Snow, Ip, Patterns

Snow is such a fun topic! We had enough ideas to go on for a few more days. Would have loved to extend explorations in snow, emphasize the 6 sides and symmetrical aspects of snowflakes, do an activity to extend the info we learned on how snowflakes are formed . . . but this is what we did for one day. Never be afraid to do more with this topic!

9:30 – Gathering- winter books, connecter cubes

9:40 – Welcome Time

-song – Snow Is Falling (Snow is falling all over town, winter’s here, everybody’s rushing round. Building snowmen, drinking cocoa, putting our coats on to play out in the snow.) (This song was a huge it, kids loved the actions)

-pledge of allegiance - one child holds the flag

-Who is here?

-what day is today on calendar – Sing the “Days of the Week” song, any tune you know

-Read Aloud – Stella, Queen of the Snow by Marie-Louise Gay, make a list of things to do in the snow

9:50 – Literacy Activity – Ip Trip from SEEL

10:05 – Math – patterns - Start with action patterns. Have two children choose actions, and make a pattern with them (e.g. clap, pat, clap, pat . . .). Choose two other children and try again. Depending on how it’s going, introduce a third action to the pattern. Line kids up and have them make patterns with their bodies (e.g. sitting, standing, sitting, standing). Give the sitting kids a red block, give the standing kids a blue block, then show how that makes a pattern. Depending on time, do various body patterns and block colors. (The kids really got into this. Actions are easier with patterns, but transferring to blocks was a little hard. After a lot of practice, we got it as a group.)

10:20 – Break/Snack – tortilla snowflakes or orange slices (depends on time), dance inside, or any kids who want to go outside to stomp in the snow can, have each child go outside and get two cup-fulls of snow. Put one on the table and one in the freezer.

10:40 – Science/Social Studies –

Read Snow by Marion Dane Bauer, have kids put finger on nose when they learn a new or interesting thing. If they have the attention span, make a list.

Do experiments with cups of snow. What is the difference between the snow on the table and the snow that was in the freezer? What happens when you drop water in your snow (use little droppers)? When you drop ice cubes in your snow? Drop salt in your snow? Sugar? Stir it? Put it in your hands? Spread it on a paper towel? Allow kids to experiment with various tools. (Paint brushes, pipettes, etc.)

Thurs - snowman in a bag (make a snowman in a ziploc bag, draw on paper what it looks like, hang up in window, draw what it looks like an hour later), cotton ball blizzard in a box(get a large box, make a blizzard with cotton balls, do various snow activities like snow angels, later during choosing time make shelters for little guys) (we had a field trip on the schedule, but I wanted to remember these)

11:05 – Choosing Time –

-play in the fake snow with containers and spoons, find letters in the snow, try to identify

-puffy paint snowmen - mix shaving cream and glue for puffy snowman paint, add acessories with -construction paper, it will stick right on there

-patterns with connecting cubes

-snowman sensory puzzle (save idea for later)

11:25 – Clean up, Gather to sing and read until picked up (We had so much fun we did the opposite of clean up. Oops.)

Here are some pictures of the kids exploring snow! We looked at it through magnifying glasses before we got out the colored water and got messy.

Dallin was so proud of his he didn't want to throw it away. So we took a picture.