Winter Story Stretchers: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Winter Break is here! And although the snow we had outside has melted, we are enjoying some winter themed story stretchers at home (and some time playing and exploring outside as well). This year for our Winter Break Story Stretchers Playcamp, I've selected 10 of our favorite winter themed books along with some fun play, storytelling, sensory, art, science and STEM/STEAM challenge activities to go along with them. If you're at home over these next couple of weeks and looking for some play at home fun, these are great! If you're traveling and busy, they're great to store in the vault for an unexpected snow day or weekend at home. And if you're a classroom teacher looking for some theme related activities when you return, here's your source!

Those tiny little toes belong to baby S!

This first story stretcher was a bit of a sneak preview here since we did it on a snow day a couple of weeks ago. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats has been a favorite book of ours for four years and just as many generations! It's a book I remember reading at my own grandmother's house, one that held a special spot on my mother's bookshelf and one of the first ones we bought for S as a baby.



Before we got our own copy of the book, I borrowed it frequently from the library. Our local branch had a set with extension activities that I photocopied to make our own laminated Peter stick puppet (and a snowman). S still loves that Peter puppet! You could draw, photocopy from the book, or print off your own picture of Peter to make a Peter puppet if you wish.

S and Y like to read this book all year round, but on our snow day, it was the first choice S grabbed from the bookshelf while Y took his morning nap. Once Y was up, we went out into our own snow and brought along some special ingredients to build our own snowman. We also brought along some ziplock sandwich bags for each boy to collect his own snowball to take home. But unlike Peter, who stores his in his coat pocket, we decided to store ours in the freezer. This has become a winter tradition here for the past few years and it is always such an exciting day (often a day close to Pesach when we are cleaning out our freezers, longer after any snow has melted here) when we take out our special snowballs to play with inside!

When we got inside, I had a fun process art activity set up at the table. I made some "Snow" Puffy Paint using about equal parts white glue and shaving cream. I mixed in some silver glittter and set out a cup for each of the boys. I offered both a wooden craft stick and a paint brush for them and had some wet wash cloths ready for sticky hands. If they wanted to go all in and fingerpaint, we were ready! If they didn't, there were options for that as well. We used dark blue card stock for our background.

Both of the boys LOVED the paint. It was fun dab, dot, drizzle and smear. One thing I did not take into consideration was that the white glue would dry clear, so if you want your Snow Puffy Paint to dry white, you'll want to add some white paint to the mix or use a flour and white paint mixture for your snow paint rather than glue and shaving cream. What I loved about the results was that it actually dried a shade of light purple that really reminds me of Keats' beautiful illustrations in The Snowy Day!

When we were done, the paintings needed to dry overnight. The next morning, I set the dried paintings at the boys' Morning Work table along with a red paper cutout of a snowsuit like Peter's that I drew and cut from red card stock, a printed photo of each boy's face to glue on top so they could play the role of "Peter" in the painting and a selection of winter themed stickers we had for them to add. I love how they each chose to add to their paintings and how they turned out in the end. I mounted them on black construction paper and we hung them on display in the living room for all to see.

This activity is the perfect combination of process art where the boys totally used the materials in their own way and "prepared project" where we added more formal components (like the "Peter" I helped to prepare and the stickers). They had a lot of fun taking this creative spin on a familiar book. So many times, we think we need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to preparing activities and children's book extensions for our children and I am here to say with confidence that good things are worth repeating. A great book is worth reading again and again and again. We've done story stretcher activities with this one before (you can check them out along with some other great winter themed activities here). We will probably do more in the future. And even if the snow outside is only left in small piles here and there where it has yet to melt, we can have our very own snowy day reminder inside! We'll be back with another great winter story stretcher soon.

Until then....

Happy Reading & Happy Playing!