Décembre - L'hiver et noël (1)


 


 

Here it is all in one place, poems, songs, writing, art we did in grade 1 around the theme of winter and Christmas (with some 5 senses and seasons outcomes in there).  Winter unit materials are listed here along with several 'work on writing' options for students.  Posted exemplars of completed writing projects and booklets are often helpful for students during independent writing time.

 

More resources are regularly collected and curated on my winter Pinterest Board.

 

 

 

 

 

Winter word strips (vocabulary) for the unit 

 

Winter visual dictionary (link includes both colour and black and white) for the unit, colour copies are laminated and available to students during writing.  By the end of the year we have a bunch of them on all different themes.  Especially helpful for reluctant writers or those who have difficulty transcribing from a word wall.

 

 

Black and white version glued into agendas or journals for writing (good communication tool for parents to show what students learning). 

 

 

"L'hiver" class collaborative books.  In kindergarten students simply add the names of their friends.  Students are also encouraged to label items in their picture.

 

 

In grade 1 students add the names of their friends and what they like to do in the snow.  Students learn to add "ent" to the end of verbs when more than one person is doing the action; jouent, glissent, lancent des boules, roulent.

 

We use this sentence structure in our daily journals too.

 

Students are encouraged to label their drawings as in K and in grade 1 enjoy adding speech bubbles to the characters in their picture.

 

Speech bubbles to cut and add to pictures, encourages students to write, add to pictures, small manageable writing areas.

 

 

 Song to the tune of "Sur le pont", reviews some of the sound blends we are learning in December and January.

Glue the sound and pictures in the right place, complete the sentence, draw a picture.  Make your own verse to the song?

 

 

 

"La chanson Chocolat" by Les Enfantastiques (lyrics here,  video and song below).

 

As we listen and later sing along students find and circle sound blends we know, ie: 'on', 'an', 'eu', 'oi', 'ette', 'eau', 'en', 'ou'.

 

We learn the sounds using the Jolie phonique images and hand actions.  This slide share gives you an overview of the Jolly Phonics program.

 

Example of actions and images for Jolly phonics (available in French from Amazon).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a follow up to the song students write about what they, taste, see, hear in winter (maybe they could sip hot chocolate while they write?).

 

Un bon chocolat chaud mini book, "En hiver je goûte, en hiver je vois . . . " (work on writing centre).

 

This could also follow learning the Charlotte Diamond song "Un bon chocolat chaud".  I haven't found a subtitled version yet so I opted for the song above by Les Enfantastiques.

 

 

 

Use a sheet of construction paper to make a mug booklet.

 

 

 

I first saw the idea here at the Amazing preschool Activities blog.

 

Song "Un bon chocolat chaud" by Carmen Campagne (but not subtitled!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

L'hiver collage - art project.

 

We all started with many shades of blue paper for the base, a road and dotted line.  Then we built cities from scraps, newspaper, foil, and finally plastic snow bits.  See the post here.

 

This idea came from a great art site Deep Space Sparkle.

 

"Il neige" poem to accompany our collages (merci Mme Hecker!).  Use actions to help students learn and memorize the poem.

 

The poem is recorded below, not sure I have it quite right and will have to recruit come grade 2 students who recall the song for a recording!

 

 

 

 

 

Les cinq sens à noël mini book (work on writing centre).

 

 

 

 

 

Livre des cinq sens à complèter et à ajouter à nos panier de livres.

 

How to eat a gingerbread man mini book (work on writing centre - Jan./Feb.). Original post is here

 

 

"Dans mas boule à neige" mini book, print on legal sized paper (work on writing centre - Jan./Feb.).

 

 

See the original post here (and many other variations on pinterest!).

 

This booklet includes a vocabulary bank of words.

 

Read the story Snowballs by Lois Ehlert.  Here is a site with some ideas for French winter titles. Her books are beautiful so I'd read it even though it's in English.

 

Sing the song and learn the poem "Rouli, roula".  I recorded it just so you can get the tune, it sounds pretty silly!

 

 

Photocopy budgets are always shrinking, perhaps many of these books and ideas can be inspiration for something of the students own creation.  I find that in grade 1 a blank page can be intimidating for students, hopefully these can at least be a place to start when students are working on writing during The Daily Five.

