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.

Indoor icy fun (picture heavy)

Ice activity: freeze plastic animals in water in an ice cube tray then tell children to rescue the animals. Super easy, super fun, super wet table afterward :)
They used some of the same strategies they tried earlier this week when we just observed ice and helped it melt: rub it, breathe on it, drop it to break it.Then we brought out the hammers.
We pretended it was an iceberg...
While the class was in PE, I gathered a bucket of clean snow from the mound outside and brought it inside so we could build snowmen inside. It was harder for the children than I expected, but overall they enjoyed it. We went back to observe them several times throughout the day. We divided into three groups; your child will probably remember which is their snowman.

Group 2
Step 1: building the snowman (noonish)
Step 2: observing ('without touching it' - this was the hard part) it about a half hour later. This group has a castle in the background and I think the snowman was actually a snow alien, at least for a while.
2:15ish observe and illustrate/write in science notebook
3:20 end of day
6pm
Group 1 building. They wanted to have lots of snow around their snowman.
12:30
2:15
3:20
6:00
Group 3 building
12:302:15
3:20
6:00

As promised, the pictures

Climb. Slide. Run. Throw. Yell. Repeat.
There was a high level (movement, volume) of excitement when we first got to the snow.
"Look! A snowball!" And yes, she was wearing a coat earlier... but this is what happens with Phoenician snow days - children get warm.
I think everyone is yelling "snow" or maybe "cold" or maybe just yelling as they try not to fall off the 'mountain'.
Notice the slider in shorts.
Some children discovered that if you kick the pile, it looks like it is snowing!

All the coats and sweaters drying in the wonderful, warm Arizona sunshine (and that's a compound word!)Gloves and mittens:
Very short video clip