“Snowmen at Night” Writing Intensive Unit Study for 3rd to 12th Grades
A Snow & Winter Unit Study for Upper Elementary to High School for Homeschooling Families
This Snowmen at Night Writing Intensive Unit study is for students at 3rd to 12th-grade levels, but feel free to mix and match with the companion unit for younger students to find activities that best suit your children and their learning styles.
The Snowmen at Night Writing Intensive Unit Study will help even your most reluctant writer with Living Books, along with English Language Arts, Phonemic Awareness, Science, Engineering, Technology, Art, Math (STEAM), Gross Motor, Sensory, and Folktales to focus on improving your student’s writing skills in a fun and meaningful way.
Some links in this post may be affiliate links. This means that if you click on them, I may make a tiny commission, at no extra cost to you.
Snowmen at Night English Language Arts
Family Read-Aloud Living Picture Books
Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner is a sweet story of a boy’s imagining when his snowman looks different the next day. He imagines that his snowman has fun at night while he is sleeping. The use of light and shadow in the illustrations really bring this book to life!
Snowmen All Year by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner is a stand-alone sequel to the previous title. It explores the idea that a no-melt snowman becomes friends with a young boy and they have fun all year long. It is available on Kindle.
Snowmen at Work by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner is a stand-alone sequel to the previous title. It explores the idea that snowmen have jobs like shoveling the sidewalks or drilling bits of coal for snowmen teeth. Just for laughs, the last page supposes that a snowman sits in the Oval Office!
Independent Readers and Family Read-Aloud
Use any of these choices for a family read-aloud selection. Pick another selection for independent reading based on your children’s reading abilities. Intermediate readers are generally fourth to sixth grade; secondary readers are middle and high school level.
Upper Elementary Readers
Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner is based upon an old legend. In this story, Willy tries to save the family farm after his grandfather becomes sick. Willy believes he can save the farm if he wins the National Dogsled Race. This is a pretty quick read and is available on KindleUnlimited as well as Audible and Hoopla.
This next choice will be familiar to Little House fans: The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The winter of 1880-1881 in South Dakota was brutal and the Ingalls family survived because of their ingenuity, determination, and Almonzo Wilder’s dangerous and courageous trip across the prairie to get wheat for the townfolks. Available on Hoopla and Audible.
Middle to High School Readers
Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge is a classic story that also makes an excellent family read-aloud. Hans tries to win enough money in a skating contest to support his family (and pay for his father’s medical treatment) after his father is injured. It has similar themes to Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner, which is a read-aloud for the Snowman at Night for Early Learners.
There are currently three versions of Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates on Amazon Prime (two live-action and one cartoon). Caution: There is a new live-action Silver Skates in Netflix that I haven’t watched yet, but I don’t think it is the same story.
If your family hasn’t already read the first book in the Narnia series, the cold days of winter are a fantastic time to start. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis is an amazing allegorical tale of four siblings that discover there is a frozen world called Narnia, which is ruled by the evil White Witch.
There is also a picture book version if you’d like to use this book as a family read-aloud. This book was made into a major motion picture in 2005 that is on Amazon Prime.
Folktale
This week’s folktale is one of Hans Christian Anderson’s lesser-known stories, The Snowman. The snowman is only a day old, and not understanding how things work, falls in love with the heating stove. Read this short story on VisitAnderson.
Literary Analysis
Upper Elementary
After reading Snowmen at Night, have your students imagine what that snowman does at night and during the daytime.
Have them compare what the snowman does with what they do at night and during the day. Use the Upper Elementary Literary Analysis worksheets in the Free Resource Library for students who are able to write at the sentence level.
Middle and High School
After reading the three Snowmen books, have your students imagine what other things a snowman could do. Have them write their own “Snowmen” style book.
Use the Middle to High School Literary Analysis worksheet in the Free Resource Library for students who need encouragement to go through the writing process step by step.
Writing
Upper Elementary Grammar
Review what an adjective is (it describes nouns) with this video from Homeschool Pop. Work on adding adjectives into your student’s writing to make their writing more descriptive and interesting. Use the Upper Elementary Writing with Adjectives worksheets from the Free Resource Library for children writing at the sentence level.
Middle to High School Grammar
Review what an adjective is (it describes nouns) with this classic video from SchoolHouse Rock.
Work on adding adjectives into your student’s writing to make their writing more descriptive and interesting.
Use the Snowmen at Night Middle to High School Writing with Adjectives packet from the Free Resource Library. Cut apart the adjective word list and place the words into a bowl or cup. Draw out 4 adjectives, which you’ll use to draw a picture, and then write a sentence, with the accompanying worksheet.
Narration and Copywork
Copywork and narration are a real-life way to work on grammar skills.
Use the Snowmen at Night Level 2 or 3 Copywork and Narration pages from the Free Resource Library. The updated versions in the Unit Study bundle have both print and cursive copywork.
For the narration pages, select the passage that best matches your child’s writing and spelling abilities. Then, read the passage to your student all the way through first. Then read it again, 2 or 3 words at a time, giving them time to write it down. Tell them to do their best, but not to get “caught up” in making sure it’s all spelled correctly while they are writing. They can go back when they are done to fix any spelling if they want.
