Winter

This is by far my favorite time of year. Even though winter dosent officialy start for a few more weeks, my class has been diving into snowy fun. 

To start winter off we made these cute winter snowmen. The bottom circle is actually a circle map. The students drew five pictures that represented winter and then decorated their snowmen however they liked. Due to the students getting older, I don't need to give them as much direction as I have done in the past. So each one was completely unique. 

These our one of our many winter trees we make this season. The students drew and cutout their own trees. Then I have them use snow paint ( glue and shaving cream mixed together). When it dries it creates such a unique texture. 

These are our torn snowmen. Ripping paper is such a wonderful fine motor activity for young children. They turned out so cute. 

I also taught the students how to cut snowflakes. They loved it. They were so surprised to see what they looked liked once opened. 

These are our wonderful borox crystal snowflakes. It really was a long process to make all 30 of them but the students loved it. I told them it was magic snow water. They kept looking at them as they were growing their crystals. Waiting to see the magic. Here is a picture of them in process. 

This has to be my favorite thing for the students to experience. It is our snow sensory bin. I purchased the snow from a company called Snow Wonder. It is imitation snow that feels like the real thing. It is even cold. I added some gems to make it even more enticing. It has to be one of the favorite centers right now. 

Community and Transportation

Over the past couple weeks, we have been learning all about community. The students seem to really respond to this unit. They love to discuss all of their favorite place to go outside of school, the different types of vehicles there are, as well as possible career choices. Of course I love it bevcouse we get to do a bunch of cute projects. 

The first thing we did was make a giant community map. The students each made their own house and got to put it up. We then added roads, trees, and a few community buildings as well. 

Then the students got into groups of three and as a team made their own maps. I provided the students will pre drawn community buildings and asked them to fill in the rest. This was the first real project where they got to work in teams. It was so cute watching them all discuss what was going to be on their map and take turn drawing. 

This is one of the finished maps. 

We also touched on transportation. Learning the difference between moving through air, water, and on land. Each child got to choose their own modes of transport and add backgrounds to fit the vehicles. They turned out so cute. 

At the end of the unit we talked about careers. Each child got to choose a hat that went with a career they liked. It was also the week we learned letter H so it fit in perfectly.