EP 125 Planning for January Part 2

Welcome educators! Before we get started I want to share with you the amazing resources I have available to you. To learn more and download some engaging resources go to myadventuresinesl.com/store.

You are an amazing and hard-working educator. The work that you are doing is important and beneficial. Thank you for your dedication and the time that you put in to make sure that your students are successful. 

Today’s episode aims to provide you with lesson ideas and activities for January. The topic of this week’s lesson is snow. 

Before deep diving into any lesson, taking the time and deep diving is important. Day 1 of every lesson will be about building background knowledge. 

Day 1: This week we will build background knowledge through a read-aloud. Since the topic is about snow, there are a lot of books that you can choose from.

Some of my favorite read-aloud books about snow are “My Winter City”, “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Keats, and “Over and Under the Snow” by Kate Messner. 

Day 2: This week’s reading skills lesson is the main idea. The main idea is one of those reading skills that you can teach and reteach throughout the school year. I suggest starting off the lesson by teaching some essential definitions such as topic and breaking down the meaning of the main idea.

Then, have the students practice with some passages. A tip would be to have some passages about snow so that students can find the main idea.  

Day 3: Day three is when you and your class start a close read about snow. The goal of a close read is to observe details and analyze a short passage. 

Readworks (Free) and NewsELA (Paid) have articles that you can use to do a close read about snow. You can even create a passage for your students. 

Day 4: Visuals and videos are engaging ways to get your student’s attention. On day 4, you will use a video to show students how to build a snowman. 

Sesame Street has a funny one on YouTube. Some videos show the actual process that you can find on YouTube as well.

After watching the video, brainstorm the steps. As an additional scaffold for newcomers, write the steps on anchor chart paper. This will be a reference point for the students. 

Then, students can draft a paragraph detailing the steps on how to build a snowman. I suggest using a rubric (which I will be sure to link) based on the student’s current writing level to help them assess themselves.

Students can then peer edit to finalize their paragraphs.  

Day 5: Day five is a day for the students to demonstrate what they learned. 

A fun way for students to do this is with an experiment. There are a few experiments you can do with snow. Here are a couple that you can use with your class. 

Snowstorm in a Jar: This experiment requires simple ingredients to create a snowstorm in a jar. After the students experiment, they can give a reaction on Flipgrid or Seesaw.  

Melting Snowman: In this experiment, students will build a snowman and then watch the snowman melt. 

If you found value in today’s episode, go to myadventuresinesl.com/store for the detailed lesson plan which includes two full weeks of lesson plans and activities. 

• The Winter Snow Close Read is a detailed lesson with up to two weeks of activities.
• Main Idea Lesson & Main Idea Craftivity is a 1-3 day lesson that walks students through how to find the main idea.