Winter Water Table Play!

This time of year I always do a winter unit and include some sort of frozen water play, winter art, winter science and winter drama area.  For the water play my assistant had the idea of filling up a 5 gallon bucket with colored water and placing winter sea animals and polar animals into the water and freezing it over the weekend.  This was a big hit with the kids and lasted over a few days.

We also gave the kids sponges to work the ice down.  They couldn't wait to see what animal they would discover next.

   After a day of sponges we brought in basters and lastly salt.  This science discovery play is a wonderful opportunity for the children to learn about the properties of water!

I'm also working on assessments so I brought in the objectives comparing objects by differences and size with foam snowballs.

It helped that I printed the word small on smaller letters and the word Big on larger letters.  This way the kids knew which basket to sort into for the activity.

 Our state standards require that we have a sand and water table available daily, which limits me on other sensory play. So... I decided to bring in an extra sensory bin for other fun tactile experiences.  This is my rice bin that I placed snowflake confetti and foam snowflakes in for the winter theme.  The kids loved it!

One project we did for art was marshmallow painting.  I read Snowmen at Night first and I used big and small marshmallows so we could work on the comparing objective again :)

Here is a picture of my cold center.  The kids really enjoyed getting dressed up for the cold weather.

Then....I turned it into a Hot Cocoa center!  I posted on this in a previous post, Brrrr baby it's cold outside! but this year I added some new things: New sign, laminated hot cocoa packets, hot cocoa metal tins and boxes, marshmallow jar and peppermint jar.

  

This is one of my favorite times of teaching!  What do you do for your winter theme?

Ocean Art!

Continuing with my ocean theme...here is an art project that the kids and I absolutely love!  First I read the Rainbow fish by Marcus Pfister and then the children color and paint their own rainbow fish or ocean scene with oil pastels and watercolors.

The first step I do is point out all of the colors on each page and ask the children after the read aloud which was their favorite and why?  Then I explain that we are going to make our own oceans and you can put in any ocean fish and sea creatures you want.  To do this project we use "special crayons" called oil pastels.  These are much brighter and they pop right off the page!  

After I the children draw what ever they want I explain that now we need to add blue water to make the sea creatures come alive and pop off the page.  The kids get a kick out of this and their eyes get huge when they see the colors resisting the water.  They usually all come up running and say "Look, look, mine is popping!"  I make sure to explain it needs to be blue so the water shows up and I do this project towards the end of the year because it does use a lot of the blue water color.

After they are done I use them to decorate our drama area "The Beach Cafe".  The kids love coming up to the pictures and seeing which one is theirs :)

Let's Travel!

A fun theme we just finished was "Let's Move!"  I decided that would be a wonderful opportunity to add a new drama area to the classroom.  To go along with our school's international day I came up with the "Airplane" center.

Here are some pictures:

I added a pilot's outfit, globe with joystick, beverage cart, tickets, maps, luggage, magazines, pillows, blankets, and windows.  The children's artwork helps decorate the wall above the pilot's seat and I had the song "'Round the World With Ways To Say Hello " by Hap Palmer playing in the background. It says hello in a whole bunch of different languages and the kids would pretend that is where they were flying.  The kids asked to hear this song even when they were not in the center it was such a catchy tune.  I even started using it as my welcome song for morning circle! Can A Jumbo Jet Sing The Alphabet?

I told the children there are 4 jobs to do for our airplane center.

1) Pilot

2) Passenger

3) Flight attendant- deliver beverages and snacks to the passengers

4) Gate attendant- take everyone's tickets and make announcements

 Here is a close up of the art work hanging above the big plane window.

We also made suitcases for our travels!

These are made out of manilla envelopes and then grocery handles are stapled on the side.  The kids had fun decorating them with sponge stamps!   

Another fun project we did is we made "Loopers".  These are instead of paper airplanes.  They are made out of paper and straws and fly much better.  After we made them, we flew them, and then measured where they landed.  This was a great way for the kids to use math skills during this unit.

We also did a sink/float activity that was a lot of fun too!

What fun activities have you done around travel?

Farmer’s Market!

MY FIRST POST FROM MY OLD BLOG :)

Every month or so I like to transform our drama area into something new.  One of my favorites is the Farmer’s Market.  I have the parents donate different pumpkins and vegetables.  I make a cute sign for the wall and bring in reusable grocery bags, fake flowers, a cash register, play money, aprons, mini clipboards to take orders, price list for kids to reference, and baskets and containers to hold all of the food.  This year the kids have really enjoyed this new center.  It has been a favorite for about 3 weeks now!  Here are some pictures so you can see this adorable center.


I found this sign and the price sheets in my Mailbox Book.

 


I used the class’s Leaf Man projects to decorate the center too.

Merry Christmas Fun!

ANOTHER RE-POST :)

Wow December went by fast this year!  Here is a summary of all of our fun holiday crafts and ideas!



Welcome to Santa’s Workshop!  I Made this banner with the help of my assistant teacher.  Then I hung lights around the sign.  The kids love it when I turn off the lights and the Christmas lights light up the entire room.  I also have elf hats, reindeer headbands, Santa hats, wrapping paper, tape, ribbon, boxes, bags, tags, tissue paper, various Christmas decorations, and little trinkets that the kids wrap and take home each day.  I hit the dollar bins and the kids get really excited to wrap little erasers, pencils, ornaments etc. to bring home.  The rule is one present a day.  By the end of the week they begin picking gifts out for friends and siblings.  I have received wonderful feedback from the parents.  Also to help stock the center I ask the parents to bring in any wrapping materials right after Thanksgiving.  I get a ton of donations this way



We also made rectangle trees, paint washing snow globes,  gingerbread men, advent counting rings, ornaments, and parent gifts.



This was a great math activity with the children putting the strips of paper in order largest to smallest to make their trees.



I had the kids draw with oil pastels and then wash over it with watercolor.  Once it dried we put glue and glitter for snowflakes!

 

We rubbed cinnamon onto the gingerbread man for the sense of smell for this project.


We made counting rings to count down to Christmas and Jesus’s birthday. There is a cute poem that goes up at the top with a star.


The kids loved making these.  They turned out adorable!



Here is the poem we attached.


 



Then they sponge painted lunch sacks, wrapped the ornament in tissue paper, and tied a ribbon on the bag.



They also made these ornaments during the class party.  They filled the plastic ornaments with beads and snow, put in a picture on one side and their name on the other.  Very cute!