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!



Baby It's Cold Outside!

The great state of Alabama, as well as most of the country, has been COLD lately!  School started back for us on Tuesday!  But, due to the extreme cold, our school, like so many others, started an hour later.  This was NOT, repeat NOT a good way to welcome the students back from Christmas break.  Now, I know my students do not know how to tell time, but their little internal clocks were all off.  It took most of Tuesday to get things "normal" in my classroom.  It was fun listening to everyone tell me what they received for Christmas.  We giggled and laughed most of the day and listened to some "regular" music (that's what "T" called it since I didn't have Christmas music playing).  Our first fun art project for 2014 will be kept for our upcoming art show. 

We started by letting the children cut some white construction paper for our snow.  Next, we glued our snow onto a piece of blue construction paper and added our hand/arm print for the tree and our palm prints for our little snowman/girl.  It took just a few minutes for that the dry and then comes the FUN part, we added the snow.  Earlier that morning, I found an old tube from a roll of plastic wrap and covered it with hot glue.

  We rolled the tube in white paint and then rolled it onto our paper.

After everything dried, we mounted it to a large piece of black construction paper and added window panes!  A WONDERFUL Winter Window!

 

Tuesday was bitter cold down here in Alabama and since we aren't accustom to this kind of temperature we forced to stay inside for our recess time.  YUCK!  Well, not really!  I saw on one of my favorite sites Teach Preschool where the children were weaving through a rainbow.  I loved it of course (because I love everything on this website!) and wanted to try it.  Here is my version, we call it "Sneaking Through a Snowstorm"! 

WOW!  It was fun!!!!!

 

No fun winter themed week would be complete without talking about PENGUINS!!!!  I must say, our penguins are very cute.  His/her fat little belly was made white by sticking different white objects to contact paper.



 

Our Thursday was spent talking about polar bears!  Of course we read Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear by one of our favorite authors, Eric Carle.  Our polar bear craft was taken right off of PINTEREST .  It was very simple but oh so much fun.  We really gave our fine motor skills a workout.

 

 

Since we were talking about polar bears, we had to play a polar bear game, right???  Meet "Pete, the Polar Bear" . . . .

He was made from a vacuum cleaner box (don't worry, I didn't get a vacuum for Christmas! LOL).  I covered him in white butcher paper, added ears, eyes, a nose and cut a hole for his mouth.  We talked about how polar bears like to eat fish, so I made us some little fish to feed him.

 

All the little fish were turned upside down on the floor.  They looked like they were swimming.  Each child picked out a fish and told us what written on it.  If you got it right, you got to feed the fish to the polar bear.  SUPER FUN!!!!!  I think we could have done this for an hour!

Our "Fabulous Fun Friday" was one of my favorites.  We started the day painting with ice!  On Wednesday, we all went to the kitchen to make ice paint.  Everyone stirred up little cups of paint and water.  We covered them with foil and stuck a popsicle stick in it.  On Friday, they were ready, no instructions were needed.

This one was fun because it had yellow and red paint in it.

The child who mixed it together didn't mix it thoroughly,

so we got to see the yellow and red paint.

This green ice paint was made with glitter paint!

LOVE!

They were ALL amazing!

 

As soon as we were finished painting we headed to make a snowman.  Now, by the time Friday came around, the temperature in Alabama was back into the 50's (ahhhhh . . . . winter in the south!), so we made our traditional "southern" snowman.  First, we had to make snowballs, and lots of them.

 

 

As you can see, we use newspapers!  We stuffed three large white garbage bags with old newspapers to make "Frosty"!

 

Hopefully, he will stay in my classroom for a few days.

No "Fabulous Fun Friday" would be complete without a little "cooking" time!  This Friday we made a snowman cookie. 

Everyone loved him!  We used one white powdered sugar donut (we cut it half),

 

added M&M eyes and a candy corn nose!  MMMMMM. . . . it was so good!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you come back next week, we will continue our unit on "Winter"!





Sammy the SQUARE Snowman

I am fortunate to have some amazing parents this year.  Now mind you, I've had great parents before and I truly love each and everyone of them.  This year's group seem to "get me" when it comes to my obsession for "treasures" (I say "treasures" most people say junk).  Anyway, one of my Dads works for a farm equipment supplier.  He told me at the beginning of school that if I was ever out near his shop to stop by.  Well, on Wednesday of last week I did just that.  The first thing I saw when I walked in were these HUGE boxes.  Hmmmm . . . what in the world could I do with them. . . . .  I asked him if they were getting rid of them and he said "of course, who would want these big old things?"  Uhhhh . . . me!  It took some doing but meet "Sammy, the Square Snowman"!

He almost reaches our ceiling.  This is one really big snowman!  Oh and that big white ball next to Sammy, that's our "world's largest snowball".  I love "S" Week!
Thanks to Lee at Advanced Mowers in Bessemer, Alabama!  We love your boxes!

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!