Winter Around the World
Winter Around the World
| Much more will be added below as I get time to research this topic and then create activities from that information. If you can help with gathering "Winter Around the World" facts that would interest preschoolers, or you can suggest activities, children's books, etc, such assistance would be greatly appreciated. E-mail me at: stormie@preschoolbystormie.com |
Possible Discussion Points:
*Show
children where the continent of Antarctica is located on your classroom globe
(southern end of Earth's axis surrounding the South Pole).
*Provide
Antarctica related pictures and books from the library for children to browse
through in the classroom Library Learning Center.
*Ask
the children: Have you ever been outside on a cold winter day when the wind is
blowing? When you feel the wind, does it make you feel warmer or colder?
(Colder.) That's what it would be like to live in Antarctica.
Antarctica is the windiest and coldest place on earth.
*Facts
we can share with preschoolers on their level of understanding:
Pre-Math:
Cut penguin shapes and randomly shaped icebergs from felt for use in counting
activities on the classroom flannelboard.
Language: Allow
children to tell (create) a story about penguins as you print their words
on paper.
Creative Play Idea: Provide a child sized pair of insulated underwear that children can put on over their clothing. Other items might include: heavy socks and gloves, ski goggles, fur-lined boots, and heavy thermal jackets.
Creative Art: Provide shakers of of salt and baking soda for use in "snowy" creative art projects.
Alaska (Polar Bears):
Polar
Bears:
I
would like to thank Susie T from Issaquah, Washington for suggesting "Polar
Bears" as an optional winter theme for this section of my website, and I'm
pleased she has allowed me to post her "Polar Bear" lesson:
Sea
Ice Journey: During Circle Time, we reviewed facts on the "Polar Bear"
that I found from the internet. Next, we read Little
Polar Bear (written and illustrated by Hans de Beer).
This is a story about Lars, a little polar bear, who
went on his first hunting lesson with his father. After their first day
of lessons (how to follow tracks, swim and dive), they settle down for the night
on some sea ice. During the night, Lars' sea ice broke away and sent Lars
on an adventure to the tropics. He ends up being escorted home by a whale.
After the story,
we reviewed the "bear" facts -- the children told me what they remembered
and we talked about where the bears were found in the story. As a follow-up
to the story, we created Lars' journey on the sea ice while he slept! I
provided black paper, star stickers, white paper for the sea ice, shaving cream/Elmer's
glue mixture (1/2 shaving cream and 1/2 Elmer's glue), and a black pom-pom for
a nose. As a following directions activity, the children glued the sea ice
on the black paper, then painted/globbed the shaving cream mixture onto the ice
for "Lars." Since Lars was sleeping they didn't have to give him
eyes and the nose could go anywhere they felt like putting it! Then they
stuck stars in the sky and presto, it was done! To go along with our lesson,
I put out a jumbo (2' x 3') floor puzzle called "Animals of the Polar Regions"
(1997 Instructional Fair by TS Denison). It was a great day!
From
Stormie:
>Tidbit
of information: Polar bears live in the northern tip of Alaska near ice flows
of the Arctic.
Fine Motor Review: Tearing: It may be an old familiar activity, but it's tried and true: Simply allow children to tear apart sheet cotton and glue it onto a posterboard bear-shaped cutout. They can decide which collage materials to use for the eyes.
Following Directions Activity: Pom-Pom Polar Bear:
Although I prefer creative open-ended activities most of the time, I saw this
"crafty" polar bear at a store recently and couldn't wait to share it
with you as a "following directions" activity: Have children glue a
large and small white pom-pom together as the body and head of a polar bear. They
can then glue black hole-punched dots on the head pom-pom for eyes, and then glue
the "bear" onto a small shape of foil (representing ice) or a small
chunk of Styrofoam (representing an iceberg). What's nice about the Styrofoam
iceberg is that you can then talk about what the word "camouflage" means.
Of course, after this, if you have time left, give children the option of
creatively continuing the activity by creating more of their own polar bears,
icebergs, etc from white collage materials you have provided.
Map
Exposure and Fine Motor Fun: Let's say you have a huge U.S. map spread out
on a classroom table. Let's also say that you live in a warm climate
(maybe Florida) and you want to show the children where a "cold climate"
place is located on the map (Montana, for example). Using a pencil, draw
a line from Florida to Montana (or trace a highway with a highlighter) for children
to trace the route with their fingers. Or, another fun thing to do is have
them line up cheerios all along the line or highway so that a bit of fine motor
practice gets thrown into the mini-geography lesson.
World
Celebrations:
Please click on the link below to review world
celebrations (I will add more of them over time so check back every now and then). Don't
worry, you shouldn't get lost if you go there now as you will be able to link
back to this January page from there.
WORLD HOLIDAYS, CELEBRATIONS, AND FESTIVALS
------------------------
Reminder
from Stormie: If you would like to begin collecting ALL my current classroom
ideas (each on a 4 x 6" index card), as well as new ones that I create, you
can do so by ordering my "Activity Cards." Click here
to check them out.
CONTINUE
ON
OR
REVIEW
JAN CURRICULUM CURRICULUMS
INDEX WEBSITE INDEX HOME
| |