FIAR: Robert Frost’s Snowy Evening – Poetry, Art, and 3D Snowflakes

This post is part of our monthly series highlighting books and activities from the Five In A Row (FIAR) curriculum.

Our Five In A Row feature this month is Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. This delightful poem comes alive with beautiful illustrations by Susan Jeffers.

The first time I read this book with my 7-year-old daughter, she was a little confused. The poem starts out: “Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though.” By that second page, my daughter was asking “Whose house is in the village?” I quickly realized that she expected to hear a story and was not very familiar with poetry.

I rewrote the poem on a piece of paper. This helped her to see the rhythm and rhyme. Poetry can be difficult to define, but demonstrating some of the tools used (rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, repetition) will help your child gain an understanding.

Next we talked about the artwork in the book and how, for the most part, we see a bird’s-eye view. I asked my daughter to create a picture from a bird’s-eye view and a short poem to go along with it. We used this free online rhyming dictionary to help.

Another wonderful project you can do with Frost’s poem is a 3-D snowflake. This is a more advanced project, but it’s great to do as a family having the older children help the younger ones. And these snowflakes look gorgeous decorating your house. Be sure to try them using various paper colors! Tip: a hot glue gun works better than tape.

Tagged as: activities for a rainy day, children, crafts, elementary, FIAR, fun, Hands On, Indoor Activities, January, kids, learning, Picture Books, poetry, preschool, reading, Snow, Snow Day, teaching, Winter