Writing Unit: How to Build a Snowman, with Stranger in the Woods, by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick

If you're a teacher, and you live somewhere in the general vicinity of the northeast United States, you may be reading this from underneath a giant pile of blankets, cocoa in hand, enjoying at least one unexpected day off from school.

And if you're reading this, then you may be browsing for what to do when school is back in session, because your kiddos' focus will most likely still be on the gigantic piles of snow outside, and not on whatever you originally had planned.

Second graders who are still marveling at the biggest snowstorm of their little lifetimes might have a good time writing about snow: Specifically, writing about how to build a snowman. So, here is a set of plans you might like to use, focusing on temporal words and how-to writing.


Some technical notes: 

• I wrote these plans based on Sailing Through First Grade's How to Build a Snowman: Instructional Writing Mini-Pack. Clicking on the link in the previous sentence will take you to the Teachers Pay Teachers store page, where you can download the packet for free!
• These plans use only pages 1-5 and 17-18 of the packet, but feel free to adjust and tweak as you like.
• The plans are aligned with Pennsylvania Common Core standards, but you can easily adapt to the standards in use in your state.
• The plans are for second grade. However, they can be easily adapted for first and third grade - just adjust your core standards and tweak the plans accordingly to fit.
• The plans use the book below as an anchor text. (But if you don't have it and are pressed for time, any book about snowmen, or ideally, building a snowman, should do):

• Title: Stranger in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy (Nature)
  
  Author and photographer: Carl R. Sams II, Jean Stoick
  Pages: 48
  Reading Level: Ages 5 and up
  Publisher and Date: Carl R. Sams Photography, November 1999
  Edition: 1st 
  Language: English
  Published In: United States
  Price: $16.52
  ISBN-10: 0967174805
  ISBN-13: 978-0967174808

And finally, the plans:

• Clicking the link below will take you to the shared Google Doc, and you can download it from there.
• Second Grade Writing Unit (5 Days) - How to Build a Snowman, by Kim Wheedleton

Thank you for visiting, and happy reading and writing :)