Snow in the Sensory Table

 

Oh the weather outside was frightful...indeed it was this week but we brought the beautiful white, fluffy stuff inside our classroom. Harold spent time shoveling snow from one bucket to another. Later in the morning he watched as the snow melted and dripped through the drain in the sensory table. 

The Snowy Day

Despite the late start and a smaller number of friends in school today, there was no shortage of activities going on in the Keshet class today.  Ethan and Harrison brought in their new SteveSongs CD which provided our beautiful background music.

 The children built towers with the magnetiles...

...Made necklaces with the cheerios,

 

...and even helped prepare our snack by peeling clementines with a special visitor.

We ended the day by going down to the community room and playing with the Levana class.  Not bad for a short day!   We look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday.

Boston-Haifa Early Childhood Connection

The Boston-Haifa early Childhood Connection at North Bridge enjoying the snow

Rada shows Tina how to prepare stuffed  grape leaves

This week I had the privilege of spending time with a group of Israeli teachers who came to Boston as part of the Boston-Haifa Early Childhood Connection. Together we visited the Louisa May Alcott home where we heard a presentation on Bronson Alcott’s philosophy on education. These ideas were not well accepted in the 1860’s but now form the basis of much of our contemporary educational techniques including use of nature as a teaching environment.

In addition, we had a wonderful time in the snow at North Bridge in Concord and had some cooking lessons where we learned how to make stuffed grape leaves. 

Snow and More Snow

The Etzim children were super excited to play in the snow today.  It was perfect snowman/snowangel snow, and we enjoyed every minute of it!

Creating Snowflakes!!

This week we have been excited by SO MUCH SNOW. So we decided to bring snow indoors by creating snowflakes! Creating snowflakes is very much a magical process for pre-school aged kids. It involves a lot of folding and cutting and after a few shapes cut out, you unfold the paper and magically a snowflake appears! What I love about the project, is that there is no, "right-way" to make a snow flake and everyone is unique, just like the snow! Snowflakes also give the opportunity to practice cutting skills and gain fine motor muscles as they practice this skill. It is nice that there is no "pre-determined" line or path in which to cut on, it's just an opportunity to practice cutting and see what each fold and cut creates!
 Many beautiful snow flakes were created.
 Come on in and take a peak tomorrow and see them hung up on the wall of the Tel Aviv room!

Pretend Snow

Adding water to a mystery white powder created 
a fun sensory experience with pretend snow. The powder puffed up right in front of our eyes. It was amazing.We used our hands and spoons to touch the "snow".

Its a Snowy Day in our Classroom

This morning, we brought the outside weather into our classroom. At the sensory table, Piper and Graham play with the penguins in the snow. If you look closely, you can see that Graham wanted to introduce the jungle tiger to snow. What excitement there was when Livi refreshed the old snow with a new supply.

Snow in the Classroom!!

Today on the playground we collected snow and sticks to play with in our classroom. it was neat to have snow inside. We used shovels to bury the sticks and to dig for buried treasure! Some kids liked using their gloves to dig in the snow and other kids liked experimenting how the snow felt on their hands. The snow was smooth and good for packing. We even made a tiny indoor snow-person! So fun!

 

new year - new snow

Happy New Year!!  It was so fun to come outside in our snow pants and boots and frolic in the snow covered playground.  We made snow angels, ate a little snow and explored this brand new setting.

The Snowy Day

What is there to do on a Snowy Day? You can find out in Ezra Jack Keats' classic story The Snowy Day which won a Caldecott medal back in 1963. It was good fun to share at circle this morning. The little boy in the story explores the winter wonderland he awakens to by experimenting with the snow in a number of different ways.

We asked the children whether they would like to build a snowman or make a snow angel in the fresh snow that's falling today. Some of them told us about the icicles that are dripping at their houses.

The Rainbows are always interested in the process of measuring ingredients and stirring to combine them. Today the children took time to make some bran muffins with raisins which they ate along with some fresh pears for snack.

Let it snow...

On Tuesday, the Rainbows were thinking about snowmen. They made snowman pancakes together as well as some mitten pancakes. The smell of freshly cooking pancakes filled the classroom and drifted into the hallway. Making our own snack is such a fun treat! Some of the children experimented in techniques for getting the maple syrup onto the pancakes as well as directly into their mouths.

At circle time, the kids heard a story about a girl who built a snowman over and over through the course of a winter. The animals made off with the edible eyes, nose, and mouth that she used in creating her snowman. Each time the snowman began to melt, she would find a way to save part of the snowman in order to start anew with fresh snow.

The Rainbows also enjoyed using glue to create artistic representations of snow creatures out of cardboard discs, colorful decorations for features, as well as fabric and cotton balls for texture. Hopefully some of you will get a chance to build a snowgirl or snowboy today!