Snow fun!

 Snowy fun at HDC!

We borrowed this idea from Littlepinelearners. 

We used plates with circle cut outs of various colors of cellophane to explore colors in the snow. Unfortunately, it was a bit overcast so we were not able to see the colors reflected onto the ground, but the children loved them nonetheless. They named the colors and we discussed how the wind makes them move in a spinning motion. They had so much fun watching them move and trying to look through to see the colors all around them. 

In room 1, the teachers have brought the snow inside for some fun and exploration. Using various tools to weigh and measure the snow the children were able to put their science skills to good use. The children even had opportunities to paint on the snow with watercolors. 

In room 3, our youngest learners made snowmen using the potato head toys! Great for building up those fine motor muscles and sharing materials with peers.

In room 2, the children were learning Arctic animal yoga poses! A great way to get the children moving and stretching throughout the school day while learning.

Thank you Kidsyogastories for the free printable! 

In room 5, the students have been busy counting snowballs (cotton balls) for the sight word numbers shown on the snowman cards. They have been using tweezers for extra fine motor (grasp and release) skill work as well. They have also made illustrations about their favorite thing to do in the snow.  

After reading the book, Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner the students were able to paint a snowman at the easel and discuss what their snowman or snow woman would do at night if they could come alive.

Room 4, made melted snowman pictures! 

A great lesson in cause and effect. For example, if a child uses more force with the paint brush the background color shows through making the white paint look more gray than white. 

Lots of Winter fun here at HDC!

2021 Winter Fun

 Winter Fun at HDC!

Snowmen and snow-women everywhere!

The Pre-K class has a winter wonderland set up in their dramatic play center where the children can build a cardboard box snowman, throw cotton ball snowballs and pretend to skate on the ice. 

The older Pre-K/K class have been working on their writing skills! Here they labeled the parts of their snowmen and snow-women. 

The Pre-K chose the words for their winter word wall and painted some beautiful snowflakes.

They have also been working their fine motor skills (pincer grasp) and working on name recognition by using snowball gems to build their names.

Ice painting!!! A fun art and sensory activity! Sonia & Mimi froze toy people and animals to let the children pretend they were skating on the ice! This lead to great discussions about how to stay safe on the ice.

Music and poems are a big part of our morning meetings! Here is a cute Snowflake poem to share.

The Kindergarten class is finishing up their author study of Jan Brett. Here is a fun poem they have been learning using the different animals from the book, The Mitten.

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 we won't freeze

The Mitten in the snow!

Mittens! The children chose how they wanted to decorate their mittens, some glued paper onto them, some used the bingo markers and others chose to paint them. 

Our younger preschool class had fun painting snow for their snow globes, posing for pictures outside and helping Marcie & Destiny put them together!

They have also been working their fine motor skills and working on color recognition with this fun snowman pom pom press game.

They have done lots of winter painting too! 

Mittens at the easel and hats on the table.

When children paint at the easel they are working their gross motor skills and crossing the mid line which aids in their overall development. When they are seated at the table it is more of a wrist movement than a whole arm and it works a whole different muscle group. 

Click here to learn more about why crossing the mid line is so important!

We believe a print rich environment is crucial for helping children with literacy skills. It shows them that there is another way to communicate...through print. Here the children are putting their pre reading skills to use by looking at the picture and connecting it to the written word. 

The preschool children had a ball making snow! They had to measure the ingredients with the teacher and work their math skills by counting how many scoops of water versus the "snow" to make the right consistency. Such a fun sensory experience!

These are just some of the great activities going on at HDC this winter!!! 

Stay healthy everyone!!!

Happy New Year / Winter

 

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Please be sure to answer this months question on the
parent board when you walk in the building!

 

This month many of our classrooms are learning about winter.

Here are a few of the wonderful winter related activities happening in room 5 (Sonia & Jessica's Pre-K classroom).

The children are painting winter scenes on plastic wrap. Sonia turned the small table upside down, wrapped it in saran wrap and let the children go to town painting a snowy scene. They were then able to take a piece of paper and put it up against the painting to make an impression against the paint. 

 

Jess made moldable non melting snow with the kiddos. She had the children help measure and mix the ingredients.
1/2 cup of conditioner to 3 cups baking soda.
 
They loved helping and are having a ball making snowballs and various creations in the snow.

They practiced writing their names by making snowmen and snowwomen and counting out the correct number of circles for letters in their name.

The children worked on shape recognition and symmetry by adding various shapes to make a snowflake.

 

In their classroom sensory table they have a hot cocoa stand. There are small cut pieces of brown felt which represent the hot cocoa, cotton balls to represent the marshmallows and a wide assortment of cups and trays.

The children have been having a ball preparing and bringing hot cocoa to their friends and to us in the office too! : )

 

The children read the two classic stories, The Mitten and The Hat by Jan Brett. They then compared and contrasted the characters of the story in a group discussion to complete a Venn diagram. The children also practiced sequencing the arrival of characters in the story and had the numerals on the back of the mittens to double check their answers.

 

Their seasonal classroom tree has had a winter makeover as well! This has lead to great discussions about the changing of the seasons and what we see and notice in the winter.

 

Happy Winter Everyone!