Snowman, Snowman--a Smartboard activity to share

Happy Sunday night!   A full week of school, and then two additional schooldays before our winter break.  (Why do we have to work those two extra days?  For the past 18 years, we've had two full weeks off. I guess I'm spoiled!)

For today's blog, I want to highlight an activity actually created by another speech pathologist: Katie Yeh, www.playingwithwords365.com.   I found out about a very cute book she wrote, which she used to be available for a free download.  ("Snowman, Snowman, What do you see?")  I printed out this book, laminated it, bound it, and velcroed the icons.  This is the end result--The kids loved it!!

Sadly, she has taken this particular book off her site.  I created a new book, here, though, which is a similar pattern.  This book is good as a motivating activity, for matching pictures, naming vocabulary, and predicting what will come next.  I used it in conjunction with a simple craft snowman activity and loved the simplicity, as well as the fact that it is based on a well-memorized book, Brown Bear.  See this post about Joint Action Routines.  It's the same principal--kids learn one set of vocabulary, a story grammar, and a pattern.  Then it is changed slightly---the kids can use prior knowledge and routine to add in new vocabulary. At the end of the book, there is a place where it can be personalized for each child, and there's a page with all of the pictured vocabulary words---I used that page to 'test' my group of kids.  (Not all 'passed'---so we will do this again, and I'll bring in the real stuff like boots and mittens.)

What I want to share here is a Smartboard activity to go with this Snowman book.  HERE IS THE LINK TO THE SMARTBOARD DOWNLOAD. You must have Notebook installed to open it. I think for some kids (who have a classroom with a Smartboard), the impact will more than double if the teacher presents the book, and and then the Smartboard lesson.  For the activity, kids have to choose the correct article of clothing, and then are reinforced with animation and sound.  Here are a couple of screenshots:

When kids touch the scarf, it twirls and music plays. 

The author of the original download, Katie Yeh, is definitely credited at the end of the Smartboard lesson along with her website.  This is a fun unit, and perfect for December, January, and February.  (Maybe even March and April if you live in Buffalo!)