jwinterhiberna

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Winter and Hibernation

Winter:

From Stormie:

Although I'm posting ideas below as often as I can, my very favorite activities have been reserved for my "WINTER" booklet (see the "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers" section of my website).

Group Time Activity: "Pin the Nose On Frosty":

Draw a simple snowman on a large sheet of paper or posterboard and hang it on your easel. Cut out a carrot shape for a nose and attach masking tape to the back. Have the children take turns being blindfolded and trying to pin the nose on Frosty. You may have to replace the tape a couple times, but no problem. (Sometimes younger children don't want to be blindfolded, so they can just look in another direction while pinning on the carrot. They also sometimes get their feelings hurt when they know others are laughing at where they put the carrot, so talk about how it's just a game. You play the game too, placing the carrot in an obviously incorrect position, then laughing at yourself.) This old-fashioned game teaches children to have a sense of humor.

*At home, start saving all kinds of large clear plastic bags you get from stores or elsewhere (clear dry cleaning bags, for example). They make good "temporary" lamination. For example, if you drew the snowman above on posterboard, you could cut clear plastic to fit over it, taping down the edges on the back. Photo albums, bought cheaply at thrift stores, also make great substitutes for lamination. Using real laminating machines is expensive and clear contact paper can be a pain. But one photo album can be used again and again--put math cards in it one month and language cards in it the next month. Zip-lock bags can also be used.

Art Center Creative Play: "Snowy Things":

Let the children use an eggbeater to make a batch of pretend snow by beating Ivory snow (flakes work better than the powder) and warm water. They can then "play" in it by spreading it on natural objects: non-prickly pinecones, thick sticks from trees, leaves, rocks, etc. to represent objects in a snowstorm. Put their "works" on styrofoam trays to take home. Depending on what the object is, you may be able to staple it to the base. This is definitely a "process" oriented activity!

Creative Snowy Day Picture: Provide blue paper, white and blue chalk, styrofoam peanuts, and other white collage materials for the children. Instruct them to create their own "Snowy Day Pictures."

Variation: (Creativity Within the Limits of a Theme): Give each child a "snowman" cutout to glue to their papers first, then have them create their snowy day around it.

Stormie's Games: By the way, would you like a couple winter related learning games for your classroom? I offer "Winter/Summer Sorting Cards" and "Snowflake Lotto" in the "Teaching Aids" section of "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers.
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~Scarlett sends this great idea:
Winter Table: "I recently tried a new idea for covering an old table. Have children make snowmen, glue them on blue paper, then white paint some snow on the papers. Once the papers are dry, lay them on the table and cover it with contact paper. This is a great way to cover up flaws, and children get to enjoy their artwork at the same time. It looks beautiful and has "stayed together" very well. I plan to re-do it later with a spring theme."

~From R Stratton:
Wonderful Sensory Recipe: Mix shaving cream and Elmer's glue, about half and half. Pour it into small containers and let children mix it with a craft stick. They can then use sticks, fingers, and/or paintbrushes to make their own version of a "snow" picture on blue construction paper.

~From Kimerly Gaines:
Room Decor: I like to hang die-cut snowflakes from the ceiling.

~Here's oodles of ideas from my good friend, Debbie Reynolds:
Bulletin Board: Igloo: Children cut out snowballs. Print their names on them. Assemble the snowballs to look like an igloo on the bulletin board.

Art: Snowflakes With a Twist: Provide children with black construction paper, white chalk, and orange chalk. Let them draw a snowman on the construction paper with the white chalk and decorate him with the orange chalk. Show them how to make dots on the paper with the white chalk and rub lightly with their fingers to make them look like snowflakes. When the pictures are finished, spray each one lightly with hairspray to keep from smearing the chalk.

Pre-Math:
1. Snowman Bingo: Make bingo boards out of tag board: Draw lines with markers about the width of a ruler, four down, four across. Place small (winter themed) stickers on the top of the boards where the bingo letters would be. Randomly number or letter the boxes on the boards. From another piece of tag board, cut small squares, on one side put a sticker, on the other, a random number (or letter). To call, pick one square (snowflake, B, etc.) until a board is full. The first child to fill their board (or whatever you decide) says "Frosty" instead of bingo.
2. Numerical Order: Precut, decorate and number up to 10 snowmen and have children put them in numerical order.
3. Snowman Count: Children draw a numbered piece of paper from a hat (1-5) and assemble a snowman using that number of circles.

Language:
1. Flannelboard Snowmen: Cut out flannel shapes for building a snowman (white circles, different color hat shapes, scarves, brown broom, etc.). Children assemble and describe them to the class (What's your snowman's name? Can you tell us a story about him/her?)
2. Snowman Alphabet: Precut, decorate and label snowmen with letters of the alphabet, upper and lower case, and have the children match the letters.

