Materials

• Small bag of flour
• Small cars or construction vehicles
• Extra hats, mittens, and scarves
• Stack of newspaper ripped in half
• cotton balls and several pinching clothespins

Vocabulary

• Crawler Tractor (a tractor type vehicle that has a continuous roller instead of wheels)
• Steadily (slowly and gradually not stopping along the way)

Introducing the Story

Ask the children to raise their hands if they like to play I the snow. Let them talk about some of the things they like to do in the snow. Next tell them that some people have to work in the snow. Getting to work can be very hard if there is a lot of snow on the ground. Our story today is about a helper named Katy who moves all the snow from the roads. I wonder how she does it? Let children have a chance to respond if they choose to.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness of ideas and language related to attributes of time and temperature. AND Language Development/Speaking & Understanding; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information,experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Reading the Story

While reading, stop on the page after you read, “Katy had to stay home, not enough snow”. Ask the children how they think Katy might have felt. As Katy begins shoveling out the town, encourage the children to repeat ‘Follow me!” along with Katy.

Language Development/Speaking & Understanding; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information,experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

After Reading the Story

Tell the children that Katy was big and strong and moved all the snow so that the adults could go to work and the buses and cars could bring children to school. Katy is kind of a hero and a good friend to the whole town. Ask the children if they have ever helped someone to do something hard. Listen as they tell about their own experiences. (One time I helped my brother to shovel the snow on our sidewalk. I helped my grandma to make a cake. I had to stir and stir. I was really good).

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

Music and Movement

Play Follow the Leader; making an obstacle course. Have the children follow you around, under, over, beside, behind, across, and inside parts of your classroom, playground, and school.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and position of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, and behind.

Discovery

Bring in a container of snow and watch as it melts. Do you see any objects in the snow? What happens to the snow? When the snow has melted, tell the children that you are going to put it back outside. Ask them what they think will happen to the melted snow now? When it is frozen, bring it back inside for the children to watch it melt again. What happened to the melted snow? Did it turn back into snow?

Science/Scientific Skills; begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

 Blocks

Add vehicles and encourage the children to make roads by laying blocks end to end for them to drive upon. Encourage the children to make some of the buildings that are in and around town (police station, library, grocery store, etc.).   Bring index cards, markers, and tape over so that the children can make signs to go with the buildings if they choose to.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; begins to express and understand concepts and language of geography in the contexts of the classroom, home, and community. AND Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like symbols, to copying and writing familiar words such as their own name.

Art

Give the children pieces of construction paper to draw houses. Encourage them to add windows and a door as well as write their name on their house. When all have finished making a house, put them together on a map type background and hang low on the wall. Label each child’s house so they can use their finger to trace how to get from their house to a friends house.

Literacy/Print Awareness & Concepts; recognizes a word as a unit of print, or awareness that letters grouped to form words, and that words are separated by spaces.

Sand and Water

Dump the flour into the sand and water table today and pretend that it is snow. The children can use small vehicles or even shovels to pretend to push the snow aside. I would recommend that the children wear smocks and though flour is easy to wash from clothes, it is messy. Remind the children to not add water to the table!

Social & Emotional Development/Self Control; demonstrates increasing capacity to follow rules and routines and to use materials purposefully, safely, and respectfully. AND Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Library and Writing

Encourage the children to try to draw maps on how to get to the playground from your classroom or how your room is divided into centers (birds eye view)

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; begins to express and understand concepts and language of geography in the contexts of the classroom, home, and community.

Dramatic Play

Bring in extra hats, mittens, and scarves so the children can pretend to go play out in the snow. Give them ½ sheets of newspaper and show them how to crumple it up into a ball. These make fun and safe snowballs for a snowball/paper fight.

Creative Arts/Drama; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex.

Math and Manipulaties

Put out a bowl of cotton balls along with a few clothespins or tongs. Label 5 plastic cups 1-5 with marker. Explain to the children that they must use the tongs to put the correct number of snowballs into each cup by using the clothespins or tongs. Encourage them to work in pairs.   One child can put the snowballs into the cups and the other child can count them as they go in. When they have filled the cups, empty them back into the bowl and trade places as picker upper and counter.

Mathematics/Numbers & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Outdoor Play

If there is snow on the playground, challenge the children to roll really large snowballs (like you are making a snowman). As they work, tell them that they must be as strong as Katy like in the story.

Physical Health & Development/Large Motor Skills; demonstrates increasing abilities to coordinate movements.

Transitions

Ask each child to name something they like to do on snowy days as they line up or move to the next activity (I like to eat snow. I like to watch cartoons.). Encourage the children to answer using complete sentences.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Dear Parents, Today we read a book about a helper named Katy who plowed all the snow from the streets of town. Encourage your child to be a helper around the house. Thank them for their service and let them know that they are appreciated.