Materials
The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel
Butcher paper
Markers
Patterns of clothing shapes such as scarves, hats, gloves, winter and rain coats, long- and shortsleeved
shirts, shorts and pants, socks, bathing suits, shoes, umbrellas, and sunglasses
Patterns of weather symbols such as storm clouds, puffy white clouds, sunlight, mud puddles,
tornadoes, snow, rain, and lightening
Construction paper or fabric samples
Scissors
Cement glue
Laminating machine
Instructions
What to do
1. Ahead of time, draw lines on butcher paper to divide the paper into pages, creating one page
for each kind of weather you want to include in your book. Identify the kind of weather at the
top of each page in bold letters. Trace the patterns of clothing articles and weather symbols
onto the construction paper or fabric, then cut them out; let older children cut out some of the
shapes themselves.
2. Read The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel to the children.
3. Assign a page of the Walk-on Book to each child or group of children. Read them the weather
words at the top.
4. Ask the children to choose the kind of clothing and weather symbols they need for their page.
5. When the children are ready, have them glue the shapes onto the paper.
6. When the glue is dry, feed the pages through the laminating machine, last page first (adult
only).
7. Trim the edges of the book, but do not cut between each page. Fold the book accordion-style.
8. Invite the children to spread the book out on the floor and "read" it.
More to do
Dramatic play: Provide a few props and invite the children to rummage in the dress-up box and
pretend they are going to the beach on a hot, sunny day or playing in the snow on a brisk day.
More art: Mold funny characters from clay and dress them for hot and cold weather. Create
mobiles with shapes cut from cloth or molded from clay for different kinds of weather. Dress large
paper dolls with fabric scraps.
