11 Engaging Winter Book Activities - Pen and Paper Phonics

A collection of winter book activities based on the great children’s book The Polar Bear and the Snow Cloud by Jane Cabrera. Toddlers, Preschoolers and Kindergarteners will enjoy this gentle story. The pleasure of this story can be extended through these 11 engaging winter activities to help your young readers in their comprehension of the themes in this book. #reading #homeschool #readalouds #penandpaperphonics

Winter book activities based on ‘The Polar Bear and the Snow Cloud’ by Jane Cabrera is the next book in our Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club! Yay!

This post is packed with activities based on this great children’s story – and, it’s perfect for winter.

Each post provides an overview of the book first, but if you want to get started straight away jump to the activities here.

More information about the Book Club can be found by clicking this link.

Why I love this book

There are so many winter book activities that can be had from this delightful story. STEM, literacy, number, arts and craft to name just a few. Activities suitable for Toddlers, PReschoolers and Kindergarten.

I love this book because it has a gentle winter theme, that also draws on many other themes, such as friendships, problem solving, and the science of melting. As such, there are loads of fun activities to be had – alongside the enjoyment of reading it.

It also has a great repetitive pattern, that alters slightly on each page. This helps children to get into the rhythm of the story, and gets them thinking about how they could solve the repeating problem.

In terms of content, the book is about a little polar bear whose only friend is a snow cloud. The snow cloud feels sorry for the bear and tries to make different snow animal friends, so that the polar bear can play with them. None of their snow animals are successful. Just as the polar bear is about to give up, a magical thing happens that means the polar bear won’t have to make any more snow friends again.

Winter Book Activities based on The Polar Bear and the Snow Cloud

A reading activity from the Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club.

Read It

As always, the first thing to do is read the story – it’s a well spent 10 minutes sharing this book with your child or group of children.

A questions activity from the Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club.

Ask Questions

Questioning is a great way to check that children are understanding the book as you read. It also helps to draw out things that are implied, rather than directly stated. Understanding what is implied is an excellent reading skill to develop.

Here are a few questions to ask:

Why do you think the polar bear wished for a friend?
What do you think of the snow cloud helping the bear?
What snow friend would you have made?
Why don’t the snow friends play with the polar bear?
Why did the friends keep melting?
Who is your favorite character in the story?
Can you tell me what happened in the story?

Resource: Free Printable Question Card

A word work activity from the Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club.

Find Words

This book is great for picking out words to focus on. It has all types of words: basic CVC words (for example, but), words that end with blends (for example, soft, melt and last), words with magic e (for example, time and hide) as well as words with glued sounds in them (for example, long). There are also sight words (such as ‘was’)

After you have shared the book together, you can read it again and stop at words for your child or class to sound out, and read.

In addition, this editable snowman sight word game at www.funlearningforkids.com is a great way to pull out some of the sight words in this book to practice. There are many of the sight words from Dolch and Fry and Letters and Sounds that you can use from this book.

Here are just a few of the sight words you could use: the, you, of, and, to, that, he, she, was, for, are, they, with, at, had, made, can, me, my.

A craft activity from the Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club.

Make a Snow Cloud

Use some paper and cotton balls to create a cloud. To extend this activity, stick more cotton balls under the cloud in the ‘shape’ of a whale, or a seal, or any of the animals in the book.

This snow cloud activity from schooltimesnippets.com is a fun way to respond to this story, as well as to find out more about clouds.

An letter activity from the Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club.

Listen for Beginning Sounds

Hearing the beginning sounds in words is an important phonics skill. Say the word slowly and try to get your child or student to hear the initial sound. In this collection of winter book activities, there is always a chance to draw out phonics concepts and learning.

This is a phonological awareness (talking about sounds) activity. Find all the animals in the book with your child. Say the names several times, and then emphasize the beginning sound of the word (for example, s,s,s seal). Ask your child to tell you what the word begins with.

If your child is in Preschool, you could write the letter as you say it, so they see and hear the sound at the same time. Or if they are older, they could try and write it themselves. However, as this is a phonological awareness game, the writing of the sounds is not as important as hearing and identifying them.

This Where’s Nellie? activity is another phonological awareness game. It also includes a short explanation of phonological awareness.

A mark making activity from the Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club.

Make Marks and Letters

There are so many winter themed mark making activities that would be great for this book.

The Polar Bear and the Snow Cloud has lots of opportunities to find shapes. Point them out to your child after you have read the story. See if they can find more. There are lots of shapes to be found - ovals, circles, triangles, rectangles and then ear shapes and antler shapes! Just one of many great winter book activities for preschoolers.

This baking soda and shaving cream writing tray from notimeforflashcards.com is a great one. Start by drawing snowflakes, snowballs, animals, and move onto practicing letter formation or name writing.

There is also opportunity to use this book for drawing shapes. Every page has a shape to look at and copy onto the writing tray, whether it is a circle eye, or a star in the sky, or an oval whale.

A number activity from the Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club.

Take time when reading a book to count different things on the page. This way. you can add a number element into your child's learning, while reading the book. You can teach math as a winter activity, based on a book.

Count Objects

There are lots of opportunities for counting on each page of this book. For example, snowflakes, spots on the reindeer, or stars in the sky. For very young learners, there is an opportunity to find one seal, one polar bear, and one fish.

An investigation activity from the Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club.

Investigate

There are lots of investigation opportunities with this book. One example is freezing water and watching it melt, and exploring what speeds up the process.

This Lifecycle of Snowflakes booklet from teachingmama.org is a fun way of investigating and understanding a little bit more about snow.

If your kids are a bit older, then this snowflake stem activity from stemactivitiesforkids.com is a great idea.

A personal and social activity from the Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club.

Discuss Personal and Social Themes

The polar bear in this story has some pretty clear emotions – he is sad and he is happy. These clear emotions make them simple to talk about. Discuss how the polar bear feels, and why. Link it to times when we feel sad or happy.

A winter book can give lots of chances for all sorts of learning. In this book, look at how the characters are good friends. It's a great chance todraw out important themes in a seasonal way.

This book is also great for discussing persistence. Start by asking “Would you keep going when each animal melted?” and see where the discussion goes.

You can also look at the qualities of a friend – the snow cloud cares for the bear and so tries to help. The snow cloud was also generous and kind and as soon as a new friend comes along, he is happy to include them.

A fine motor control activity from the Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club.

Develop Fine Motor Control

Playdough is always a great way to strengthen kids’ fingers and fine motor control. This fluffy cloud playdough from southernplate.com is a simple but effective recipe. Free play is always a favorite, but you could also direct play by hiding winter themed small toys in the playdough for them to find, or using the playdough to make different characters from the story.

An active activity from the Pen and Paper Phonics Book Club.

Get Active

The best active, outdoor activity for this book is to go out in the snow and make snow animals, just like the polar bear did. That’s amazing if you have snow!

But, if you don’t have snow, you can either use other natural things like sticks, mud, stones, leaves to ‘make’ animals, or you could make your own snow and enjoy it on a small scale! This fake snow from playtivities.com only uses three ingredients.

Winter Book Activities

So there we have it. Many and varied activities to do based around a book. This helps bring the book alive to a child. It helps them to engage with the story in a different way. And, it extends their learning in a theme based way.

penandpaperphonics.com is packed full of activities that you can use to support your child or group in the reading journey. Have a look around and let me know what you think – I’d love to hear from you.