When they are done, give them the original page (that you read off of) and let them “check” it and fix any spelling or punctuation mistakes. Talk to them about any spelling or punctuation rules that they used, just to help cement it in their brains. It’s really important for them to check it, not you. It seems to give them ownership of it and makes them remember the correction.
Use the Snowmen at Night Copywork Worksheets in the Free Resource Library to practice grammar and handwriting. There are 3 pages in 3 different levels for early elementary, upper elementary, and middle/high school. The early elementary and upper elementary levels come in both print and cursive.
For more copywork and handwriting practice, select one of these winter poems to copy.
Writing Stories
For Elementary:
This writing lesson has two objectives: One, for your kids to learn that stories have three main parts, a beginning, a middle, and an end. And two, to help them learn to use their creative juices for telling a story that they made up (and later recalling that story to retell).
For this writing project you can either use the Snowman Writing Form in the Snowmen at Night Unit Study Bundle or you can use 3 paper plates. If you are using the paper plates, have them cut one of the plates into a smaller circle and then stack them on the table to look like a snowman.
If you are using the Snowman Writing Form, have them cut out the circles and the snowman parts that they’d like to use. Let them assemble their snowman using a glue stick and/or tape.
Next, have them write a story about what their snowman does at night (or tell you the story while you write it out for them). Use the smaller (head) circle or paper plate for the beginning of the story. Next, write the middle of the story on the body paper plate or circle.
Finally, write the end of the story on the last paper plate or circle. Decorate the circles to look like a snowman for fun, if they want.
If you haven’t done so already, tape the snowman together and hang up. Encourage them to retell the story to family and friends using the snowman as a prompt to help them remember the story.
For Middle and High School:
The literary analysis assignment above is also the writing assignment for this unit.
Spelling
Research shows that kids retain information better when they are using their bodies, so try a kinetic spelling practice this week.
Have your kids write out their spelling words in a salt tray instead of on paper. You could use either regular table salt or use Epsom salt, which has larger crystals.
Or, you could even use a fine powdered fake snow.
Most of the printables in this Snowmen at Night Unit are available separately for free in the Free Resource Library. However, for your convenience, you can also get all of the updated printables in a single download in the Whole Child Homeschool Resource Store 💙
Snowmen at Night STEAM
Science
What does fake snow have to do with disposable diapers? Find out with Professor Poliakoff in this episode of Periodic Videos.
Learn about evaporation in this easy science experiment. Use the Snowmen at Night Frosted Window Scientific Experiment worksheet in the Resource Store to record your hypothesis, procedure, observations, and conclusion.
To create your frosted window, combine 1 cup of very warm water with 1 cup of powdered laundry detergent. Stir until most of the soap is dissolved. Sponge the liquid in a thin layer onto a window.
For a control, sponge plain, very warm water onto an adjacent window. Check both windows at 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and finally at 30 minutes.
What happened to the plain water? What happened to the soapy water?
Technology
Weather forecasters take a lot of heat when they miss the mark forecasting winter storm systems.
Back in 2015, weather forecasters predicted a blizzard would dump 3 feet of snow along the East Coast, including Washington, DC, and New York City. Everything shut down in anticipation, and then it only snowed about 8 inches!
Recently, NASA announced that they will be helping with snowstorm predictions. Learn more about the tools modern forecasters use to predict upcoming weather in this article from WonderHowTo.
Engineering
Find out what two resources are needed to create the snow when it doesn’t naturally snow enough at ski resorts in this video from OnTheSnow. Learn more about snow-making in this article from HowStuffWorks.
Geography
Go on a virtual field trip to see beautiful winter landscapes, waterfalls, frozen lakes, and glaciers with these Winter Virtual Field Trips.
Art
Brighten up your walls with some water-resist snowflake art. This technique from KitchenTableClassroom is super easy and results in bright, beautiful paintings.
For older or more independent kids, let them try the Snowman at Night painting by StepbyStepPainting. It places a snowman in a Van Gogh inspired starry night snowscape.
Math
Reread Snowmen at Night, and focus on what places in town the snowmen visit. Using that information, have your upper elementary students create a map of the town in the story.
Let your Middle to High School students calculate how much it would cost to put down 18 inches of snow over Vail Ski Resort (5289 acres). Use this video about the business of snow making from OnTheSnow to learn how much it costs per acre per 12 inches.
Snowmen at Night Sensory and Motor Skills
Gross Motor
Build a snowman, toilet paper style. Let your kids roll each other up in a roll of toilet paper, adding construction paper buttons, a scarf, and sticks for arms. Extra points for creativity! (My homeschool co-op’s Teen Student Council loved this activity!)
Sensory and Body Awareness
Making this play-dough is a fabulous way for older siblings to work on their practical arts skills while they are doing something helpful for their younger siblings!
Plus, this time of year when it’s usually too cold to go outside, it can be important to find other ways to help your kids burn energy through “heavy work” activities.
Play-dough is a fantastic way to get in some heavy work, and it is also a fine motor activity. Win-win! Use my recipe to make Easy, No-Melt Snow Dough playdough, either regular or gluten-free.
More Ideas
Be sure to follow my Pinterest board North Pole South Pole for more great hands-on activities and ideas for your Snowmen at Night unit study!
And most importantly, pin this post so you can refer back to it during your Snowman at Night unit study.
