While browsing at Barnes and Noble the other day I found the cutest winter story! I can’t wait to share it with you! It has instantly become one of my favorite winter read alouds! I fell in LOVE with this book (who can resist cute little forest animals with a great story message)!
A Loud Winter’s Nap by Katy Hudson
If you are familiar with the story Too Many Carrots, this book is by the same author and contains the same characters.
Although it isn’t necessary, you might want to read Too Many Carrots to your students (this could be before or after as the stories aren’t in a particular order- they just share the same characters).
The first thing you will notice about A Loud Winter’s Nap is that the illustrations are absolutely beautiful. Katy Hudson’s attention to detail is remarkable. This is one of those books kids will want to go back to again and again because you notice something new in the illustrations every time you read it. Be sure to really look at the pages at the beginning of the book- there are lots of little hints and things to note before you dig into the story.
This story touches on many winter activities. It would be fun to create a graphing activity for students to complete with a list of the activities from the book (or just winter activities in general). You could have students choose their favorite winter activity OR a winter activity that they would like to try (a great tie-in to the story).
Here is a sample anchor chart…
I am including a FREE graphing page that you could use with your students!
Click Here!
This book also provides a great opportunity for you to talk with your students about trying new things. Tortoise is so sure that he doesn’t like winter because tortoises are not supposed to like winter. Through a set of circumstances, he discovers that he was wrong and that tortoises really could like winter.
Talk with your students about taking a chance and trying new things. This might be a new sport, a new food, a different genre in reading… they might discover that they love something that they thought they wouldn’t like.
If you are planning on having your students do any winter writing- you might want to check out these WINTER writing resources that are available in my TpT store!
