Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening {FIAR}

In February we rowed Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening, a poem by Robert Frost.

Whose woods these are I think I know. 
His house is in the village though; 
He will not see me stopping here 
To watch his woods fill up with snow. 
My little horse must think it queer 
To stop without a farmhouse near 
Between the woods and frozen lake 
The darkest evening of the year. 
He gives his harness bells a shake 
To ask if there is some mistake. 
The only other sound's the sweep 
Of easy wind and downy flake. 
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep. 
But I have promises to keep, 
And miles to go before I sleep, 
And miles to go before I sleep. 

The illustrations (by Susan Jeffers) depict a man stopping in the woods and leaving food for the forest animals that live there.

We made bird feeders and hung them out to nourish animals (primarily birds and squirrels!) in our area too!

We enjoyed a snowflake tortilla snack.

And created our own snowy scene!

Next, we discussed how easy it is to see animal tracks in the snow.

Piper tried to guess which track belonged to which animal using these matching cards I printed out for her.

She also grouped rhyming words that I had written on popsicle sticks.

She then painted them and glued them together to make snowflakes.

(An idea I found here.)

We talked about different aspects of the poem such as the rhyming words and the rhyme scheme.

I asked family members to send us their favorite poems and we spent time reading those.

Finally, the girls made their own winter poem by telling me things they think of when they think of winter. 

Here it is:

Winter

Snowman

Snow angels

Pull a sled

Catch snowflakes on your tongue

Ice skating

Slide down the hill

Snow

Snowflakes fall

Hot chocolate to make

Us, nice and warm

Snow on the roof

Throw snowballs at the window

Cold 

Winter

It was a little different rowing a poem as opposed to a story but we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

The girls especially loved the illustrations that accompanied it and spotting the hidden animals to be found on various pages!