winter

Mrs. Beggs'

Kindergarten

January Theme Ideas

Snow & Penguins

Math Center- Students were to play Roll a Snowman between their group. When they finished that they made a pattern block snowman.

Science Center - Students here made igloo's out of toothpicks and marshmallows. When they finished that they mixed colored water on snow.

Reading/Listening Center - Students listen to the books Happy Birthday Martin Luther King, Jr. & The Snowy Day.

Writing Center - I have a blank booklet with the nouns in the sentence copied on six pages. They must copy and illustrate what I have written on the wall or at least part of it. I usually focus on the words that we are learning for the week. For example, our sight word for this week was "This", So my booklet goes as follows:

This is a blue ice skate.

This is a white igloo.

This is a red scarf.

This is a white snowman.

This is a yellow boot.

This is a green hat.

When students are finished, they will either

read their book to the parent helper ,there in the

picture, or myself. They must be able to read

back their own handwriting.

Teacher Center - This is the center that I work one on one with a group of children. This is when I teach them how to read. I have a parent helper helping out the rest of the class at this time so that I can focus on only that group. Yes, I have someone come in everyday for an hour. If I can't have a parent then I pull a Jr. High child during their study hall.

Kate is painting a snowman at the Paint Station.

To the left we are making an Igloo in our classroom. This is where we are going to read books when it is finished. Below it's almost finished! It took about 4 weeks to collect all the milk jugs!

A Macaroni Penguin made out construction paper. Below is a a collage of them as well as a chart with penguin facts in the middle.

Mr. & Mrs. Paperplate Penguins.

These are penguins made out of paper bags. They were painted black, then construction paper was added for the rest. My co-worker, Mrs. Fox, did these with her class. She put down a white sheet and had all the penguins scattered all around to simulate a penguin rookerey. This was so cute!

Here is our Penguin Quilt. We make a quilt every month by painting our hands. This month we made penguins out of our hands. Then we made an AB pattern out of black & white squares. Students already have a 5x5 grid where students lay down their squares. We put this on bulletin board paper and add squares around the edge to give it a quilt look. We send it home with a student at the end of the month.

Pattern Block Snowflakes. (Make sure you start in the middle with your design.

If I were a snowflake . . .

Snowman Head

(Made out of Constructions Paper)

Marshmallow snowmen

I have a pre-drawn line of a snowman. Then students glue down marshmallows, M & M's, Raisins, pretzels, candy corn, construction paper hat & scarf. We dipped our marshmallows in white paint and let them put prints of snow using a marshmallow. These are very cute!!

Wagonwheel Pasta Snowflake

Give each child a puddle of glue on wax paper. Have them lay their pasta in the glue. Make sure their snowflake has 6 points. Sprinkle glitter on it when it is done.

Construction Paper Snowflakes

Make them out of strips of construction paper triangles. Add glitter when finished.

Eskimo Stories

Take a picture of students and put their face inside a cupcake liner. Add the body. Write a story about it. Illustrate.

After reading the book Snowballs by Louis Ehlert we made snowmen of our own. I made a bulletin board out of it.

We made these snowman out of home-made clay. We added our own beads & other odds & ins to decorate with.

Winter Literature

The Mitten

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Snowballs

Mama, Do You Love Me?

Thomas' Snowsuit

50 Below Zero

The Jacket I Wear In The Snow

Froggy Gets Dressed

The Biggest Snowman

The Snowy Day

One Snowy Night

Owl Moon

Jolly Snow

The Big Snow

White Snow, Bright Snow

Animals In Winter

Katie and the Big Snow

Cinderella Penguin

Songs & Fingerplays

I'm A little snowflake,

You can see,

No other snowflake

looks like me!

Please pick me up

After I fall,

And roll me with my friends

To make a snowball!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm a little Snowman

Short and fat,

Here is my nose and

Here is my hat.

When the sun shines

I cannot play,

I just slowly melt away!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Tune: She'll be Comin' Around The Mountain)

("If You're Happy & You Know It")

Oh, you shiver and you quiver when it snows.

Your hands feel just like ice,

so you rub them once or twice.

YES, you shiver and you quiver when it snows.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Tune: Frere Jacques)

Belly flopping, Never stopping,

On my sled, on my sled.

Riding down a snowy hill,

What a giggle, what a thrill.

On my sled, on my sled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FIVE LITTLE SNOWMAN

Five little snowmen standing in a row,

Each had a had and a big red bow.

Out came the sun and it shone all day,

One little snowman melted away.

4, 3 , 2, 1 . . . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A PENGUIN

(Tune: Have You Ever Seen a Lassie)

(Kids love doing the motions to this song!)

Have you ever seen a penguin,

a penguin, a penguin,

Have you ever seen a penguin

swim this way and that.

Swim this way and that way,

and this way and that way.

Have you ever seen a penguin swim this way and that!

Have you ever seen a penguin . . . . .

slide this way and that

waddle this way and that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE CHUBBY SNOWMAN

A chubby little nowman

Had a carrot nose.

Along came a bunny

And what do you suppose?

That hungry little bunny,

Looking for his lunch,

Ate that snowman's carrot

Nibble, Nibble, crunch!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SNOWFLAKE FINGER PLAY

Merry little snowflakes falling through the air (Fingers raised high and moving fast)

Resting on the steeple the tall trees everywhere (Make steeple with 2 pointer fingers and then raise arm for branches.

Covering roofs and fences, capping every post; (Two hands forming roof then hands clasped.)

Covering the hillside where we like to coast (Make scooping motion of coasting)

Merry little snowflakes do their very best (Fingers raised high and moving fast)

To make a soft, white blanket so buds and flowers may rest. (Palms together at side of face)

But when the bright spring sunshine says it's come to say, (Make circle with arms for sun)

Then those little snowflakes quicly run away! (Hide hands behind back)

A lot of people have e-mailed me & asked where I got the Roll-A-Snowman. I wasn't for sure but the KinderKorner subscribers put their heads together and thought it could be from the "Pocket Book" Series. I received this from a packet at a workshop I went to over a year ago. Please e-mail me if you know for sure so I can put it on my website. The Pattern Block Snowman is from the "Pattern Block K-2 Book" Made by the Cuissenaire Company.

In order for the igloo to hold together you MUST use HIGH TEMP glue sticks. You will probably get burnt, as I did, several times. Low temp or multi-temp glue sticks will not work. It will fall apart. Make sure the jugs are rinsed out real good or it will start to stink!

I printed out the masks off of Jan Brett's web site & we reinacted the story of the Mitten.

I took an old waterbed sheet because it is connected at the bottom & added velcro up the sides. We are able to add everyone (all the characters) in the "Mitten". If you want to take the time to find white waterbed sheets & really cut it and shape it to look like a mitten that would be awesome. My old stuff works well, though. Here the mitten was exploding (the very last part of the book). You can see my kids starting to "fly through the air".

"Have You Ever Thrown A Snowball" Graph

"Have You Ever Built a Snowman" Graph

We made pattern block snowmen. Children used the die cut pattern blocks made out of construction paper and glued them down. We graphed the pattern blocks that we used.