Baby it is cold outside!
So many fun winter activities are available in the 5 day program in the next two weeks. What’s better on a cold day then a hot cup of chocolate? In the Blue room the children have the opportunity to make, serve and sell hot chocolate and treats (all pretend) at the Coco Cafe. Next week, this area will turn into a Snow Village.
To add to the village, each class is making a trash bag snowman. Everyone will crumple paper to fill the snowman. What a fun and easy way for a child to strengthen fine motor skills! Balling up newspaper is a particularly good exercise for those children who do not particularly enjoy drawing and cutting. The children can also choose to crumple newspaper into snowballs to be used for a fun snowball fight.
In the Yellow room there are lots of snow related math activities.
The sand table in the Blue Room is now filled with water and soap so the children can wash their mittens and hang them on the drying rack. They will be just like the kittens in ” The Three Little Kittens Who Lost their Mittens”, the nursery rhyme we are learning. Using clothespins is another great way to strengthen those little hands. At the wood working table, also in the Blue Room, children can hammer golf tees into pieces of Styrofoam “snow” to encourage hand-eye coordination and strengthening of upper arm muscles.
Since snow doesn’t seem to be in the forecast we have been making our own snow creations in the Green Room. Last week, we cut, water colored, and then salted coffee filters to create sparkly snowflakes. Many are now hanging on our snow mural in the hall (see picture). Next we will make two types of 3-D sculptures. At the beginning of the week children can stick together biodegradable packing peanuts with water. Then they may choose to dissolve their sculpture with water or leave it on display in the hall. At the end of the week, they can make marshmallow toothpick sculptures which they may eat or put on display in the hall. The 3-D art that the children will make is very hard to transport so we will take a picture of it to send home. At the cutting table there are snowmen and mittens to trace and cut out as well as wavy, zigzag, and straight “snow paths” to cut and stamp with animal footprints. Do prewriting skills come to mind?
In the yellow room there will be ice out for several fun science experiments. What are the different states of matter (solid, liquid and gas)? When does ice melt faster - when it is exposed to air, water or salt?
In all the classrooms the Ukrainian folktale, The Mitten, has inspired many of our circle and choice time activities. We have read the very popular version by Jan Brett and compared and contrasted it to the version by Alvin Tresselt. In the Yellow Room, the flipbook is a Mitten and the sentence builder is “Who is in my mitten?” We are all learning The Mitten Song, which we use to act out The Mitten tale.
The Mitten Song
(Tune: Farmer in the Dell)
The mitten in the snow,
The mitten in the snow.
Help us please so we won’t freeze
The mitten in the snow.
A ______squeezes in,
A ______squeezes in.
Help us please so won’t freeze,
The mitten in the snow.
*Add different animal names in the blank.
It may be cold outside, but in the 5 day program at St. Stephen’s, the opportunities are definitely heating up!
Fondly, Your 5 Day Teachers
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