More snowmen activities

Here in New England we were just hit with a huge snowstorm and more to come next week. As much as I am exhausted and tired of shoveling...I do love winter lessons with a snow theme.

 

 

Here are a few new snowmen activities that my class has been enjoying this winter!

 

 

Snowman bowling!

 

Do you want to build a snowman??? hehe How many times have you heard your students singing that song? At least a thousand times...a day! All kidding aside, the students in my class have loved building this no snow snowman. We made him as a class from tissue boxes and used white paper scraps and markers to decorate them. The children have enjoyed building him in various orders but what they really love is knocking him down. This was a great activity to add to our winter classroom (as we cannot get outside as often) and it brings in movement and exercise that the children can execute independently.

Open ended snowman easel paintings.

 

The children were invited to make their snowman/woman at the easel in any form they would like. As you can see above, some of the children chose to make a melted snowman, some a snow storm snow person and a few went the original route. They were then given a variety of embellishments from pipe cleaners to pom poms to finish them. The goal here is to let each child be truly creative and not to tell them how to make it. Process over product. Each one came out so unique just like the students in my class. 

Snowman number recognition practice.

 

For this activity the students worked one on one with the teacher. They first were asked to draw a card and identify the number. If they were unable I would have them find the number on the number line and count to it. Once the number was identified the children had to put a gem on the matching number on the snowman. After the students all had a turn one on one with the teacher this was a free choice activity for the week.



 

Name snowmen.

 

I have seen these all over pinterest in many different forms and wanted to try them out in my classroom. Any activity where they are writing their name is always a hit. After the children completed their name snowman they were given white paint and a q-tip to make the snow falling over their snowman.

 

Click here to see more of my snowmen ideas and activities.



Snow Catchers

Snow Catchers!

 



I made these snow catchers out of a thick velvet fabric that I wrapped around and glued onto a large cardboard square.

On a nice snowy day they are perfect for catching snowflakes to study and examine more closely.

Once the students catch some snowflakes I have them look at a chart which shows multiple shapes that a snowflake can take. They then compare their findings to the chart to see the name and what elevation their snowflakes may have fallen from.

 It's a fun, hands on science lesson that the children really enjoy!

Afterwards we made shape snowflakes!

We dipped tangrams into paint and used them like a stamp to make these snowflakes. They came out great and it was a nice way to throw in a quick review of the shapes into our day.

Let it snow!!!

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.



Snowmen

Snowmen lessons!

 

Bubble Wrap Snowmen!

 

The students used bubble wrap to do some snowmen stamping. They looked like they were made of tons of tiny little snowballs, so cute!

A fun art lesson while also discussing sizes small, medium and large.

 

 

 Snowman Stories!

The children were invited to use their imaginations to think about what a snowman would do if he could come to life and write a sentence about it.

 

 Snowman bowling!

I decided they needed some varying expressions to give the children an opportunity to discuss emotions and feelings during free choice time.

 

The melting snowman!

I put some snow into a large bucket and added some foam shapes for the face and buttons. I had the children draw a before picture of the snowman while the snow was nice and fluffy. A few hours later, I had the children draw the after picture. The students then discussed and compared their findings.

Thank you to teachpreschool.org for the printable to go with this activity!!!  

Melting snowman printable

 

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

 

Click here to see some of my snowball activities!



Ice cream shop!

Outdoor ice cream shop!

 

 

I have always been a big fan of the dramatic play area in the classroom. I believe it is a safe place for children to be creative and explore various roles while experimenting with conflict resolution and problem solving skills. It is a place where children can be anything they want, there is no right or wrong and it can be an outlet for emotional tension...

 

and besides all that we had so much fun!

 

 

We used recycled cups and containers to hold the "ice cream" and some plastic shovels (that I picked up at Building 19 for 20 cents each) to scoop!

 

Since we had such an ambundance of snow on the playground we decided to bring our dramatic play fun outdoors. The children took turns pretending to be shop workers and customers. We had plenty of snow to be our ice cream and the children had a ball scooping it up.They used great language, cognitive skills and manners when asking the customers what flavor they would like, what size, how many scoops and then to remind them to have a nice day.

 

Such a fun activity that was full of pre-k learning objectives!

Click here to see how we incorporated winter dramatic play inside the classroom too!



Winter fun in the block center

We added snow and caves to our block center to enhance our study of winter, animals and hibernation.

 

 

 

Our caves are made from recyled cup holders from my favorite coffee stop which the children cut and painted.

 

 

The children have loved these additions to our block center and it has really opened up some great conversations and teachable moments.

 

 

 

 Happy building to all! : )

 



Penguins!

Penguins!!!

Parts of a penguin! 

Cute Penguin Song!

 

Real ice to have sensory penguin adventures on! 

Hand print penguins!
 

Mittens!!!

We read a classic piece of children's literature today,

The Mitten by Jan Brett.

We then did a character study of all the animals in the story. After discussing a little about the animals each child was asked to identify their favorite animal from the story and draw a picture. 

