Winter Reading and Writing Activity

Brrrr….winter is here and it’s cold outside!  What better way to bring winter fun into a warm classroom than reading a good story and then letting creative spirits take charge? This wintertime reading and writing activity, plus a little art thrown in, does exactly that.

Materials needed:

Frosty the Snowman plus one other book about snowmen – one students aren’t likely to be familiar with

Drawing paper

White bulletin board paper

Scraps of different colors of paper

Markers, colored pencils, or crayons





Most students are familiar with the song, Frosty The Snowman.  Play a recording of the song or sing it to class and have students sing along.  Then read the book by the same title,Frosty the Snowman, taking care to point out the pictures in the book.  Tell the students they’ll discover another book about snowmen tomorrow.

The following day read the story from the second book.  Use guided questions to help with comprehension and check for understanding.

“What do you think will happen next?”

“What do you think the snowman will do?”

“Who was your favorite character and why?”

“Would you change the ending? How?”

Then discuss how the illustrations in the two books differ.  Frosty had a corncob pipe, button nose, eyes made of coal, felt hat, etc.  How did the other snowman look? Was the way he was dressed important to the story?

Explain to students that they are going to work together in groups to create snowmen for a wall display. They’ll also write a short adventure story starring their snowman.

Put students into cooperative groups of four.  Each student is to make a drawing of what they would like the snowman to look like.  Students will share their drawings with group members and then they’ll decide which parts of each drawing they’ll incorporate into the snowman character.  What will the eyes and nose look like?  Will the snowman have a hat or mittens?  What about other clothing?  Will it be a snowman or snow lady?

Give students the white butcher paper for drawing the group snowman plus the scraps of colored paper to make eyes, nose, scarf, hat, clothing, etc.

After the snowman is complete, students are to write a short adventure story involving their snowman.  Frosty ran through the streets of town during the day, met a traffic cop, and started to melt.  What other kinds of adventures could a snowman find?

Underneath the story, create a picture of the snowman involved in the adventure.

Have students share their drawing and discuss how they came up with the final design.  Then choose someone from the group to read the group story out loud to the class.