Hello! It's Allison from Stuckey in Second. This month, I wanted to share and idea that my teaching neighbor and I started a few years ago. (She's also a blogger, so I will leave her blog link below!) Find out why and how we worked together to make snow day folders!
My teaching neighbor (Abbie from Tales From the First Grade) and I decided that after all of our snow days that we had that particular year, we would create some Snow Day Folders to send home with our kids for these dreaded snow days! When they turn into snow WEEKS, it starts to get a little old! The first few snow days were fun, but now we are quickly realizing that we have had too many and our kids are experiencing that "after summer decline" in the middle of January! These are a smart idea to have ready each year, depending on the part of the country you live in!
I'm going to share how each of us made our sets of folders. Mine are for 2nd graders and Abbie's were for her first graders, but both very similar!
For 2nd grade, I decided to make the folders something "fun for them to open" by stuffing them full of learning goodies, then tying them shut with a ribbon. Maybe this will get them excited to actually open the folders and DO SOMETHING on their snow days?! Only time will tell....
Students are not expected to do ALL of the items in the folder, but they ARE expected to do SOMETHING on the days off just to keep their brains engaged. The folders simply stay in their backpacks until they need them, on a snow day, then they return whatever they have finished for a treat, extra points, etc. (Mostly just a happy teacher!)
Also please note, we don't do E-Learning in our district like many around us do. We are an urban/inner city district where they can't mandate E-Learning because of the limited resources available to many of our students. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking back, and I'm pretty sure that I added a mechanical pencil to each folder that first year too! If I didn't, I will this year for sure! That will at least get them to open it...
I wanted to have a mixture of reading and math materials in my folders, so I dug out some of my favorites that I have recently purchased! I knew these items would be great practice for my second graders at home!
Here are links to some of the items that I filled my Snow Day Folders with the first year (I do change things up as the years go by and I find more relevant things for those months):
Plural Nouns with Pablo the Penguin by Meet Miss Parker
Mighty Math Common Core Assessments by Angela Nerby
(I decided to use these as at home practice!)
Text Evidence Reading Passages by Miss DeCarbo
(I put the fall passages that I have in the folders, since I'm using the winter passages in my small groups right now in the classroom!)
Below you will see how Abbie organized her Snow Day Folders, just to give you another idea and visual.
These folders are for days we don't have school. Inside the folders are packets of extra work, reading log, and a coloring page. She really pumped the kids up about the packets by explaining that all students who completed a packet and returned it after a snow day would get a special prize. To excite the students I made a fun snow day cover with the message "only open if we are closed!" I made 5 packets for each child's folder. Inside the packet I used work pages from Molly Lynch TPT store, a few pages from a coloring book, a reading passage, and a reading log ticket. I am hoping this will help my kids keep up during this wild winter!
I really hope that this simple idea can help you and your students this winter. Even more, I hope that you don't have TOO many snow days...but at least a couple just to give you some rest! Happy New Year and Happy Teaching!
Be sure to check out the freebie below (Created by my friend Abbie!)
Be sure to check out the freebie below (Created by my friend Abbie!)
This is a GREAT idea. I live in Indiana too. The last few winters have been brutal. I wish I had had this resource when my kiddos were home for several days. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHope you can use it!! Thanks for reading and lets hope for only a few snow days! 😊
DeleteThis is a GREAT idea. I live in Indiana too. The last few winters have been brutal. I wish I had had this resource when my kiddos were home for several days. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis is a fabulous idea! Although, we don't get many snow days down here in South Carolina, I will definitely share this idea with others!!
ReplyDeleteI hope this can be helpful to others! Seems like such a simple idea, but took me a few years to think of! 😊
DeleteI got tired of them last year too, so I took to Remind.com (most of my families used it) and e-mail and sent little assignments. One day, for example, they had to bring back 2 things that rhyme and they were allowed to have show and tell with their items the next day. I love the idea of their folders stuffed and in their backpacks. I need to get on this!
ReplyDeleteAmanda
A Very Curious Class
Good idea!! Keeps them thinking!!!
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