Snow Days

Snow days are a lot of fun but they don’t mean the learning has to stop.  Here are some ways to learn when you are stuck at home and out of school due to snow.

Sight Words

Have your child practice writing his/her sight words in the snow.  They can use a stick they find or just their finger (with a glove of course!).  Kids will have a fun time writing in the snow.  You can write words all across an area and then throw snowballs trying to land on a certain word.  “Throw a snowball at ‘and’”.  The possibilities are endless.

This activity pairs well with:

Shapes

Similar to sight words, students can draw shapes in the snow.  They can also make different 3-D shapes in the snow.  A sphere is the most common with a snowball and a snowman, but can they figure out how to make a cone?  How about a cube?

Measurement

It is a lot of fun to make footprints in the snow.  Why not measure with them?  How many footprints from the mailbox to the tree?  How many footprints from the mailbox to the car?  Which one is longer?  Which one is shorter?  How do you know?  Measure different distances using footprints and help your child learn in the snow!

Weather

Watch the news with your child and learn a little bit about meteorologists.  Have your child go outside and do his/her own weather report in the snow!

Retelling

Go outside and play!  Play is so powerful.  Let your child build a snowman, have a snowball fight, go sledding, and make snow angels.  When your child comes back inside, have your child explain, in order, what he/she did while outside in the snow.  This skill is so important for reading comprehension, but it doesn’t have to be practiced solely while reading books.  You can even have your child write a narrative story about their adventure that day.