Snowflake Bentley activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Snowflake Bentley Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Jacqueline Briggs Martin's book. Read aloud the winter picture book then use the printables or go paperless with Google or Seesaw to practice standards-based skills.

THIS READING UNIT FOCUSES ON USING THE MENTOR TEXT TO TEACH:

◼️ READING STRATEGIES

☐ summarize / retell

☐ analyzing character

☐ analyzing setting

☐ making connections

☐ identify the main idea

☐ sequencing

☐ cause and effect

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ patience

☐ perseverance

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ multiple meaning words

☐ antonyms

☐ shades of meaning

☐ plural nouns

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT: 

Snowflake Bentley tells the story of a real person, Willie Bentley. Ever since he was a young boy, Willie Bentley was fascinated by snowflakes. He spent his winters catching snowflakes and studying them. When he got older, his parents bought him a microscope camera so he could photograph the snowflakes. Willie wanted to share the beauty and uniqueness of snowflakes with others. It was not easy to photograph the snowflakes and people in Willie’s town thought he was silly.

Willie Bentley dedicated his life to studying and learning about snowflakes. Eventually, he published a book with all of his photographs, and scientists around the world were interested in his work. When he passed, the children in his community dedicated a monument and museum to his work.

THIS COLLECTION OF ACTIVITIES and LESSON IDEAS INCLUDES:

➜ Comprehension Questions categorized by reading strategy; text-dependent
➜ Social-Emotional Learning guidance lesson ideas & discussion topics based on the story
➜ Vocabulary Activities with kid-friendly definitions
➜ Grammar Topics selected to align with the text
➜ Focus Sentences use the book & author's craft as a mentor text to improve writing
➜ Lesson Planner summary, background info and planning space

➜ Story Mapping Printable identify character, setting, problem and solution

➜ Making Words Activity Page use any word from the book

➜ Focus Sentence copy work, identifying elements of the sentence, rewriting)

➜ Design a New Book Cover demonstrate understanding of the text by creating an illustration

➜ Predicting Activity primary-ruled and wider-ruled versions
➜ Summarizing Somebody → Wanted → But → Then → Finally

➜ Comparing and Contrasting using a Venn Diagram

➜ Cause and Effect analyze how events affect one another

➜ Visualization illustrate visualizations from the story and support thinking with text-based evidence

➜ Making Connections identify text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections

➜ Thematic Writing Paper Use with the Writing Prompts... Makes a Great Bulletin Board

➜ 2 Sequencing Activities First → Next → Then → Last and Beginning → Middle → End

➜ 2 Vocabulary Activities Vocabulary Booklet and Word Mapping

➜ 2 Character Trait Activities listing traits and supporting traits with text-based evidence
➜ 30 Text-Based Writing Prompts 3 prompts for each of the following types of writing:

• narrative
• persuasive / opinion
• descriptive
• expository / informative
• creative / story writing
• procedure / how-to
• list-making
• letter / postcard writing
• poem
• book reviews

INCLUDED DIGITAL ACTIVITIES:

➜ 5 Teaching Slides to use for instruction (add questions, vocabulary, instructions, etc)

➜ 15 Student Pages for use in Google™️ Classroom or as editable files to create customized printables