We then put a mitten and the animals from the story into our sensory table! The children love acting out the story and comparing the size of the mittens after stretching one out with the animals! : )

I made a mitten shape matching game out of felt for the children to play. They love the soft feel of the mittens!

I added a mitten line into the dramatic play area where the children can arrange the numbers into the correct order. They can also match the mittens to the correct number of dots on a matching mitten if they choose. 

Winter!

Winter can be such an amazing season for learning! 

 Here are a few of the activities we are trying this week. 

One of our first science lessons was about how a liquid becomes a solid. I started off by showing the children three different cups of water. I then added food coloring and a popsicle stick to each cup of water. The children then had to make their predictions about what would happen if we were to put it into the freezer overnight.

Once frozen, I showed the children what had happened. We discussed if their predictions were accurate or not and discussed why the water was now a solid block of ice. 

We then discussed what would happen if we left the ice out. The children chimed that it would melt and the colors would come out! What smart children! I made sure to tell them how right they were and that we were going to paint some snowflakes with our ice! We used coffee filters as they can hold a lot of liquid without tearing.

                                                                                                                        

So many fun winter songs and poems! 

My favorite is the winter pokey!

Same as the original only with you putting in your mittens, boots, hat, jacket and snowsuit!

                                                                                                                        

Letter of the week!

S is for Snow!!!

Capital vs lower case Ss game. 

Roll the dice to see which Ss will reach the top first!

 

                                                                                                                       

 Usually I put our igloo in the dramatic play area for icy adventures but this year I decided to put it into the library center to make this area more of a hot spot for the children to want to read and use the puppets!

It has worked wonders! Everyone wants to have a turn to read a book in the igloo! Yay!!! : )

Brrrrr!

Winter Dramatic play!

Dramatic play is one of my favorite areas of the classroom especially since it changes with the seasons and with our classroom themes. Right now it is set up for winter! We have snow pants, boots, coats, and mittens so children can practice their self help skills. 

We also have snowballs (cotton balls) for having a fun and safe snowball fight.

Then we have something that I am very excited about and has been an absolute hit in the classroom! 

Ice Fishing!!!

First we covered a large box with white paper and painted it with a mixture of flour, salt, water, white paint and glue for a real snowy texture. 

 

Next we added some blue paper and some clear cellophane to the inside of the box to give a more realistic water affect. 

Lastly, I made some fish and a fishing pole! 

The fish I made from felt and added magnets inside near their mouths! The fishing pole is simply a stick we found on the playground with some yarn and a magnet wrapped up in some fabric as a lure. So cute!

 

The children love spending time in this area and it's certainly a challenge for them to use their hand eye coordination to catch the fish!

I was so happy to see the children take the fish they caught and bring them over to the kitchen area where they pretended to prepare them for the oven! All without any prompting from myself! So great to see them think things through about why we go fishing in the first place! I have a wooden sushi set that I will add into the kitchen area tomorrow so the children can really prepare some fabulous dishes using fish and bring in some multicultural discussions as well.  

Happy Learning! : )
 

Click here to see how we brought our winter dramatic play outside too!

Ice safety!

Today we had a big discussion about ice safety!

It all stemmed from a conversation we had overheard by a few of the older schoolage children talking about how many of their friends were going down to the lake after school to play on the ice. Well, as the weather has been so mild for a New England winter it is hardly likely that the water is pure ice so we decided to make this conversation a teachable moment to all the children. 

So first, we put some water into a dish. Then we put it into the freezer for just a few minutes so that only the top truly became ice. 

We then invited the children to have the Lego people walk and skate on the water. The children observed that the water was still moving underneath the icy layer on top. Naturally, it didn't take long for one of the Lego people to crack the ice and fall through!

 The other was soon to follow. : (

After hearing multiple news reports of children falling through the ice and hearing the older children talk about it, I really wanted to add this activity into our day. We were already learning about how a liquid becomes a solid so it seemed only fitting to extend our learning further. It is my hope, that by teaching children at a young age to be more aware about ice and its dangers that fewer tragedies will happen in the future.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening -Robert Frost

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

A beautiful poem written by, Robert Frost

This poem has been made into a children's book and has been stunningly illustrated by Susan Jeffers.

After reading the poem with the children and talking in depth about the pictures and what we noticed the children decided they would like to make their own black and white snow pictures too.

 I put out two different types of "snow" paint.

One was plain white paint, which I explained to them was their light fluffy snow the kind where you can see the intricate details of a snowflake.

The other was a mixture of equal parts water, flour and salt with a little bit of glue and white paint. Without the white paint added it looked a little more like oatmeal than snow. I explained that this was the heavy duty snow good for making snowballs or snowmen. 

Their paintings were fantastic and all so different which I love! I hate when children's art all looks the same! To me when the art looks unique to each child it is a sign that there was alot of self expression and creativity going on in the activity. 

This art activity really opened up some great dialogue about how various shades and textures are made.