Getting Through Winter with Frederick!

Posted by Feb 2, 2017 Book Based Activities, Books, Seasons, Winter

The long winter months can really start to get you down and make you miss the bright and sunshiny days of spring and summer. The story of Frederick by Leo Lionni combats these winter blues with bright colors and warm memories. It also shows kids how important art and poetry are to our lives, and how everyone can make a difference with their own individual talents.

Standard Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission from purchases you make through the links in this post.

Frederick by Leo Lionni is a lovely tale about a little mouse who is preparing for winter. While his friends are gathering food and preparing their home, he is gathering words and memories. His friends all scoff at him. But when the cold winter days start to get to them, they beg Frederick to share his warm memories and colorful words. The lively illustrations and the gentle main character are sure to delight kids, while parents will enjoy the great lesson about everyone being good at something and contributing in their own way.

Bring some color to wintertime!

Painting Rocks – Just as Frederick makes their cave a little more colorful, your kids can make the world a little brighter. Gather stones from your yard (or a craft shop, if you don’t have stones nearby) and encourage your kids to paint them with bright colors that remind them of the warmer days of summer. Encourage them to talk about their memories as they are painting. Save these stones to place outside in a garden or favorite area once the weather gets warmer (or on a windowsill if you don’t have a yard) and let it soak up the warm sun. Next year, you can bring them inside and have a piece of summer with you through the cold days!

 

Painting Snow & Ice – Snow and ice can be beautiful. However, if you live in a snowy area like we do, you know that snow can also become brown and gray and icky as the winter months drag on. Use Frederick as inspiration to bring color back to the cold white winter months! Fill a sensory table or plastic bin with snow from outside. Give kids watercolor paints and paintbrushes and have them paint on the snow! For those of you without access to snow (do you want some of ours? Just kidding!), have kids paint with ice cubes! Freeze water tinted with watercolor paints in a tray and add popsicle sticks before they are completely frozen. Have kids trace these ice cubes across white paper.

Share your feelings and memories like Frederick!

Discussion – The other mice don’t think that Frederick is very helpful while they are preparing for winter. However, they come to appreciate his talents and the preparations that he was making. Talk to your kids about what each of them provides for the family and how they help. They may not be big enough to cut the grass in the summer, but do they clean their toys off the yard so you can? Maybe they are able to make the family laugh with their stories, and make a bad day better? Talk about how everyone in your family helps and how important each person is. You may be surprised where the conversation leads, and your child will feel recognized for the things they do!

Collecting Words – Frederick becomes quite the poet as he gathers words to remind him of the warmer months. Have your kids think back to their favorite warm weather days and activities and have them come up with a list of words to describe how things felt, smelled, sounded, looked and tasted. Gather these words in a list and talk about your favorite warm memories when you are tired of the cold weather!

Snack on some delicious mouse-inspired snacks!

Mouse Snack – There are many fun ways to make a mouse themed snack to go with this story. Slice strawberries in two and lay the cut side down on a plate and decorate them to look like mice. This can be as simple as almond slices stuck in the back as ears and a piece of string cheese or licorice for a tail, or as elaborate as piped peanut butter or chocolate for eyes, ears and tails. Serve this with cubes of cheese and nuts to complete the mouse theme!

Frederick is a lovely story about how everyone can help the family or community in their own way. Everyone has their own unique talents and gifts which can help others. This is an important message for kids to understand, and there are so many fun ways to teach it to them! Have you read this story before? Share in the comments!

For more winter fun, check out my posts on The Snowy Day, What Do Snowmen Do at Night? and The Mitten Tree!

90 comments on “Getting Through Winter with Frederick!”

  2. Wow, i remember this book but I guess not well enough! What a great book full of lessons for kids. I love the painted rock activity too. It is vital to the success of children to learn about the arts and their importance. I truly believe that!! I just love your blog.

    • Aw, thank you so much! I agree the arts are so important! I loved arts and crafts as a kid (who am I kidding, I still do), so I hope to pass that on to my daughter!

    • I love snow during the holidays, but by February it is gray and dreary and messy! Painting it makes it a little easier to handle.

  10. What fun activities! I especially like “coloring” with colored ice cubes! Such a fun activity for those of us who don’t get any snow. 😉

  20. Sounds like a great book, and fun activities to go along with it. I’m going to check it out for my granddaughters

  22. I really like your ideas that translate stories in books and bring them to life! Stories are what we make of them and it’s wonderful to expand these inspirations into tangible activities for anyone, be it young or old. It helps littles to think creatively too, which sustains their sense of wonderment 🙂

    • Thank you! I hope that by doing these activities, the stories become more memorable to my daughter and for anyone else who does them.

  23. You always have the best ideas and share books I never knew about! Love the theme of the book…. plus my kids would LOVE to paint rocks… they are kinda obsessed with rocks!

  27. Wow! Sounds like a very interesting and fun book to read! And what great ideas you have to make it even more exciting for kids! Thank you for sharing!

  31. What an adorable idea! I’m not a big fan of mice generally but I really think these are super cute for the kids to try! I also like the idea of painting snow too!

  34. I love Leo Leonni! His books are always so sweet. I love the idea of painting rocks after reading this book. This activity will help the child really put themself into the story. Great suggestions!

  38. I’ve never read that book and it sounds like such a great book – will have to look it up.

    I love the way you’ve structured this post! So much thought and effort. Definitely glad I came across your post!

  39. You are too creative! We live in Southern California, where winter is a mystical creature, but I bet my friends in Seattle would love this for there kids. I’m always looking for gift ideas. Thanks!

  41. We are definitely a book family, so this is going on our reading list. Thanks for the lovely review. My kids adore both ice and painting, but I never thought to put the two together. I’m looking forward to the expressions on their faces when I show them the magical painting ice! And we live in Seattle, so rainy days are in abundance for a while now!

  42. I just love how you pair these great activities and even snacks with these books! Our oldest boy collects rocks (seriously. we have rocks from EVERYWHERE) and I think he would adore painting some! It hasn’t been that cold here in Georgia, but my boys love books in general and would gobble this up.

    • Thank you! My daughter has been loving strawberries lately (I think this book is part of the reason for that), so these seemed like a perfect fit!

Comments are closed.