I hate January, and the cold, and the snow, and all of it. But I do love teaching this theme! The snowflakes hanging from the ceiling make winter feel beautiful and magical, plus we're inside and warm, so a win-win!
Dramatic Play
A wintery hot cocoa stand and snowball fights. Both were a big hit. I used brown rice covered in cocoa (mix them in a bag with some rubbing alcohol to help it stick) for the hot chocolate. I like that the smell adds to the sensory experience. Sure, rice falls everywhere, but it vacuums easily! It's worth it to give them something to pour and serve. Their hands get a little chocolate-y too, but nothing they can't wash off!
The daily snowball fights were super fun, and they were great about following the rules to keep it to this side of the room, and not throw them at people who didn't want to play. It's good to get some large motor movement in when we spend less time running and moving outside because of the cold.
Blocks
Winter floor puzzle
Snowmen counting bottles
The Mitten and masks to retell the story
And cars. Nothing to do with winter, just a popular request!
Art
Epsom salt painting. They love how the crystals appear like magic when it's dry, because it looks like they're only painting with water!
Watercolors
Frozen paint. They stared at me like they didn't know what to do. Then they figured out they're kind of like crayons at first. As they melt, they're more like paint and start to break off of the sticks.
Glue and cotton "snow" balls
Small Manipulatives
Clothesline with ABC mittens
This had one of those exciting teaching moments, when one student was trying to find the right letters to spell his name. Because these all have capital and lowercase letters, it was tricking him. I recommended he grab his name and name letters from the pocket chart where we practice spelling our names. He did, and a bunch of kids followed suit! And, even better, they had to problem solve to pin them on the line, because they kept flipping upside down. They learned they had to hold the letters and pin from the bottom instead of the top. My teacher heart just bursts when they engage in this type of play-based learning that is child-centered because they thought up the idea, and then engaged in an academic learning with their name, problem-solving with the clips, and a small motor skill, all rolled into one!
Frozen file folder games and weather bears from totschooling
M is for Mitten flat marbles
Alphabet sensory cards. The letters are outlined in puffy paint.
Counting snowman buttons
Snowmen on the magnet board
Writing
Snowflake stickers
Index cards. These were a huge hit and got the kids started on sending cards to everyone!
Snack
Our special winter snack was cinnamon snowflake tortillas.
Outside
We actually got snow on week 2, so we had colored water in recycled bottles outside and painted the snow a beautiful rainbow!
Large Group
We learned the word "coniferous" to go along with our fall word, "deciduous." We compared and sorted pictures of coniferous and deciduous trees.
Day 1, we read The Snowy Day. Then we divided into 2 groups and did the summer and winter puzzles. When we were done, we used the puzzles to help us make a Venn diagram to compare summer and winter.
Day 2, we read The Mitten and acted out the story. They had a great time taking turns going inside the giant mitten! They wanted to try over and over, so it was in the block center the next school day. The kids who didn't want to go inside got to play the parts of Nikki, Baba, and the mouse, and they had fun too!
Day 3, we read Millions of Snowflakes. We counted snowflakes in the book, and noticed how each one was unique. They used pipe cleaners to make their own unique snowflake and we put it in borax water to grow a crystal. They turned out great!
Day 4, we read Hello Snow! We did an experiment testing different gloves on our hands in a bucket of snow to see which one was the warmest. Some chose the same glove they had guessed to be warmest, even if it wasn't warmest, but most chose the thickest ones as the warmest.
Small Group
Week 1, my group played a fly swatter game with snowflakes with numbers on them. I said the number and they swatted it. Then they got to choose an action (jump, spin, kick, punch, etc) and we would count to that number.
The second group colored in their journal about their favorite thing to do in the winter.
Week 2, my group made name snowmen, practicing putting the letters in their name in order to build their snowman.
I had a mom volunteer for the other group, and they played a number matching game from
Jan Brett and practiced counting.
