First, I must say, that even though I live in Wisconsin, I am NOT a fan of winter. But, I have learned that there is not bad weather, just bad clothing. With that said, I’m here today to share with you my 5 favorite read alouds for winter. Since winter feels like 8 months long here, I try to embrace all of the fabulous winter books and share them with my students! I’ve also got a freebie for you, so keep reading to hear about the 5 best winter read alouds your first graders will love!
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3 Of The Best Winter Read Alouds
I’m going to start with 3 of the best winter read alouds for your first graders. I’m going to save my very favorites for last!
#1: The Snowy Day
This book is such a classic. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is a Caldecott-winning classic! Peter goes out into winter’s first snowfall and enjoys the day as any child would. Definitely one of my favorites and my students love it too!
And even better, this one is also available in Spanish, Un Dia de Nieve!
#2: Snowmen at Night
Can you even imagine what snowmen do at night in the winter? Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner really gets the imagination going. The secret life of our snowmen comes to life in this creative tale! I love to have my first graders create their own snowmen at night stories and they come up with some pretty creative ideas too!
#3: How to Catch a Snowman
Are you familiar with this 10 book series by Adam Wallace? How To Catch a Snowman by Adam Wallace is just as fabulous as the rest! You may be familiar with the first book in the series How to Catch a Leprechaun from 2016-it’s my favorite St. Patrick’s Day Book. Check out >>THIS<< blog post for fun St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun trap ideas.
Anyway, this one is just as cute! Your students will want to catch that snowman. Trap after trap, you’ll have to see if he gets caught!
My 2 Favorite Winter Read Alouds
While the books above are great read alouds, I have two winter books that I believe are above the rest!
#4: The Mitten
This book is such a classic! The Mitten by Jan Brett is by far my favorite winter read aloud! I absolutely love how all of the animals love Nicki’s white mitten and cram inside. Your students will not believe how many animals fit inside and they’ll love predicting what animal will be next.
Because this is my favorite winter read aloud, I love sharing it with my first graders. This is a great book to use as an interactive read aloud. In fact, I’ve already made it an IRA for you to use!
Winter Read Aloud Lesson Plans & Activities
You know how I feel about interactive read alouds! I love taking my favorite books, reading them to my students, and making them so educational! You know that I also like making lesson plans and activities that are easy for teachers. I do all that I can, to make planning easy, teach as many things as possible, and help out my fellow first grade teachers!
You may be familiar with these other read alouds of mine and can see blog posts about these books: My Mouth is a Volcano, Chrysanthemum, First Day Jitters, Last Day Blues.
This read aloud is like all of my others and includes a lot of easy-to-use lesson plans and activities.
This Resource Includes:
- All About Interactive Read Alouds
- Tips & Tricks for Interactive Read Alouds from me, a first grade teacher.
- Important Information about this resource
- Interactive Read Aloud PLANNER for 2 complete, color-coded interactive read alouds.
- First Read: The first read will get your students acquainted with the book, allow them to practice their predicting skills, introduce vocabulary and help them learn the sequence of the story.
- Second Read: The second read is more focused on Common Core Skills. Because this is the second time they have read it, they are more able to understand the characters, setting, and structure of the book, while also reviewing vocabulary.
- Sticky note printables for each read aloud and vocabulary.
- Print & cut notes.
- Sticky note template to use when printing
- Vocabulary cards including the words and definitions
- 3 mini-charts to use for brainstorming, questioning, and the stop & draws during read aloud
- Act It Out directions and props for the mitten and each animal.
- 3 Reading connections/retelling worksheets
- 2 differentiated retelling cut and glue worksheets
- Tips for printing on sticky notes with a link to a blog post with step-by-step directions. Check out >>THIS<< blog post if you need help
Trying to make it easier for you…
When I create my read alouds, I try to make it as easy as possible for you to follow the lesson plans. This and all of my resources include easy to follow lesson plans for 2 complete read alouds.
I like reading books aloud 2 or 3 times because students can learn so much when rereading a book. This shows them it’s a great idea to read books more than once and how much they can learn from rereading.
This resource includes a lesson planner that has all of the stopping points, questions, and vocabulary in one place. It also includes printable sticky notes. Not sure how to print on stickies? Check out >>THIS<< blog post: How to Print on Sticky Notes in 3 Easy Steps. It’s really quite simple and once you figure it out, it’s life-changing.
If you’re not so sure about printing on sticky notes, that’s ok too, because I have easy-to-print and cut notes that you can just place into the book on the correct page.
#5: Winter Is Here
Kevin Henkes is one of my favorite authors. I love all of his books, and this one is no different. Winter is Here by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by his wife Laura Dronzek celebrates the sights and sounds of winter, something we do a lot of here in Wisconsin. Kevin would know as he’s a local author and lives in Madison, WI.
This is just the sweetest book about winter and I have a FREE interactive read aloud for you to try! It’s in my FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY.
So there you have it, my 5 favorite winter read alouds. Do you see one of your favorites or one that I’m missing? Comment and let me know, or email me >>HERE<<. Any other books you’d love for me to make into an interactive read aloud? Please, let me know.
As always, please pin and share with others. ????
More about interactive read alouds
Buy the bundle! 18 interactive read aloud resources for the most popular and common read alouds.
Check out these other blog posts all about interactive read alouds
- 3 reasons why you need to be doing interactive read alouds
- The best tips for interactive read alouds
- 3 ways to prepare for an interactive read aloud
- How to print on sticky notes
Or check out >>THIS<< blog post!
That is all for today. These were some tips for how to do an interactive read aloud. I hope you found them helpful. Please comment or email me at [email protected] if you have anything to share!
