THE SNOWMAN by Raymond Briggs

Did you know that even a wordless book helps a preschooler learn? I love wordless books—there is something so satisfying about simply taking in beautiful illustrations. When we read wordless books with young children, they are still following a story, but they are creating it in their own minds. Some children already have the words to match the pictures, while others are still developing that language. It’s a wonderful exercise in observing closely and letting their imaginations wander into the story. Children get to interpret the book for themselves, and best of all, there is no wrong answer.

The little boy wakes up to snow. How exciting! I don’t know about you, but certainly the first thing I would do is rush to get dressed and go outside to play.

What is he building? What is he using for the eyes, nose and buttons?

The snowman is coming to life!?

I like to try to use some critical thinking questions for this story when I can. Why wouldn’t a snowman want to be near a fire? Or hot water? Or a hot stove?

Would you fly with your snowman?

What an adventure!

After he wakes up, where is he going?

What happened? Is he sad? Will he build another snowman? If he does, will it be different? Will he have adventures with the next snowman? What kind of adventures?

We also have this version in the library, which is shorter but has words. When I read them the story, they all realized they already knew it! How?

After the story, we built our own snowman.

The children chose the nose – carrot or an orange? Which hat?

It was snowing in the library!

This story was made into a short movie. You can look it up on YouTube. There is also this lovely song from the movie that I played. It is worth looking up if you don’t know it.

Over the holiday break, my family and I were in Michigan where it snowed. I showed some photos and videos to the children. Maybe we will get lucky and it will snow here this winter. I love it when the children get to experience it first hand.