Winter Fun

Hello Everyone,

Ohmyheavens have these past few been jam packed! How can we almost be half way through the month of December and just 11 days away from Winter Break!? Tis' the season for report cards and conferences and the pressure to fit in all of the fun seasonal activities I want to accomplish with our class before Winter Break...the following seems to sum up this time of year just perfectly ;)

  

Our classroom is SO excited to be moving full force ahead with our study of the Winter Season! Upon returning from Thanksgiving Break, our students found faux snow in our sensory table, snowflake paint at the easel, we completed an ice-cube experiment to explore the way a solid can change to a liquid by melting and our Dramatic Play center has been turned into a Hot Cocoa stand where pretend hot cocoa is regularly served up by none other than the adorable babes in our classroom! 

The following book has been read on repeat in our room, it is one of our favorite Winter Time stories and allows for endless extended activity options!  

We are doing our best to bring the winter fun right into our classroom, while the weather outside is less than pleasant for this summer-girl! 

Below are a few fun recipes I have sent home for children to try with their families. They are easy to follow, allow for natural learning opportunities and are a great way to extend our learning theme from the classroom into home life. 

Enjoy! 

Snowflake PaintThis recipe produces an easy to clean, puffy, snow like paint consistency that is super easy to make!
Ingredients:
-White Elmer's School Glue
-White Shaving Creme
-Silver Glitter
Simply combine equal parts shaving cream with glue. Sprinkle in some glitter to add that snowy sparkle and mix ingredients together. Allow children to use fingers, hands or a paintbrush to paint with this Snow Paint! This is a favorite in our classroom this week :) 

Hot Chocolate Playdough Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of plain flour
1/2 cup of cocoa
1 cup of salt
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
Mix & stir the ingredients over a low heat until the dough begins to form. Remove from heat and allow the dough to cool. 

Gingerbread Playdough Recipe
1 cup flour
¼ cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
Mix & stir the ingredients over a low heat until the dough begins to form. Remove from heat and allow the dough to cool. 

***Playdough use is a great way to strengthen those fine motor muscles when using it to roll, squeeze and practice cutting with playdough scissors. In the classroom, we also enjoy using cookie cutters to punch out letters to spell our names and punch out numbers to help us count!

Our classroom Hot Cocoa stand was super simple to set up and has been a huge hit so far! I found the picture recipe shown below on Pre-K Pages. The teacher from that blog has an amazing bundle available for download, including hot cocoa signs, labels and dramatic play decor to help you set up your very own Hot Cocoa stand! We used some brown felt pieces to stand in as the drink itself and sprinkled some cotton balls on top as a way for students to serve up their very own version of Hot Cocoa with marshmallows. Yum!

Our Winter Sensory Table item for this unit is called Insta Snow Powder and when mixed with a little water, it turns right into faux snow! I added a dash of silver glitter to the mix to create that snowy sparkle. My littles love using toy plow trucks and shovels to play with it in our Sensory Table. I highly recommend checking it out! 

I hope you all are enjoying this season with your little ones whether in the home or in the classroom. We would love to hear about your favorite Winter fun learning activities!