on the clothesline!

Hedgie laughs and says, "Don't they know that animals should never wear clothes?"

Denise Fleming's The First Day of Winter

Predicting (our focus during the month of January) what snowman accessories are hidden under the sheet.

... Then dressing up like silly snowmen!

Other Fun

Writing a letter for The Jolly Christmas Postman (Allen and Janet Ahlberg) to deliver!

Enjoying some good books by the fire during the month of December.

I can read with my rebus reader!

Digging for the alphabet!

New School! New Fun!

One of my lovely students recently moved to a new school, and her sweet mother was such a fan of Literacy Launchpad that she wanted Literacy Launchpad to tag along with them on their move. I felt so honored by this high compliment and was grateful for the opportunity to spread the reading love to more children.

I'm not sure I've ever felt so welcomed at a new school! I feel it's a strong testament to a school that so values the education of their students that they make an enthusiastic effort to bring in a program like Literacy Launchpad. Most schools are not as easy to work with as this wonderful new home Literacy Launchpad finds itself in. I am having such a good time there already. Check it out!

We've been reading wintery tales this month. Here are a couple photos from our The Hat (Jan Brett) lesson. We decorated "woolens" to hang on our own clothesline. Then we made some silly animal puppets to use to retell the story. Everybody's animal got a turn to snatch a woolen from the clothesline and wear it as a hat!

We also read The First Day of Winter (Denise Fleming), and as we talked about predicting, we played a fun game to give us some practice. The students took turns feeling hidden snowman adornments and made predictions of what they thought each item might be. It was hard not to peek, but they did great! And we took turns trying on the various items. It was hysterical. The kids could have played this all day!







We also read Owl Moon (Jane Yolen), and had a very fun time going "owling" in class. The kids kept wanting to "do it again!" But my photos from that lesson aren't handy at the moment.

Tall, Tall Grass!

What a week it was in Literacy Launchpad this week! The school where I teach had been closed Monday and Tuesday due to flooding. They finally were able to re-open on Wednesday, and boy, were those kids excited to be there! And excited to talk about the flooding! They told me all about it (like it was news to me)! :)

Class was a bit of a challenge, because there were fans and dehumidifiers running all over the school. There were three going in the classroom we were using. But no fear, I can read loudly! So we pulled through. I was just glad to see some things getting back to normal around here!

We read In the Tall, Tall Grass (Denise Fleming). Hearing about tall, tall grass was a welcome distraction to hearing all the tall, tall waters around here.

When I asked the students what kinds of things they have seen in their own grass, I got funny responses. "A strange dog," was what student told me. Hee. Gotta love these kids!

The First Day of Winter Lesson

Photo by MGShelton

I am such a fan of Denise Fleming's work, that every turn of the page makes me giddy when I'm using one of her stories for a read-aloud. Her depiction in The First Day of Winter of the start of the winter season makes me long for snow... and I hate snow... really hate snow! That's how good she is! If you haven't read The First Day of Winter yet, go pick it up at your library. Or you can purchase it at the Literacy Launchpad Store. This book was the center of yesterday's lesson and activities. Our focus this month has been predicting.

During yesterday's read-aloud, the children helped me with a calendar activity that allowed us to practice predicting. I love letting them interact with the story as I read it. Although, depending on the group, the interaction with the story can sometimes be distracting to the actual story itself. We had a little bit of that going on yesterday. I think next time, I might do the calendar activity after the story, and use it to enhance our discussion.


After our story we had a great discussion about winter and snowmen. It was interesting to hear the children's thoughts about winter. Many of them didn't think it was winter here right now. I'm guessing that has to do with the fact that we hardly ever get snow 'round these parts. I wonder if their responses would have differed if we actually had snow on the ground. Hmm... perhaps I need to bring in some books about what winter looks like in various parts of the country, or the world, and go into more depth on that (if only our classes were a little longer)?

When I asked one of my groups where the snowman was going at the end of the story, one little girls told me, "to the winter." Another little boy told me, "to the North Pole."

And when I asked them why the boy's friend in the story gave him all those items that we saw, one little boy told me, "so he could put them on his snowman to protect him so he wouldn't melt."


Since the focus of this lesson was predicting, we also played a predicting game which involved building our own snowman (after we had some predicting fun)! After I hit some snags with this activity with the first group of children, I changed it up a bit for the next couple of groups, and it was awesome. We had so much fun! Lots of giggles and laughs. These kids crack me up!







Oh, and by the way... my detailed plans for each of the original activities and games I do with my students will soon be available for you to purchase (a la carte style) and use with your own readers!