 

Other winter themed posts on this blog include, The Mitten unit (based on book by Jan Brett), winter mitten math journalgingerbread man math journal.

 

 

Merci beaucoup to Jennifer Monette who shared this video and song with us about Santa getting dressed, Quand le Père Noël vient me visiter.  Students love it!  Students add the missing words (don't forget "les pluriels") in the printable song book here.

 

We made toilet paper santa's to go with the song.  If you forget the order of the song just remember Santa gets dressed from the feet up!

 

 See Hedgehog Blog here for this idea and instructions.

 

    

 

Students can write their own version of the song using this dictionary of winter activities:

 

 

 

Quand Madame Wiebe

va patiner

elle faut bien, s'habiller.

Elle porte des patins blancs.

Avec, un foulard rose.

 

 

 

 

 


 

SOME REPETITION HERE BUT I DON'T WANT TO DELETE ANYTHING AS IT WILL MESS WITH LINKS TEACHERS HAVE BOOKMARKED OR PINNED!

 

Winter word strips

 

 

 

 

Snowglobe booklet and vocabulary

(I put this together with grade 2 in mind, the writing can be simplified for grade 1)

Pinterest Link

Mrs. Jump's Blog (from Pinterest)

Kids Artists Blog

 

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest - you have to check it out under education, tons of visual teaching ideas, many go beyond "cute" and are sound teaching practice.

 

Here are my thoughts on some pre-writing ideas:

 

Pass a snowball around the circle singing the snowman song (a silly poem we chant, see below), how many times around can we go before it melts?

Ask students to describe the snow and record students ideas, providing the French vocabulary terms.

What kind of snow is best for snowballs?  Tobogganing? Does snow have a sound?  A smell?  A taste?

What do you like to do in the snow (record on chart paper)?

 

Read "La neige parfaite" by Barbara Reid 

What would you consider "perfect" snow?  (no snow!)

If possible display and let students handle snowglobes.

 

Snowman poem (to sequence and assemble)


 

I love buttons and use them a ton in crafts and as currency on my classroom. 

This was one of those last days of school what have I got on hand kind of things.

 

 

 


 

Printmaking with styrofoam plates.  Student draw a very simple image into the foam with a ball point pen.

Run a brayer over it with print making ink (I think thick tempura paint will work too).  Print onto paper or fabric.

A parent volunteer and I sewed them, that part was a little crazy and I may not do it again!

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

Christmas when you're done booklet.pdf

 

I am really and truly not a fan of this kind of busy work but that last month of December when we were only in school for 2 weeks and there were musical rehearsals and assemblies and all kinds of interruptions having this in their desk was kind of nice.

 


 

Pere noel song book.pdf

 

This is a very old song, I haven't been able to find a recorded copy of it anywhere.  There are some teeneage girls singing it on youtube but you'll have to do the search, they sound really bad so I'm not putting the link here!  Great little song about Papa Noël getting dressed.

 

I have a smart board component too and will have to post those.

 

 

 


 

Christmas 5 Senses book.pdf

 

Christmas Five Senses Book.  We start with the sense of taste in November to coincide with a food unit and

then briefly touch on all of the senses for those few weeks in December.

This is another texture type book.

We add cotton balls for the beard, sprinkle cinnamon on the gingerbread man, attach bells for

that page, draw presents and so on.

As I look at these photos I see that I put "le barbe" and it is "la" and whoevers work this is he was supposed to write,

"Je touche la barbe de . . . ".  Very funny.  I have changed the error in the file!

 

 

   

 

 


 

Sport de l'hiver chanson.pdf

To the tune of "Sur le pont", book to complete.  There are two versions, one requires students to draw a picture, in the other the pictures are already there.  By the end of February our small group literacy development groups have spent a week learning each of the sound blends.  This song seems simple but it is a great review of some of the sounds.  We encourage the students to always look for those sound blends and so they are once again thrilled to find an "in" and an "eau" and so on in this book.

 

Our classes do an outdoor pursuit unit in February.  The students go skating and snowshoeing in the school yard.  I plan to add a the photos of each student doing those activities to our books too.

 

And a new version contributed by Paola of Primary Success:

 

Livre de l'hiver Paola.pdf

 


 

We had a lot of fun making these shape trees before Christmas. Students could build a tree using only circles, squares, triangles and rectangles. They then had to count them up and write about their trees. So cute!