Winter Fun

Starting back to school after the Christmas holidays is usually not very easy.  But it can be especially rough for preschoolers!  This year, my class was the exception!! YEAH!  Everyone walked right in to our classroom just like they do everyday.  Well, okay, it was a little (A LOT) more chatty, but that is a good thing.  I love starting a new calendar year with new things!  I personally get bored very easily so I like to bring new things into our classroom.  This week I introduced a "PASSWORD" of the day.  I put it right on the inside of our door, near the light switch.

(Edited on Jan. 13, 2012 to add picture)

This week's word was "snowball".  Each time we left our room the students told me our "password".  We even asked visitors to read our special word.  It worked beautifully!  By the end of Friday, one of the boys showed me "our secret password" in a book!  This will definitely be a new addition to my classroom each year.

Our letter this week was "W" and of course we talked about winter.  But there are so many fun "W" words and we wanted to enjoyed them all.  We did the "wacky walk" everywhere we went.  We also tried to whisper, but to be honest, it didn't work.  Whistling was difficult but we did give it a good try.  During our circle time instead of raising your hand if you knew an answer or wanted to ask a question, we waved three fingers in the air like a "W".  All in all we all thought "W" was wonderful!

One of my "treasures" (as I call them)  that my son made me years (and years) ago is a popsicle stick snowflake.  It is one of those sweet little ornaments that I hang on my Christmas tree each year.  I took the original Christmas ornament idea and changed it just a little.  Ours is a snowflake magnet that Mom and Dad can put on their refrigerator or bulletin board AND we added a little shimmer to it.  Here is how we did it - first, we glued our popsicle sticks together using wood glue.  This allows it to be a little sturdier.  I can't tell you how many times I glued my son's back together before I figured out to use wood glue.  Next, we painted out sticks with a "magical" combination of white glue and white paint.

I loved telling everyone to use a lot of paint!  It got very messy, but the end results were so worth it!  Next, we added the shimmer - rock salt!  I know some people would probably use glitter but the rock salt has an amazing effect.

We usually do this activity on Friday because it takes time for this to dry.  On Monday I will give it a little spray of sealer (you can also use regular aerosol hair spray) and attached the magnets.  Here is a picture of last year's snowflake (I will update with our new ones on Monday).

Aren't they wonderful?

One of our Moms was kind enough to give us a can of "DIY snow".  All you do is add water and you get a substance that looks like snow.

It was fun and probably would have been more fun except there was only a small amount and we had 20 children!  Hmm. . . . what to do?  I know, make your own snow!  And that is just what we did!  I bought some bars of good 'ole Ivory Snow soap.

Cut each bar into about four pieces.  HERE COMES THE COOL PART!  We put it in the microwave for 20 seconds (watch it carefully, each microwave is different) and . . . .

That's right SNOW!

It is a little hot when it first 

comes out of the microwave 

so be careful!

ALSO, be careful and 

DO NOT get this in your eyes - 

it is soap and will burn!

Everyone had so much fun playing with it.  

We stayed in our kitchen area for AN HOUR!  Yes, this activity held the attention of 20 3-year olds for an hour!  The end results were rather messy

but really worth it!

I had one more little trick up my sleeve for "W" week - a snowball fight with a twist of course.  Each child got a piece of paper with either a color, a number, or a shape written on it.

Everyone read their paper and wadded them up into balls.

I bet you know what came next!  That's right - SNOWBALL FIGHT!  Everyone threw snowballs at each other until I yelled STOP.  Then while everyone was catching their breath, we took turns reading the word on the snowballs.  We ended up having so many rounds of the snowball fight we almost missed our playground time.  It really was FUN!

It was a wonderful week!  I can't wait for next week, it is "S" week and we will be talking about SNOW.  It gets a little tricky trying to do a unit on snow when you live in Alabama, but I hope you will stop back by and see how we do it!