Theme: Snow
January Themes: My boys (ages 2, 4) go to preschool twice a week, so I planned our activities for the off days - Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I printed a monthly chart (link to come) as a way to keep organized and stay on track. However, some weeks we just do activities as we go. Here's the second theme at a glance:
MONDAY:
Letter (Snowflake S): My four loved making these snowflakes! This was definitely a team effort as I taught him how to fold the paper and cut into the snowflake. You can view a paper snowflake tutorial here. My two mostly enjoyed opening the snowflakes I had already cut and ripping them into pieces ;)
Numbers (Snowman Buttons): Both my boys (ages 4, 2) loved counting buttons on snowmen! It could be because after completing each one they earned a mini chocolate chip. My two is really great at counting and one-to-one correspondence, but we're still working on number recognition. I placed two snowmen together and we worked on addition with my four. He thought it was hilarious the snowmen kept adding up to 10. (1+9, 2+8. 3+7, 6+4). You can print the snowmen from Totschooling.
Sensory (Snowmen at Play): As always, we absolutely love sensory play! I mixed baking soda and water for the base (snow!) in our bin today. My two especially loved making balls and squishing them. My four was more interested in making a "perfect snowman" with our Melting Snowman Kit.
Gross Motor (Snowball Fight): Throwing, chasing, rough housing. These snowballs were calling our names. I found a set of them in the dollar section at Target over Christmas Time. These are perfect and soft "snowballs" to have a snowball fight. You can find them here on Amazon, but they're much more expensive. Lots of laughing tonight!
WEDNESDAY:
Art (Baked Snowmen): Have you ever made Baked Cotton Balls? I recently heard of the idea and had to give them a shot! The paint is made from flour and water (super easy!) and my boys liked making the snowmen, but LOVED smashing it afterward. Click the link above for a tutorial and recipe!
Outing (Indoor Sledding): Since it rarely snows in Oregon, we had to be creative on our outing this week! I saw this idea of indoor sledding on Pinterest and we decided to give it a try! You'll need a large cardboard box and some packing tape.
Treat (Snowman Donuts & Hot Cocoa): Who doesn't love a good donut and hot cocoa??
Fine Motor (Baked Snow Smash): This was one of our all-time favorite letter activities we've done! I made baked cotton balls (AKA "baked snow") and wrote letters A-Z on top. For my four, I called out a letter sound and he smashed the letter and for my two I showed him a flashcard and he smashed the matching letter. It helped having different colors of baked snow, so my two could more easily find the letter. "The B is Yellow."
FRIDAY:
Shape (Magnetic Snowflakes): We haven't used these magnetic foam shapes in a long time, but my four especially was really into them! He even requested and played with them an hour afterward for his quiet time. I taught him how to make patterns with the pieces as we identified the shapes. This was a good shape and color review for my two! The magnetic boards are from Lakeshore Learning.
Rhyme (Once There Was a Snowman): We had to do this song with our theme!
Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman
Once there was a snowman. Tall, tall, tall.
In the snow he melted, melted, melted.
In the snow he melted. Small, small, small.
Science (Melting Snowmen): I bought this "Let it Melt!" snowman kit off Amazon and we used the pieces earlier in the week for our sensory play. Today, we used them for our science activity. We never actually waited for them to melt! But, we did have a lot of fun seeing how far the putty would stretch and making snakes, ghosts and snowmen with the putty. My boys played for quite a while.
Colors (Colored Snow): It is so rare to have snow in Eugene, so we took advantage and colored the snow today! I filled squirt bottles up with water and food coloring (next time I'll do liquid water colors, so it doesn't stain hands... Or faces.) The boys went around the yard for a long time squirting snow wherever they could find it. If you don't have snow, you could fill a bin with cotton balls or crushed ice to spray. You could even spray the suds in a bath tub.
Snow Booklist: And of course, we read often throughout the week. We mostly read before our quiet times each day, but we occasionally read during a meal or random time during the day. I placed these books on hold at our local library a week in advance and we enjoyed reading them this week as we learned about snow:
- Dream Snow by Eric Carle
- The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel
- The Missing Mitten Mystery by Steven Kellogg
- Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright
- Snow by Uri Shulevitz
- The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
- Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner
- Snowflake Bently by Jacqueline Martin
- Snow is My Favorite and My Best by Lauren Child
- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
