Winter

As you can tell I like to start out by reading a book to the children to start a lesson. So for today's winter lesson I would start out by reading the book "The Mitten" by Jan Brett and then we would read the book "The Hat" also by Jan Brett. The reason I would read both is because of the activity I will do with them after I read the book.

After reading the book I would take out my easel and I would introduce to them what a Venn diagram is. I would explain to them that the one circle was the details of the one book and than the other circle is the details about the other book. Then I would explain that the middle part where the two circles overlap are the similarities in the books. I would explain that this is what comparing and contrasting is. I would ask the children to compare and contrast the two stories. I would ask for the details of "The Mitten" and then I would ask the details about "The Hat". I would then ask the children if there were any details that appeared in both circles. If there was I would then erase that information and then move it to into the middle section and explain that the reason I am moving it into the middle section because is appears in both stories.

After the group activity I would have the children go back to their seats and hand out a worksheet with a Venn diagram on it already. I would have the children choose two different animals for the stories. (one animal from one story and than the other animal from the other story)

"What good is the warmth of summer, without the 

cold of winter to give it sweetness." - John Steinbeck