FIAR: Katy and the Big Snow

Virginia Lee Burton is a genius.

She must have written books like Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Little House, and Katy and the Big Snow, knowing that she’d score big with the boys. Somehow she must have know that she could capture girls, too. Somehow, Burton communicates the beauty of machines, urban development, and manual labor in such an intricate, personal way, that girls – our girls, anyway – are fascinated. We love her characters and learn so much from each book.

I was happy to borrow the kit from our library – complete with an audio recording of the book, which helps when I need to eat my lunch instead of read aloud.

Lia began the week by coloring and cutting out a picture of Katy, and adding snow, snow, snow. (Nope, no link for a great coloring page. I just traced Katy on tracing paper, then outlined her with a black Sharpie.)

We used the map on pages 6-7 to build the main sections of Geopolis with blocks.

We talked about Katy’s brave and diligent work ethic. We gently discussed the recent snow-related tragedies in New York City, due to unpreparedness and limitations.

We played in the snow!

We made crystal snowflakes with this brilliant and easy experiment:

(This is Lia talking sweetly to the snowflake, explaining that he shouldn’t worry, he would find his mommy soon.)

We used compass directions to complete a treasure hunt! (The treasure? MARSHMALLOWS, of course.)

Ryan and the girls made chocolate ice cream out of our freshly fallen snow.

• 1 C. (chocolate) milk
• 1/2 t. vanilla
• 1/2 C. sugar
• 4 -5  C. fresh, clean snow

Don’t pack the snow! Bring it in the house and set it in the freezer until you need it.

Mix together the milk, vanilla, and the sugar. Stir this mixture until the sugar is dissolved. Slowly add the snow to your mixture, stirring constantly, until it is as thick as ice cream.

We also had fun spotting all of the snowplows who were out and about after our 2-inch fall the other day. That’s one beautiful aspect of living in the hard-working country: every big boy has a plow for his truck, and he’s happy to help the community get out and about. As we drove down a nicely cleared road, the girls called out “Snowplow! Snowplow!” as the trucks headed home for breakfast or off to work for the day.

A fantastic and complimentary book: Irene the Brave!

The snow fun doesn’t stop here! Next week, we’ll be reading “Stopping by Woods” and continuing the theme…