Back to School, Snowman Style

Winter vacation is over.

Fini.

Done.

The blitzy glitzy holidays are over too, but going cold turkey off of the sparkle and and shine can be a bit of a downer...

My advice?

Keep the silver glitter within easy reach.  White paint and light blue paper too.

When your students return to school, review.  Review your shapes, review your pencil position (using a paint brush), and review your colors.  Review measurement comparisons, small, medium and large, and if anyone asks, tell them you're conducting a "performance assessment" of your students by having them put those sizes in order by painting the three snowy circles of a snowman:





Learn a new poem while the paint dries:

A chubby little snowman
had a carrot nose.
Along came a bunny,
and what do you suppose?
That hungry little bunny
thought he found his lunch,
and down came the carrot,
nibble, nibble, crunch!

Draw and cut out an orange "carrot nose" from construction paper scraps. Glue onto the snowman, and then use additional scrap paper to fashion a hat and some twiggy arms:




Eyes and a smile, maybe some buttons or two, can be added with a black marker or crayon... (or find some buttons to glue on!)

Draw some snowflakes and swirl lines, trace with "wet glue" and apply silver glitter and voila! Sparkle withdrawals averted!

(Extra silver tinsel garland can be used as bulletin board trimmer or artwork frames too- photos tomorrow!)

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~ Felt board snowmen can be found over at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman...

~ Make and Takes shares a tutorial on how to make a "Snowman on the Go" kit...

~ Bakerella amazes with Frosty inspired cake pops...

~... and here's an easy paper plate snowman that students would enjoy making at a center...

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Don't forget, with snowmen we can be walking in the air...

Posting Learning Objectives/Chubby Little Snowman

Does your district require that you post learning objectives in your classroom? Very often I've seen a single piece of paper hung on the wall nearest the door or first marker board, with phrases such as "Learner will create and extend AB, ABC, and ABB patterns," printed out single-spaced, in a font size that not many students will be able to see, because really, they're not the ones who require the objectives to be posted in the first place.

Instead of merely complying with an administrative mandate, why not use the objectives as goals or focus points accessible by your students?

While many of my students aren't able to read our weekly goal chart at the beginning of the year, here at the midpoint quite a few of them can read the sight words, enjoy sounding out the new vocabulary, and ask me at the beginning of each week "What are we going to learn this week Mrs. Sommerville?"



I've turned our objectives into "we" statements (which students regularly use as "I" statements- talk about empowering!), such as "We will learn facts about Kansas" or "We will identify solid shapes: sphere, cube, pyramid, cylinder, rectangular prism, cone." " We will use number lines and count past 30" garnered lots of oohs-aahs and "COOL's!" Now it's not just me, my aide, my principal, and any other classroom visitor who will know what we're doing in kindergarten during any given week- my students are in on the plan, exactly as they should be!

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Here's a peek at our writing center:



Full of paper, stencils, colored pencils, and word books:



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January is the perfect time to make snowmen! If Mother Nature doesn't deliver snow, paint the cool characters instead:





One of our classroom poems this month is The Chubby Little Snowman:

A chubby little snowman

had a carrot nose.

Along came a bunny,

and what do you suppose?

That hungry little bunny

thought he found his lunch,

and down came the carrot,

nibble, nibble, CRUNCH!

For a hallway display (photo tomorrow), I've modified the poem to read:

Each chubby little snowman

has a carrot nose.

Along comes a bunny,

and what do you suppose?

This hungry little bunny

thinks he's found his lunch,

so down comes the carrot,

nibble, nibble, CRUNCH!

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Beautiful Words for April

My kindergarten students recite this poem each April, but also like to use it as a prompt for their journals, because of course, five and six year olds certainly have their own feelings about rain:

Let the rain kiss you

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops

Let the rain sing you a lullaby

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk

The rain makes running pools in the gutter

The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night

And I love the rain.

- Langston Hughes, 1902-1967, April Rain Song

Little Eyes Upon You

LITTLE EYES UPON YOU

There are little eyes upon you and they're watching you everyday.
There are little ears that quickly take in every word you say.
These are little hands all eager to do anything you do.
A little child who’s dreaming of the day they’ll be like you.

You’re the little child’s idol, you’re the wisest of the wise.
In their little mind about you no suspicions ever rise.
They believe in you devoutly, hold all you say and do.
They will say and do, in your way, when they’re grown up just like you.

There’s a wide-eyed little person who believes you’re always right.
And their eyes are always opened, and they watch all you all day in delight.
You are setting an example every day in all you do.
For the little person who’s waiting to grow up to be just like you.

Author Unknown