Winter Unit Lesson Plan Part 1: The Theme of Cooperation & Friendship in The Long Winter

The Long Winter:

A story of the missing heat and the plan to bring it back; a group of animals with varying strengths go in search of the warmth and learn the importance of working together and admiring the differences each friend brings to solve the problem.

Looking for a great story to excite your students about the warmth (Spring!) returning after the cold Winter months, while also reinforcing the theme of Cooperation and Friendship? Would you also like to have some fun in your literary classroom by having the students participate in Reader’s Theater? Then we have the perfect tale for you from Canada, The Long Winter. Offered in both a story and play script version, this is sure to reinforce the importance of working together towards a common goal and excite your students that after the long cold winter months, the heat will return!

A story from Canada, this Native American Folk Tale gives a wonderful explanation of how and why the warmth returns after the cold. We love it to be a Wintery tale, one of Cooperation and Friendship, to spark the discussion with your students on how important it is to creatively work together to achieve a common goal. This story also reinforces the theme of Friendship as many different animals work together and utilize their strengths to help each other succeed.

Teaching The Long Winter:

This story meets Common Core Standards for 1st -3rd grade and is a wonderful addition to a Unit on Friendship, Problem Solving or Cooperation. You could further the learning with higher level thinking skills by having your students devise their own problem solving plan on how to distract the bears and create their own stories with their classmates as the Main Characters. We also offer a Teacher’s Resource Guide which includes activities on Plot, Sequence of Events, Setting, Characterization, Describing Words, Main Ideas as well as an Assessment and Games/Coloring Pages.  A Unit Plan already made for you! This story can also be Cross-Curricular with a Science Lesson on the Changing of the Seasons or on Native American studies and how they use tales to describe events in Nature. Extend your standard learning of the literary skills with a story that your students will sure to ponder and love. Happy Storytelling!

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