Winter-themed Book Adaptations

A list of children's books about winter that make for great student-published books and projects.

Use this list of books to engage students in creative project work that connects reading and writing with a winter-theme.

Snowmen at Night. Caralyn Buehner

Have students write simple sentences about what their snowman might do at night. Give it a simple noun-verb format and even add an alliterative component.

student pages in their adaptation of Caralyn Buehner's Snowmen at Night

Over and Under the Snow. Kate Messner

Have students create their own version of people, animals, and objects they find over and under the snow.

The Shape of Things. Dayle Ann Dodds and Julie Lacome

Have students compose images from 2 dimensional shapes and complete a sentence that describes their composite to create their own version of the book. (lesson plan)

$image of student page in their version of Dale Ann Dodd's The Shape of Things$

The Mitten. Jan Brett.

Ask students to tell the winter adventure story of a different article of winter clothing.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You See? Eric Carle

Use the repetitive text to describe an animal in a winter habitat or the color of winter object.

Snowy Day. Jack Ezra Keats

If you want students to create their own book start to finish, inspire them with Jack Ezra Keats Snowy Day and then encourage them to the tell the story of their own snowy day. Perfect writing assignment after a school snow day.

Goodnight, Santa. Dawn Sirett

In this story, a little girl looks for Santa and says Goodnight to various creatures as she looks for him. Have students create their own winter silhouette scenes with advice from an animal they might meet when looking for Santa.

Polar Bear Math: Learning about Fractions from the Klondike and Snow. Amy Whitehead Naqda and Cindy Bickel

Have students choose a winter activity, like making hot chocolate or sledding, and use it to showcase and illustrate the fractions involved.

by Melinda Kolk

Melinda Kolk (@melindak) is the Editor of Creative Educator and the author of Teaching with Clay Animation. She has been helping educators implement project-based learning and creative technologies like clay animation into classroom teaching and learning for the past 15 years.