Firstieland - First Grade Teacher Blog

Where learning feels like play.

Best Winter Weather Writing Activities For First Grade

Are you looking for some new winter writing activities? No matter whether you're teaching remotely or face to face, one thing is certain. Kids are fascinated by snow and ice! Take a look at how I get my kids excited to write reports with these printable and digital winter activities.

I don't know about you, but I sure have a hard time fitting science into my day.  There are so many other things to teach and sometimes science and social studies activities are the first to go.

But I don't like that because, it's the most fun! I've found that by combining these standards with my winter writing activities helps me fit everything into my day.

How Does Water Change?

Do your students know the many ways that water can change? Do they know what causes those changes? That's what we decided to study this week in our science lessons.

We started off with this pre-assessment to see how much students knew about water changes.

Next we watched this powerpoint that shows the students how water can change in winter.  It showed them how water can change from a liquid to a sold in the form of ice, snow, freezing rain and more.

Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland
After watching the powerpoint, we worked together to create a large graphic organizer web about how water changes in winter.   We worked together to brainstorm different ideas to add to the web.
Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland

Science Experiment

We did a simple little science experiment to see what would make water melt the fastest.  All you need for this experiment is some ice, cups, salt, flour, hot and cold water.

We made a chart to show our predictions of which would make ice melt the fastest.  I put some ice in each of the clear cups and then chose a few students to help me with the experiment.

We poured each of the four ingredients over the cups of ice and then recorded our results on the chart. When we were finished we watched this video that explains, in a kid friendly way, how salt melts ice.

Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland

Learning About Snowflakes

We also learned about snowflakes and how they're formed.  Did you know that no two snowflakes are alike?

We read the book Snowflake Bentley by Jaqueline Martin.  This is a real life story of a boy named Wilson Bentley who was fascinated by snowflakes.  He spent his life taking photos of snow crystals, determined to show the world the beauty in each tiny flake.

We also watched this video of the real Wilson Bentley and his snowflake photos. The students were fascinated by these beautiful, icy crystals.

Snowflake Bentley

Making Symmetrical Snowflakes

Next we made our own snowflakes using q tips and various pieces of white and silver paper, beads, sequins and other objects I had in my craft stash!
We learned that snowflakes have six sides, so we started with a hexagon in the middle of our paper followed by 6 q tips as the sides.
Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland
Next, the students added lots of sparkle and shine with little bits of aluminum foil, beads and other scraps.
Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland
We learned that snowflakes are symmetrical, so the students tried to make sure each side of their snowflake was the same.
Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland
Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland
The results were beautiful!
Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland

Winter Writing Activities

Finally, it was time for the students to write about everything that they learned. I showed the students the steps for informational writing and we used our graphic organizer from earlier in the week to help complete our report.
We talked about the different parts of informational writing as the students helped me write my report. I explained to the students that informational writing should include a title, opening sentence, 2-3 facts and a closing sentence.
Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland
Finally,  it was time for the students to write their own reports.  They made their own graphic organizer and then they used this informational writing template to help them write their report about how water changes in winter.
I love using these templates because they're differentiated to meet the needs of all my students, plus they have a built in rubric for easy grading!
Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland
Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland
The students did a simple assessment and made this mini book too!
Kids love snow and ice! Take a look at how to combine this fascination with some winter writing activities that your kids will love! Includes lesson plans, non fiction text, writing templates, water experiments and winter craft activities! #winterwriting #waterexperiments #firstieland
If you're ready to jazz up your winter writing activities and add some science to face to face or remote classroom,  head over here to grab this winter weather unit.  UPDATED TO INCLUDE GOOGLE SLIDES ACTIVITIES. 
Looking for more ideas for informational writing? Head over here to see our hands on Polar Bear unit! that includes printable and digital activities. 

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Comments

  2. It can be so hard to squeeze in science and social studies when there's so much to teach in math and ELA…thanks for making it easier with this integrated set! I love the snowflakes!

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