Winter Week Part 2

We were having so much fun during our wonderful winter week that we decided to extend it for a few more days.  I had a big surprise for everyone on Monday morning . . . . snow bowling!!!  During Christmas I had emailed everyone I knew and asked them to save me their gift boxes.  You know those flimsy little white boxes???  They made perfect bowling pins!  Everyone had a great time trying to knock down our "snow pins" and we even had a few strikes!!

Our art project on Monday was very special!  We turned ourselves into snow people.  Lucky for me my local Walgreens had a sale on their photo developing and believe you me, I took advantage of it! 

Aren't these the cutest things you have EVER seen???  Of course the snow was made with our fingers.  Boy, the Moms loved these!

 

I had another fun surprise on Tuesday!  I gathered all the scrap pieces of white construction paper I could find and wrote our numbers, colors and shapes on them.  Next, I wadded them up and put them in a big tub.

Everyone got to pick out a "snowball" and read what was written on it.  Next, (here comes the fun part!) you got to "throw" the "snowball" into the . . . .

snowman's belly!

 

We could have played this game for hours!  It was such a big success that we left him in our room and everyone played the game by themselves!  Now, that was a fun game!

 

It has been very cold here but remember, our school is in the "DEEP" south, so snow is something we hardly ever see.  But that didn't stop us from making more snowballs!  A little baking soda and water and suddenly . . . .

 

snowballs!!!!

we even made a snowman!

Okay, now here comes the fun part . . . . everyone took turns dropping their snowballs (or snowman) into a big bowl of vinegar!

 

Sizzling Snowballs!!

SUPER FUN!\

 

I am always looking for fun ways to help us review our shapes so during the winter months I made us some cute little "shape penguins"!  The children have had a lot of fun playing with them.  The star penguin is their favorite.



 

We read the book, Snowballs by Lois Ehlert and my class loved it.  It is a wonderful book about making a snowman from found objects.  Well, we had to make our very own snowmen/women from some things we found.  Aren't they wonderful?!?!?!

 

This snowlady has a bowtie pasta for a hair bow!

This snowman has a leaf for a hat!

Each child carefully picked out all the parts of their snowman/snowlady.  Just a note, we did not use our regular school glue, we used some Aleene's Tacky Glue that was left over from Christmas.  We had a great time!



Our Wild Winter Week!

We have spent two wild weeks talking about "Winter" and the letters "S" & "W".  As some of you may know, my class and I are located in Central Alabama and winter here is . . . well. . . ummmm . . . usually just wet!  This year has been no exception.  We have had a lot of rain.  So, I tried to brighten things up with a few fun snowy activities!
One of the very first things we did was make the cutest Shape Snowman!  Everyone picked out their very own different shapes to use.
;

It was so much fun watching everyone identify the different shapes!  I was reminded several times that "snowmen are round like a circle", and then they would pick out a square! 

We've made this next little snowflake for many, many years now.  Our craft stick snowflake.  The fun part of this craft comes when the children mix glue and white paint together.  Of course everyone has to touch it to see how sticky it is.  Next comes the real fun - you get to "dump" handfuls of Epsom salt all over your snowflake!  They actually have a little shimmer to them.

During the Christmas holidays I sent an e-mail to all my amazing teacher friends and asked them to save white wrapping boxes (the kind you get at the stores for clothes) and newspapers for me.  Of course my friends came through for me AGAIN!!!  I tapped the white boxes together with a little tape and . . . .

 

INSTANT FUN!  We now had the ability to build an ice fort!!  YES!  The boxes lasted about 2 weeks and then they started falling apart.  That was ok with us because by then we were moving on to something new.

 

Again, we don't really see snow in Alabama so we had our on snowball fight using newspapers!

  

For the past 4 years I have made our infamous "southern snowman" and for the last 4 years the great state of Alabama has brought home the National Championship trophy for college football (three for Alabama and one for Auburn).  Hmmm . . . I see a pattern!!!  Do you think the coaches should be giving me a percentage of their salaries????

Guess not!  Here is this year's official snowman -









And of course, here he is in his official "University of Alabama" gear!  To make things even better (could they be?) we were also studying the number 15 (as in this is the 15th National Championship for the University of Alabama).

Another fun activity we did to get our imagination going was to make a snowman/snowgirl with our palm prints. 

 

I love this activity because the children's imaginations really get a good work-out.  Besides picking out their favorite scarf, hat and buttons, the children decide on their own names for their snowman/snowgirl.  I always love seeing the different amounts of snow the children put on their creations.  By the way, the snowman on the left is in a "windy snowstorm"! 

 

Since last year's class had so much for with our "sticky box", I had to make another one this year.  (You can find the details of our sticky box here Sticky Box)  I changed things up a little and let the children used some old foam letters we had laying around. 









 

Everyone loved finding the letters of their names and their favorite colors!  It was such a big hit we are sharing it with our friends in the four-year old classes!

 

We talked about the letter "S" a lot during our Winter Week and we decided that our favorite "S" word was "SNOWMAN/SNOWGIRL".  We ended up our discussion about the letter "S" by making a "s"illy "s"nowman/"s"nowgirl out of toilet paper rolls.

 

 

I love the faces!!!!

 

We got a little "wacky" during our "W" week and painted with worms!  Don't worry, we didn't use real worms, we used some of my Dad's old plastic fishing worms that I brought home from the lake! I have a funny feeling he would love knowing how we used them because WOW, we had fun!



 

 

 

The end results were "w"onderful!



We had a HUGE surprise on Thursday, January 17, 2013 in Alabama . . . . we had SNOW!  Yes, real snow.  Do you know what happens in Alabama when it snows?????  We all leave our classrooms and go look at it! 

 









 

Yes, snow is THAT rare in Alabama.  Moments are this picture was taken we decided that we could not wait another second!  We went back to our classroom, got our jackets and headed out into the wintry mess.  OH THE JOY! 

 

Thank you for visiting with us I hope you COME BACK SOON!



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!

Winter Window

I have this incredible urge to start singing, "walking in a winter wonderland", but I won't!  Remember, I only sing to preschoolers!  Anyway, we started back to school today and I must admit, it was the BEST first day back ever.  Everyone was so happy to be back at school, yes, even ME.  I wanted to do something extra special and WOW we did!  It is our "W" week and we are talking about WINTER, hmmm . . . . let's see . . . . oh, I know, a Wonderful Winter Window!   I found this lovely little object at a New Year's Eve party last weekend.  They were just going to be thrown in the garbage, so I rescued two of them.

As soon as everyone arrived I painted their hand brown for the tree.  

I didn't use a lot of paint (for ONCE) so that it would quickly dry.  Sure enough, by the time the last of the handprints were done, the first were dry.  Next, we needed snow!  Everyone cut out their own snowy ground.  

We used lots and lots of glue (of course!) and glued down the snow.  We discovered that the more glue you used, the bumpier the paper would be, and the more it looks like real snow.

Next came the fun part.  Remember that funny looking table decoration??? Well, we dipped it in white paint and started whacking our paper!  Everyone had their own technique, some were very gentle, while others really enjoyed whacking the paper! :0)

Instant snow!  

I mounted it on a large piece of black paper and added the window panes.

What a wonderful way to start talking about the letter "W" and Winter!  Everyone agreed, this is going to be a WONDERFUL WEEK!