Ending the wintery fun

Today we did a few fun movement activities I picked up at the conference yesterday. They're good for a break from all that hard listening work, and they enhance the general attitude of the classroom. The favorite was probably the penguin dance. As one student noted, "It's like Father Abraham" (except sillier). You can see it performed by Jack Hartmann here.

At the end of the day we had a special end-of-winter-theme activity. We removed all the nametags, table group names, etc. from the tables and then I gave each child some 'snow' (shaving cream). We practiced the letter Kk, since a few children had difficulty with it earlier this week. Then they just drew and wrote whatever they wanted. They were so excited about this. Some children noticed that if they clapped their hands together, it looked like it was snowing, because the shaving cream would fly everywhere. I have heard that shaving cream is beneficial for cleaning tables, but I remain unconvinced because of all the residue it leaves. Oh well, it was so fun that it was worth it.