Keri Turns Preschool Into a Winter Wonderland

Keri had the opportunity to teach Rhys' preschool class this week (Tuesday and Thursday), introducing the the theme of winter in the woods.  Her emphasis was on dressing for cold weather and snowmen, familiarizing the kids with the letter W, square shape, the numbers 4 and 14, and the colors white and red.

Tuesday we browsed the story Christmas in the Big Woods, talked about what the woods are like, winter weather, and proper winter clothing.  Then we sang "If You're Cold and You Know It...pull on your boots, put on your hat, scarf, mittens, etc., to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It."

Then we made a mobile of said articles of clothing to take home.

We ate a snack that took the shape of a snow hat using bread, radish, and condiments.

We then made our W word wall which included the show and tell items they brought from home starting with W.  We traced a giant W.

We used the giant W to play a game.  The kids pulled on their imaginary snow boots to go stomping in the imaginary snow.  When the W was raised, the kids yelled, "W! Walk!" and stomped away until the W was lowered so they could freeze. We did the repeatedly and the kids each had an opportunity to hold up the W for their friends.

Then we read Three Little Kittens and hunted for hidden mittens throughout the room in red and white.  We had to match them according to color and pattern.

The next class we quickly reviewed winter clothing.  Looked at winter scenes from The Best Christmas Hunt Ever book and looked for particular woodland creatures, what people were wearing, etc.

We traced squares on paper and talked about the distinguishing characteristics of this shape and then pretended it was a window.  We talked about what we might see outside on a winter day in the woods and glued related pictures clipped from magazines into the window.

We sang "Roll, Roll, Roll the Snow" to the tune of "Row, Row, Row your Boat" and used hand motions to build a snowman.

Following that we created snowmen out of paper plates, buttons, crepe paper, pom poms, etc.

For snack we used bagels, cream cheese, baby carrots, and raisins to fashion the face of Frosty.

For show and tell they brought something that represented "cold" to them.

We crumpled paper into snowballs and had a snowball fight over a giant square taped on the floor.  We counted the snowballs that landed in the square and out of the square.  We put the snowballs in the corners, on the sides, and played all over again.

Keri always enjoys letting the creative juices flow and preparing for and teaching preschool.  It's a bit of work but the fun is great and the kids are so excited and proud of their creations.