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Engaging, hands-on learning for them, and detailed daily lesson plans for you! This snow unit for kindergarten and first grade is full of science, math, reading, writing and art activities. They’ll have SNOW much fun!
Day 1: What is Snow?
In the first day of the unit, students learn how snowflakes are formed. These two books, Curious About Snow and The Story of Snow, do a wonderful job explaining the process in a kid-friendly way. Whichever book you choose, I suggest just reading part of it for the first day.
Students make fake snow by mixing three cups of baking soda with half a cup of white conditioner. The snow makes a wonderful sensory bin filler to be used throughout the unit. You might add spoons, scoops, small blocks, plastic animals or other items for students to play with in the snow.
A great experiment to start off the week is to make Borax snowflakes. This activity really helps students understand that one snowflake consists of lots and lots of tiny snow crystals.
Bring the snow theme into your reading or writing block by having students write in the “snow”.
- Place a colorful piece of construction paper underneath a clear glass pan.
- Sprinkle enough sugar to cover the bottom of the pan. I used about 1/3 cup.
- Have students use their index finger to write letters in the “snow”.
- Gently shake the pan back and forth to cover the bottom of the pan with sugar again before writing the next letter or word.
Writing Ideas
- Letters of the alphabet
- Sight words
- Word family words
- Their name
- Practice letter sounds by making a sound and asking them to write the letter that makes that sound.
- Say a word. Ask them to write the letter that makes the sound they hear at the beginning, middle or end of the word.
Day 2: Are All Snowflakes Alike?
In this lesson, students learn that each snowflake is unique in size and shape. They understand that factors such as wind, temperature, water in the air (humidity), and the snowflake’s path to the ground affect what the snowflake looks like. I suggest you finish reading the book from the previous lesson or read Snowflake Bentley.
A fun follow-up activity is for students to design their own unique snowflakes and turn them into window clings to display on a window or mirror. If they’d like to make paper snowflakes, here’s a great video tutorial for them to follow.
Day 3: Is Snow Good or Bad?
I love how the book, Snow is Falling, discusses how snow is both helpful and harmful to people, plants and animals. It’s a great springboard into discussing how snow can be both good and bad for us. Students complete a picture sort of ways snow can be good or bad and then write about how snow affects us.
Day 4: Snow STEM Challenge
Students build a snowball launcher (catapult) to see how far they can launch a snowball (marshmallow). They make changes to the launcher to try to get their snowball to travel farther. These are really fun to make!
Day 5: Snowman Fun
The unit wraps up by reading your favorite snowman book and then completing one or more of the adorable snowman activities!
They might make their own How to Build a Snowman book. You make this six-page booklet from just one sheet of paper. It’s free to download here!
Other snowman activities include making “snow” cream cups, a plastic bottle snowman and a snowman suncatcher.
Snow Unit for Kindergarten and First Grade
You’ll find these fun activities, plus more in my Snow and Snowman Unit for Kindergarten and First Grade. This week-long unit covers science, reading, writing, math, handwriting and art. The best part? It comes with five detailed lesson plans just for you. Visit the product page and click on the preview to see examples of all that’s included!