The Snowy Day

Lesson one of two:

*The Snowy Day, we'll teach the concept of beginning, middle and end of the story. The children will repeat the lines of the book using complete sentences, many verbs and the correct production of "s" clusters. Since many children omit the "s" in clusters, they will tickle up their arm as a cue to say the "s" sound. In addition, they will imitate gross motor movements while listening to the story, e.g., walking, throwing snowballs with crumpled newspaper,

etc., which is a multisensory way of learning concepts.

*They will complete a snowman puzzle by asking for pieces of a snowman and then scootering to a big snowman on the wall to place their piece on it. This encourages use of waiting for a turn and use of polite and specific words. Motor skills targeted are using the pincer grasp, using two fingers, to pick up the snowman pieces and stretching leg muscles while moving on the scooter.

Lesson two of two:

*We are celebrating and learning about winter by reading and acting out the book, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. The children will begin the session by naming and sorting toys beginning with "s" clusters (snow, stick, etc.) and "j" (jack, jet, etc.) or "d" (dog, deer, etc.) Teaching children to hear the difference between initial consonant sounds at the word level is called "onset sound identification." It is an initial concept children need to learn for reading.

*The children will use complete sentences and correct production of "s" clusters while re-telling The Snowy Day, with flannel board pieces.

*The children will cut, glue and draw to create their own snowman. While cutting, they will name shapes for their

snowman, e.g., a circle for the bottom, a square for the hat and a triangle for the nose. A hint for holding scissors in the correct position is to keep "thumbs up" to hold the scissors and the paper. Some children need cues to turn the paper as they cut.