Snow Globe Family (Jane O'Connor and S.D. Schindler) activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Snow Globe Family Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Jane O'Connor'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

☐ making inferences

☐ making predictions

☐ summarize / retell

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ identifying genre

☐ sequencing

☐ cause and effect

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ patience

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ action verbs

☐ verb tense

☐ adjectives

☐ prepositions

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

The book, Snow Globe Family, tells the story of two families. The big family lives inside a real house and they have a snow globe on their mantel. Inside the globe lives a little family, very similar to the big family. Long ago, there used to be many snow storms inside the snow globe but now it hardly ever snows. However, the baby in the big family is very interested in the snow globe. One day, while some members of the big family are out sledding, the baby makes his way over to the snow globe. He gives it several big shakes, creating a huge snowstorm inside the snow globe. In the end, both families get to go outside and have fun sledding in the snow.

Students will love this imaginative story about the little family living inside a snow globe.

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