The Snowy Day

FTC Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.*

A few weeks ago, I announced The Family Book Club at My Little Poppies, and so far it’s off to a great start!

For our kick-off week, we read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

Early in the week, we discussed Ezra Jack Keats as both author and illustrator. We also talked about the Caldecott Medal. We spent time exploring the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation website, which is chock-full of great information on the author, as well as activities, read alouds, and videos. In addition to reading the text several times, we watched others read it aloud online, watched animated videos of the story, and even watched The Snowy Day read aloud in ASL. Several book club members read the text aloud or acted out the story and shared adorable footage.

After a little bit of background on Black History Month, Keats, and the Caldecott, it was time to have some hands-on fun. Leo has already shared a post that includes many of the activities we did during our The Snowy Day week:

If you haven’t checked out Leo’s post yet, please do so, and if you want to make a 6-year-old’s day leave him a comment! The rest of our hands-on fun – and much, much more!- can be found on our The Snowy Day board on Pinterest:

Follow My Little Poppies’s board The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats on Pinterest.

I’ve mentioned before that read alouds are an integral part of our homeschool. Something that I like to do is to take one book, like The Snowy Day, and use it as a jumping-off point for the week. I will read the book aloud several times, as repetition builds learning in children, and then I will do activities based on the book. I will also read additional books during the week that tie in with the theme of that week’s text. In this case, I’ve created a list of snow-related fun reads and related materials and you can find them under the My Little Poppies Family Book Club category here. As part of these activities, those of us who are buried in snow enjoyed a lot of snow play. We went outside and made tracks, snowballs, and snow angels just like Peter. For those of you in warmer climates, here are two fun snowy options for play:

Recently, I’ve made movie night a part of our homeschool routine and so, whenever possible, I like to end our read aloud weeks with a movie related, somehow, to the film. During our The Snowy Day week, we watched The Snowman, which is one of my family’s all-time favorite movies. The film is based on the book by Raymond Briggs and is sweet and family-friendly and the music is absolutely beautiful.

Of course, you could also watch this one:

We thoroughly enjoyed our very first week of The Family Book Club. We will be reading It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw for our second week, and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak for our third week.

Are you looking to take your family’s read alouds to the next level? Join the {virtual} Family Book Club at My Little Poppies:

All of the books (and more!) from the {virtual} Family Book Club at My Little Poppies can be found here:

 

All of the lessons, crafts, and activities based on each book can be found here, listed by title and author:

Visit Cait Fitz @ My Little Poppies’s profile on Pinterest.

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Then began an experience that turned my life around. Working on a book with a black kid as hero. None of the manuscripts I’d been illustrating featured any black kids—except for token blacks in the background. My book would have him there simply because he should have been there all along. 

~ Ezra Jack Keats

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*FTC Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Basically, if you click on these links and make a purchase, I will receive small commission (we’re talking cents, not dollars). I would never endorse a product for a few cents. We recommend what we love here, folks.