Snowballs

Snowballs!

 

Snowball sorting

 

 First, I have the students sort the "snowballs" by size putting the small pom poms in the small circle and so on using tweezers to move them so that this is also a fine motor exercise. Next, I have the children work on their counting skills. I wrote out some very predictable cards that the children can read with or without help from the teacher. After the student completes the card I then check their work and count the pom poms with the student.

 After sorting by size we then decided to complete an activity about distance.

 

Near and far snowballs

 

 We made these paintings using q-tips and cotton balls. It is not easy to teach children about distance and some have a hard time understanding the concept altogether. We discussed that near is close so those snowballs appear larger while the smaller ones are further away. I wanted to tackle this concept of near and far so that when I'm asking a child to give a friend more personal space I can do so in more concrete terms.

Snowball Name Matching Game

A set of snowballs was created for each child in the class. The students were given a few names at a time and they had to go around the room and match their friends name to a snowball hidden around the classroom with the matching name. I then had the students bring both snowballs back over to me to check the names and see who needed extra guidance. This was a big hit with the children and offered a fun twist on learning their friends names.