Welcome! The following is the 11th in a series of 24 lesson plans, Learning the ABC’s through Literature, the 1st year. It was written especially for classroom use within a homeschool co-op, and was designed to teach the alphabet, over the course of a school year, using classic children’s literature. The books are primarily taken from the Five in a Row Curriculum by Jane Lambert, with several others added as well. The plans were designed to give just a little bit more, so it could be more usable within a classroom setting. Teacher’s questions, printables, craft ideas, classroom handouts, etc are included within all the lessons. This is geared towards a K-1st grade class. If you are interested in something similar for older children, the Learning through Literature series uses more Five-in-a-Row (FIAR) books and is a more developed concept of this same idea and also uses mostly Five in a Row books. You can find it here, Learning through Literature, the 2nd year, geared for 1st-3rd and Learning the USA through Literature – the 3rd year, geared for 2nd-4th and using books from Volume 4 of Five in a Row.
K: Katy and the Big Snow
What I Need:
- Katy and the Big Snow
- Merriam Websters
Alphabet Book - K Handwriting Sheets (printable version here)
- Map of the United States
- Yardstick / Ruler
- Gluesticks
- Scissors
- Large Paper and Town Cut-outs (printable version here and here)
- Super fun (optional) road printouts (printable version here)
- Compass
Intro
Almost finished with fall … new season coming. What is the name of this season? (Winter!)
My favorite part about winter … the snow.
**Did you grow up with lots of snow? Do you have any cool snow stories about being somewhere where there was a lot of snow? If so, take a moment to share it with the class. Then, compare what it’s like where you are living now with the HUGE amount of snow that happened where Katy was. (Of course, you can explain that this is a fictitious story, but there are still parts of the world, especially around the great lakes in the United States that occasionally have a storm *almost* this big.
Our story takes place in Geo-polis. Explain that Geo means “earth” and Polis means
“an ideal city” (Minneapolis / Anapolis / Indianpolis) (a city anywhere on earth) … just like (__fill in your town__), and (___ nearby towns ___) or anywhere. However. We can tell one thing about this city.
“an ideal city” (Minneapolis / Anapolis / Indianpolis) (a city anywhere on earth) … just like (__fill in your town__), and (___ nearby towns ___) or anywhere. However. We can tell one thing about this city.
- What is one thing we can tell by looking at the weather? (It has to be a place where it snows.)
- Where in the United States does it Snow? (If you’re following along with the Learning the ABC’s through Literature lesson plans, this is a good place to review Immi’s Gift and the Equator / North Pole Hot / Cold)
- While it is not always true that the northernmost areas get snow and the southern areas don’t, as a general rule, this is true. If you want to explain about the mountains or higher elevations you can, but in general we want to continue to emphasize concepts of Equator (Hot) North Pole, South Pole (Very Cold), and areas that get closer to or farther away from these differ accordingly.
Our main character in this story is Katy.
- Who is Katy?
- What is she like?
- What does she look like?
- Where did she live?
- What was her character like?
Read Story
As you read the story, stop periodically to show where the snow would be up to on the yardstick. If the class is familiar with the concept of measurement, have the kids point out where one foot is (when the story says the snow was one foot, etc)
Handwriting Sheet
Take a moment to review the handwriting song, which we borrowed from Handwriting Without Tears, sung to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”
“Where do you start your letters?” (at the top)
“Where do you start your letters?” (at the top)
“If you want to write a letter, than you better, better, better
Remember, to start it at the top”
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| Click here to print |
Craft
If you have access to a whiteboard or chalkboard, take a moment to discuss some of the things that you need to have in a town:
- What do we need to have for a city to work and take care of its people? (Water,
Food, Shelter, Transportation, Heat for Houses, Roads, etc. - Beyond the basic needs, what else does a city have? (Post office? Police and fire? A hospital or doctors offices? Schools and Churches? Grocery stores?)
Then, make a list (you can draw pictures if your class doesn’t read well) on the board of places that are common to every town. (you can use the pictures in the book to get ideas, but many of these places are a bit old fashioned). Then, using your list, together, draw out a simple example town on the board.
- Give the town a name (in our town we had Oliveropolis, Zachopolis, and Saropolis, among others.
- Take the opportunity to review North, South, East, and West. If the class quickly understands, go ahead and add in “Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest. What way would I have to drive to make it to the fire station? What direction would take me to the lake? Etc.
Now, give each student their own paper. Any type of paper will work. I had a stack of 11″x17″ around, so I used that. But any size or type of paper will work. Encourage them to draw roads, forests, rivers and lakes. We used strips of black construction paper to be our roads and let the students create their own path.
(add picture here)
Finally, give each student these cut-outs of what you might find in a town and let them go to work cutting and pasting their own town. You can help them cut, or pre-cut the buildings, depending on the skill level of your class. A couple of good printable options are listed here:
- Homeschool Share has an excellent free printable with all kinds of goodies to go along with Katy and the Big Snow, and towards the end of the printable, they have a whole bunch of those little cute community building cut-outs. YAY!
- This 3-D building set is super neat. It may be a little above the level of your pre-K/K students, but if you wanted to create your own city as an example, or you just wanted to use the buildings… super fun!
- Another 3-D set, created for advent, but may work here, too.
- If you want some fun roads, MrPrintables.com has some free cut-out’s here
The kiddos, btw, all loved cutting them out and creating their own city.
Click here to return to the Learning the ABC’s through Literature complete booklist and see the general instructions for each lesson.