Song:
You Are My Snowman
(Tune: You Are My Sunshine)
You are my snowman,
My lovely snowman,
You make me happy when skies are gray.
You'll never know, Snow, how much I love you.
Sun, please don't take my snowman away!

Snowman Poem
I am a snowman round and fat (arms stretch out)
Button eyes and tall black hat (point to eyes and hat)
When the sun comes out you'll see (point to sky)
That will be the end of me! (fall on the ground)

Fingerplay:
Five Little Snowmen
5 little snowman, sitting by the door, out came the sun and then there were 4
4 little snowman, sitting by the tree, out came the sun and then there were 3
3 little snowmen sitting by the zoo, out came the sun and then there were 2
2 little snowmen, sitting just for fun, out came the sun and then there was 1
One little snowman wishing he could run, out came the sun and then there was none!

~Here are a couple of great ideas from Elsa in Canada:
*Finger Skating To Music: This idea is from a friend: Give the children dark colored construction paper and then put some white paint in the center of their papers. Play a waltz for background music and ask the children to skate with their hands and fingers in the paint.
*Outdoor Creative Drama: This winter, after snowstorms, I put my playhouse on the outside deck along with big cars, buckets, shovel, etc. We also play "soccer" on the real snow. They love it!

Favorite Books:
From Stormie:
* The Mitten, Written by Alvin Tresselt; Yaroslava, illustrator: A little mouse and her friends take shelter from the cold of winter in a lost mitten. (This is another one of my many thrift store books. It's meant for older children but the story is wonderful and by reading it in advance, I'm able to make adaptations accordingly. If I can do it, so can you.)
* The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats: This is a wonderful story about a little boy playing in the year's first snowfall.
* Snow Is Falling, by Franklyn M. Branley; illustrated by Holly Keller: This is a neat book that teaches children all about snow.

~From Lorie Morales, Las Cruces, New Mexico:
Hi Stormie. I used "The Mitten" story (see above), then as a follow-up activity, I gave the children a construction paper mitten about as big as an average woman's hand. They then cut out animal pictures and tried to remember which animal went into the mitten first, second, and so on. Also, as a follow-up to "The Snowy Day" story (see above), I had the children cut out as many of their own snowflakes as they wanted to (in white or blue). I also like "The Hat" by Jan Brett. In this story, a hedge hog puts a sock on his head thinking it's a hat that will keep his head warm. All the other farm animals then take various cothing items from the clothesline thinking they are magnificent hats.
~From Theresa Muth:
Hi Stormie. Our class presented a very simple play for parents using "The Mittten" story: I laid a large white sheet on the floor and as each animal was named, they would crawl underneath the sheet. (If you have more children than animals, just have 2 of some). When the bear sneezes, I lift the sheet up exposing the children underneath. The children (and parents) loved it!

~From Rita Neher:
When doing "The Mitten," I too put something white on the floor so the kids can crawl in, but I make it smaller than the group at large, so they can experience the closeness of all the animals. After they have played around with this for awhile, we make a mitten book. The covers and all the pages are mitten-shaped. Each child contributes a page by drawing what they would like to have in the mitten with them.........It gets funny if particular groups of children sit together and they get on a tangent........They all try to out-do one another.

~From Stephanie:
I always read the story "The Mitten, a Ukrainian Folktale." There's also a version by Jan Brett. We read the story then the children love to act it out. We spread a blanket out on the floor and the children pretend they are the animals in the story and crawl under it (of course, they stick their heads out so that they can breathe!). The "mitten" gets more and more crowded, resulting in lots of giggles. Finally, at the end of the story it "bursts" and the kids go scrambling. We have a lot of fun with it.

~Donna King, Roxboro, North Carolina, has these favorite "winter" books:
*Pooh Welcomes Winter, Written by Kathleen Zoefield and Illustrated by Robbin Cuddy: Pooh and friends look for winter to come but are surprised to find that winter is not a person!
*Winter Barn, Written by Dorothy Ripley and Illustrated by Pat Schories: A beautifully-illustrated book about life in a barn during a snowstorm.

~Pat Stajek-Vorwerk from Jackson, New Jersey, shares this book and great follow-up activities:
"I just used the book Frog in Winter, by Max Velthuijs for my book of the week. Despite the fact that he is unequipped with fur, fat, or feathers to keep him warm, cold-blooded Frog still insists on venturing out onto snow covered land. He finds he absolutely can't stand the cold, so his friends rabbit, pig, and duck come to his rescue by knitting him a warm sweater. I used an old "Kermit the Frog" doll for demonstration, and we dressed him up with clothing as depicted in the story! The children loved this story and I was able to teach so many concepts from it: seasons, weather, animal characteristics -- cold blooded vs. warm blooded (science); counting the number of animals in the story, counting the different activities the animals did in the story (math); other animals helping the cold frog get warm (social interaction). I'm sure this is a book you will love."

