Another Snowy Day - Hooray for Katy the Snowplow!

Katy and the Big Snow
By Virginia Lee Burton
Laptime: preschool - early elementary
Story Circle: preschool - early elementary

Today is March 11. Spring begins in 9 days, but I'm sitting in my office looking out on a white and snowy world of subzero temperatures. In honor of our latest prespring snowstorm I decided to post about my favorite snow plow, Katy.
Katy and the Big Snow was written by Virginia Lee Burton in 1943. Katy is a strong and powerful red crawler tractor who is a bulldozer in the summer and a snow plow in the winter. Katy is so powerful that she can't plow the little snowstorms so she has to wait until a really big snowstorm comes. Finally a huge Blizzard comes and covers the town in 5 feet of snow, almost all the way up to the second story windows. The city is at a standstill and Katy plows to the rescue.
Hooray for Katy! I wish that we had Katy around my city this winter.

Katy and the Big Snow - Laptime Lesson Plan Ideas

• If you are living in a snowy area, take some toy trucks and blocks and build a city in the snow. Attach a snowplow blade, made out of heavy cardboard, onto one of your trucks and plow out your city. Show your child which direction in your yard is North, South, East and West. Plow in different directions.
• The Author creates a little peek at life in the 1940's through her illustrations of cars, truck, plains and buildings. Go to Google images and explore the '40's by searching 1940 topics such as fashion, cars, planes, headlines, etc.

Katy and the Big Snow - Story Circle Lesson Plan Ideas
Early elementary - Make a map
A fun part of this book is that the author includes a map of the city and then, in the text of the story, tells what direction Katy is headed to plow next.

• Turn your classroom into the city of Geoppolis.
• Look at the map included in the first few pages of the book. In the margin around the map there is an illustrated list of Geoppolis businesses. Assign each child a business and ask them to draw a picture of that business and write the name of the business across the top of the paper.
• Using a compass, find which part of the room is North. Hang a Big N on the North wall. Do the same for South, East and West and NW, NE, SW, SE.
• Now, using the map in the book as a reference, place the picture of each business in the proper place in the classroom. For example: the school is in the center of the city, the hospital is West Geoppolis, the Railway station is in East Geoppolis and the Water Department is in North Geoppolis.
• Once the sign for every business is placed in the proper place, give each child a large piece of paper and pencil and have them draw their own map of Geoppolis. First they should draw a compass on their map and then add each business in it's proper place in the city. If you have early readers/writers, the teacher can make the map on the board while the class tells her where to put each business and then the class can copy it on their own maps.
• Once the businesses are in place on the map, add roads and people and trees and anything else that makes your maps colorful and fun.

Preschool Activity - Plow around the town. Children will learn the directions North, South, East and West.

• This activity is best done in a large space like a gym.
• Using a compass, show the children how to find the North Wall of the classroom. Hang a big sign with the word North written on it on the North wall. Do the same with South, East and West.
• Gather the children in the center of the room, this is the Highway Department.
• Say, "Katy, plow the road East to the hospital." All the children should drive their pretend snowplows to the East wall.
• Then say, "Katy, plow the road North to the airport." The children should drive their pretend snowplows to the North wall.
• Once the children have driven to all four directions, spice up the game a little by adding directions: drive backwards, drive very quickly, the snow is very deep drive slowly, the road is very bumpy drive over the bumps, etc.
• Continue until your snowplows are tired out and ready to head back home to the Highway Department for a rest.