The Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow

In January, one book that I can't wait to read to my students is There Was A Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow.  I like it because it's really great for remembering details and sequencing.  It's also a fabulous link to talking about temperature and different types of weather and seasons.  I compare this book to previous books that we've read, such as There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Pie, and There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Trout.  In fact, every month of the school year I do a different version of this story.  I always make props that my students can use to say what she swallowed first, second, third, etc.  I use large pictures when we do whole-group retells, and smaller pictures for them to sequence on sentence strips for their seat work.

Please enjoy these January giveaways.
Sequencing Pictures for There Was A Cold Lady Swallowed Some Snow

Pictures for There Was A Cold Lady Swallowed Some Snow

If you want more "Old Lady Who..." props, look at my store on Teachers Pay Teachers:

Story Props for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat
Story Props for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Pie
Story Props for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Trout

There's a really great song by Dr. Jean Feldman (from Keep On Singing And Dancing With Dr. Jean, which you can find here) called "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly."  I especially like this song because instead of ending the rhyme with "...perhaps she'll die," Dr. Jean says "...perhaps she'll cry."  And at the very end of the song, after she swallows the horse, it says "...this is a silly song, of course."

Gingerbread Integration

My pre-k students really enjoy the fact that they can go to Library Center and pick up a book to read by themselves.  I made this very simple gingerbread counting book for just that purpose.

Number Gingerbread Man Book

I read the book to my students during guided reading, and I also had gingerbread cookies for them to count.  They placed the correct amount of cookies on each laminated page of the book.  I also found a great song on iTunes by Tiana called "The Gingerbread Men."  The song counts backwards from 5 and includes a pretty neat rhyming pattern.  One additional thing that I did with the song was to give my students gingerbread number cards.  Throughout the song, as each gingerbread man got eaten the student holding that number gave it to me.

Pudding Color Mixing

Two colors of pudding being mixed on plates using marshmallows

My pre-k students LOVE to mix colors.  As a blind teacher, I always look for ways for my sighted students to experience projects with all five of their senses.  Paint is wonderful, but it doesn't smell very good, and you can't eat it.  So why not try vanilla pudding mixed with food coloring?  Fill a bowl with red pudding, a bowl with blue pudding, and a bowl with yellow pudding.  Have the students identify all three colors.  Give each student a small plate with a teaspoon of pudding and have them identify the color of pudding they received.  Have each student choose a second color of pudding to add to their plate, and use a marshmallow to mix the two colors together.  Have them pretend that their white marshmallow is a mouse, like in the story Mouse Paint.  (Mouse Paint at Amazon.com)  My ESOL students spoke more during this project than I ever heard them speak before.  My four-year-olds started to use words like "squishy," "smooth," and "sticky."  Additional books that I've used for my students with color mixing include:

White Rabbit's Color Book on Amazon.com
The Color Kittens on Amazon.com

One song that I found about color mixing is:

"Color Changes" by Newbridge Songs for Learning

Snowman Action Book

This is a book that I made for my kindergarten class a few years ago.  Since the snow is coming, I thought it would be a great resource for others to use in January.  Some things I did after printing out the book to use with my kids were: highlight high-frequency words in the book, have them re-write the sentence, share reading the book with 3 other students in the classroom, and take the book home and read to siblings or parents.

Snowman Action Book

Snowman Numbers

As I was shopping in the grocery store with a sighted companion, we found the cutest little marshmallow snowmen.  I thought "What a wonderful way to make math time magical!"  I made the following number line as a PowerPoint file:

Snowman number line from 0 to 10

Not only does placing the marshmallows on the number line teach one-to-one correspondence, but it really holds my students' attention, helping them to focus on each individual numeral.  Some of my students also started to understand "Oh, 5 is one more than 4."  Having been a kindergarten teacher for 17 years, I know that it's vital to help younger students learn their numbers from 1 to 10.  My students often say how much they love math, especially when it's something that they can see, smell, touch, and finally eat at the end of the lesson.

A kindergarten teacher at my school saw me doing this and asked for something more sophisticated, so I made her a sheet for 1 to 35 with the same snowmen, for her to use with the marshmallows.

Snowman counting sheet from 1 to 35 in rows of 5

Take a look at this product on Teachers Pay Teachers!

Numeral Recognition With Snowmen

My pre-k students are excellent counters.  However, they have trouble matching numerals to objects.  I found a great winter song on iTunes called "Six Little Snowmen" by LifeWay Praise Kids.  It counts backwards from six to one, and has each snowman melt as the sun comes out (a great science link).  I went to Michael's Art & Craft and got six plush snowmen.  I then put little, laminated and brailled necklaces on each snowman.

Plush snowmen wearing teacher-made number necklaces

The children use these snowmen also in Math Center and sing the song independently.  I like using things that the children can feel and interact with.  The literature link that I used after the song and counting activity was Frosty The Snowman.  It's a really good book based on the classic song "Frosty The Snowman" by Bing Crosby.

The Gingerbread Girl

I've collected gingerbread books for many years.  My girls often ask me, after we finish reading The Gingerbread Boy, if there is one about a gingerbread girl.  There is, and it's really cute.

Book cover of The Gingerbread Girl

For fine motor practice, I have my students draw gingerbread boys and gingerbread girls (whichever one they choose).  I have found, however, that pre-k students will often tell me "I don't know how to draw it."  So I've made two books that sequence the steps of putting on the eyes, nose, etc.: My Gingerbread Boy and My Gingerbread Girl (pictured below).

"My Gingerbread Girl" Book