~Kathy Murphy, MMT, MT-BC (board-certified music therapist) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania says:
"I recently found the book 'Oh!' words by Kevin Henkes, pictures by Laura Dronzek, Published by Greenwillow Books, in New York, ISBN No. 0-688-17053-6 (trade); ISBN NO. 0-688-17054-4 (lib. bdg.). This book is beautifully illustrated and the text is very simple. It's a story about different animals playing in the snow, and it's great also for creative movement as children can act out the story with or without background music."

Susan Wray, Library Storytime Leader, from Dyersburg, Tennessee believes wholeheartedly in teaching the love of books and reading to children, and she shares this fantastic "snowman" idea with us:
Advance Preparation: Spread out a large white sheet or fleece fabric on the floor, then throw cotton balls all over it (or torn handfuls of polyester stuffing). Place two really large empty plastic oval (or roundish) containers in the center (or other container that you can visualize as being a snowman).
1. Read "The Snowman," by Raymond Briggs (or other snowman book).
2. Do a "snowman" action rhyme. Here's a suggestion I found years ago in "Wee Sing for Christmas," by Pamela Beall and Susan Nipp who list the author of the rhyme as unknown:

The Chubby Little Snowman The Chubby Little Snowman had a carrot nose (make fat tummy using arms & hold fist out in front of nose) Along came a bunny, and what do you suppose? (hop with fingers, then shake pointer finger) That hungry little bunny, looking for his lunch (rub tummy, shade eyes, & look around) Ate the snowman's carrot nose. Nibble, nibble, crunch! (grab nose then pretend to eat) 3. Have the children fill the containers with the cotton ball snow. Then place a white ball or balloon on top for a head. Next, children can place sticker dots on it (as facial features and buttons). Place a top-hat on him and throw a scarf around his neck.
Nice touches that add to the drama:
1. I dressed in a white sweat outfit. I pinned black felt circles onto my pants and shirt for buttons, threw a scarf around my neck, and wore a black floppy hat. (I looked just like "The Snowman" in the Briggs' book.)
2. Have children wear mittens while stuffing the jars (good small muscle exercise).

~This bit of "winter in the classroom" humor comes to us from Elly Lampner, Randolph, Massachusetts:

Did you hear about the teacher who was helping a child put his boots on?

He asked for help and she could see why. With her pulling and him pushing, the boots still didn't want to go on. When the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost whimpered when the little boy said, "Teacher, they're on the wrong feet." She looked, and sure enough, they were. It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on -- this time on the right feet. He then announced, "These aren't my boots." She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, "Why didn't you say so?" like she wanted to. Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off. He then said, "They're my brother's boots. My Mom made me wear them." She didn't know if she should laugh or cry. She mustered up the grace to wrestle the boots on his feet again. She said, "Now, where are your mittens?" He said, "I stuffed them in the toes of my boots..."

Hibernation:
From Stacy:
Science: Fat Experiment: Here's a way to demonstrate how fat helps to insulate animals (like bears and penguins) during the winter. Place a layer of shortening (Crisco?) into a baggie, then slip that baggie into another one. For the experiment, children place their bare hand into ice, then compare how cold that feels to slipping their hand into the water wearing the baggies (they slip their hand into the baggie like a glove -- between the two baggies -- they don't touch the shortening). They get to feel how cold it is without the "fat" and then they feel how much warmer it feels with the "fat."

From Susan Langly, in Illinois:
Fine Motor: Puff Paint Bears: Stormie, we always do this for our hibernation unit. It's probably familiar to you but I thought I'd share it anyway: Mix equal parts of water, salt, and flour. Add liquid brown tempera paint. Pour the mixture into squeeze bottles and have children then "squeeze" paint out onto brown bear shaped cutouts. When dry, the bears have a kind of 3-D puffy look.

From Stormie:
Classroom Decor: Post pictures of hibernating animals around the classroom at the beginning of your "winter" unit, or better yet, after discussing which animals hibernate, allow the children to cut pictures from magazines for posting around the room or on the bulletin board. Because such pictures would have cutting curves that may be difficult, you could go through the magazines yourself in advance and draw basic shapes around the animals with a marker. Children would then cut on the shape outline.

Creative Art: Caves (creativity within the limits of a theme): Announce to the children at the beginning of your winter or hibernation unit that you have provided small brown bags and boxes in the Art Center for this month (or week or whatever) where they can make caves for animals to sleep in during the winter. Discuss what we might see in or near a cave (snow, sticks, trees), or look at pictures.

Creative Drama: Classroom Cave: Provide a huge brown appliance sized box with an oval opening cut into it for your creative drama area and allow children to be hibernating animals.
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