🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 😤 Resilience & Risk Tolerance — Experiencing manageable discomfort outdoors — getting muddy, feeling tired, recovering from a fall — builds the physical and emotional resilience that academic challenges, social setbacks, and life difficulties require.
• 🧭 Spatial & Geographic Awareness — Finding the way on a trail, following a map, and understanding relative directions develops spatial and geographic reasoning — the mental mapping skills that geometry, navigation, and place-based learning build on.
• 🌱 Environmental Stewardship — Children who have meaningful outdoor experiences consistently grow into adults who care about and advocate for natural environments — making early nature connection one of the most impactful environmental education investments.
• 📸 Documentation & Memory-Making — Documenting adventures through photographs, collections, and journals teaches children to value their experiences, practice observation, and create personal records that become treasured family artifacts.

The Jacket I Wear in the Snow (Shirley Neitzel) is a perfect fit for a quick and easy snow adventure. Here are a few fun preschool adventures you and your preschooler will enjoy any time of the year!

Read The Jacket in the Snow

Begin by reading the book with your preschooler. Remember that reading to preschoolers should be fun and lively. It is more than just reciting the words on the page. If you are unsure about how to really read a book for your preschooler’s full enjoyment and benefit try reading Reading Magic by Mem Fox. 

Test Your Preschooler's Memory - Recite The Jacket in the Snow

After reading the book several times (at several different sittings), try reading it with leaving a few of the key words out. For example, you may leave out jacket each time it comes up in the story, or you may leave out scarf. In fact, the text is written in this matter with key words replaced with pictures. Encourage your preschooler to supply the missing words.

Act Out The Jacket in the Snow

Try reading the book with your preschooler while you act out. What fun to use dramatic play as you pretend to put on the jacket, the scarf, the boots, and so on.

What happens when the child is fully dressed to go out for play in the snow? His sled goes right into a snowman. Make this an Oh no! type of experience as you both take off all of the pretend outer garments. Although you will be developing wonderful early literacy skills, dramatic play, sequencing, and memory, you will also be sending an important message: Play safely in the snow.

Have Fun with The Jacket in the Snow Anytime

Can you and your preschooler act out the book or recite the book from memory? What a delightful way to practice memory and sequencing skills. If you stop in the middle of a sentence, your preschooler will be sure to pick up on the text and continue from there. This activity (with or without the book) can be done at home, in the car, while waiting for an appointment, or any time that you have a few minutes for an adventure. Are you looking for more snow adventures with your preschooler? Check out Indoor Snow Fun and What A Snowman Needs.

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Hi! I am Lynn Moore, the writer for Preschool Adventures at PreschoolRock.com. I have taught preschool, elementary school, and worked as a developmental therapist for children with special needs. My children (a daughter and a son) are grown, but my experiences as a mom have definitely influenced my writing for preschoolers. Remember to look for the adventure in every day! Contact me with your preschool adventure ideas.

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