How-To Build a Snowman

Do you want to build a snowman?
No, this isn’t a post about the movie Frozen. Instead, I’m back to share a little more about how-to writing in my classroom.

I live in Washington, a state that sees all four seasons. However, it seems like we spend a greater portion of our year in spring and fall weather (aka the rainy season). So when it snows, it’s all the kids can think about. I try to capitalize on that with writing assignments with snow as our topic. A fun project is How-To Build a Snowman!

I’ve shared a little about this project before. I tried things just a little bit differently the second time and it worked out well for us. First, the students drew a sketch of their snowman. Next, they labeled all of the parts of their snowman. Then, they drew and wrote the steps needed to build a snowman. Here’s a little peek at what that looked like:

This usually takes my students two writing blocks to complete. By day three we are ready to start the first drafts. Days 4 and 5 are filled with editing and final copies. I have used this writing project with several of my classes. Each year I like to make little changes to keep things fresh and new. Here are some of the different ways we have presented our final copies in the past: