This year our first and second grades will be having another Snow Day... back by popular demand. In the week before, the kids help by cutting lots of snowflakes and we hang them throughout the hallways with white crepe paper from the ceilings. We have a fake fire place going, and the kids wear their pj's. We do everything you would do on a real snow day. The first part of th eday, we rotate between teachers, listening to snow stories. We also make huge snowmen with materials from home like in Ehlert's Snowballs. The kids spread out, share their supplies, and make a huge mess!
We have a fake snowball fight in the gym with white puff balls. We curl up and read around the room. We decorate cookies and drink hot cocoa and watch Raymond Brigg's THe Snowman. We paint with pastel colors on black mural paper, showing what "snowmen do at night" Pretty much anything goes, but the key is that it's low key and RELAXING!!
Anyone have any ideas to add??
I've attached the letter I send home informing them of the Snow Day and also to bring materials for the snowman project.
Last edited by BookMuncher; 11-26-2006 at 05:44 PM..
I love that! It would be great for the last day before Christmas break! It seems like such a wasted day anyway, but this way it would feel like they were doing something! I may have to borrow this idea if it is ok with you!
here is a link to a website that has pictures and sound effects--you could put on your computers--or even better, if you have a projector/SMARTBoard (there are ocean waves, waterfalls, birds, etc--but i was thinking of the crackling fire place).
also, one thing we've done (in sixth) is a snowball fight--you mentioned that you'd have one--we use this to practice vocabulary. students write a word/concept on the back of 1 sheet of scratch paper and the defiinition/explanation on the back of another. they crumple the papers and start letting them fly! at a given signal, the students pick up the papers, uncrumple, and read--then they go find their "mate". this might be a way to bring in the standards!
also, last year, for a reward, i let the students have PJ day--and i served cookies and milk and read them a "story"--the story was from EdHelper--about Pajama Day--and then they had to practice their reading comprehension by answering some questions about the story.
We do a similar thing when we have a day with snow when it's not enough to get out of school. The kids are sort of crazy when that happens anyway, so we sort of postpone regular lesson plans and pull out the snow plans. We don't do the pj's, but we do snow pictures, watch "The Snowman" video, and the gym teacher does snowball fights in the gym.
What a great idea. We folks in the north often have a "beach day" just before March Break. We pretend we are going someplace warm and sunny because by March we have had just about enough of the real snow.
I will try to think of some snowy ideas for you, but you already have some great ones.
How about making snow angels? The kids could lie down on the gym floor and move their arms and legs to make the snow angel pattern.
How about a relay type of race with hats, scarves, mitts, snowsuits, boots? The kids would be in teams and have to run to the bucket get themselves dressed in outdoor winter clothes, run around a designated spot and then underdress for next kid. (Didn't explain very well but you get the idea. --- Daily physical activity is a requirement here so we are always thinking of ways to get our extra 20 minutes a day in.) Might be hard to get real snowsuits if you are in the south but you could use splash pants or something.
Could you build snow forts? You could probably use the little milk cartons for the snow blocks.
Thanks so much, tia. I love your idea of putting a fireplace up on the computers... my teammates are going to love that too! The snowball fight is a great adaptation too!! I'm so glad that there are fun sixth grade teachers like you in this world.
Thanks, n2n2n2n! I love your idea about the relay race... I think I have gym that day, so maybe I'll ask the gym teacher to integrate that in. We'll have to have the beach day too, as a sister day to the snow day
I hope the other teachers on my team will go for this idea. I'll do it either way! I love to read the story Snowmen at Night. You could read that and draw pictures of what snowmen might do at night....then follow it up with the video. They could even compare and contrast the book and movie. Being a Title 1/Reading First school, I will have to have an educational purpose for my activities.....but I am super excited for this!
We have a "Snow Day At School" every winter, when we need a little break. We complete winter word puzzles, read comprehension passages dealing with snow/winter/etc., complete activities using reading a thermometer as the basis, read the book "Snowmen At Night" and then each student draws his/her own snowman and then writes about the adventure it has, enjoy free reading with hot chocolate. We have also practiced measurement by measuring and graphing how far students can do the the "Standing Snowboot Jump" wearing my snow boots, find the area and perimeter of winter scarves, guess the number of marshmallows in the jar, etc. At the end of the day the students clean out their desks and then we head to the gym with all of the papers they were going to throw away. We then crumple up the discard paper and have a snowball battle. The kids love this day. Everything is connected to the PA state standards except the snowball battle, and that is just a 10 minute management task.
This sounds like so much fun. I will have to try to get our lower elementary to try this in January. December is full for us right now. Thanks for sharing your wonderful idea.
What a wonderful idea. I am going to propose it to my principal to see if maybe we can do it the day or 2 before our Winter Break. If we can't do it this year, I still have hope for next year!! Thanks for the idea! I'll keep thinking of more ideas for you! Have fun!!!
We have Beach Day inspired by the book, Moe the Dog in Tropical Paradise. A great video to go with it is Reading Rainbow's, My Life as a Wave.
You can always adjust activities to make them educational or standards based. We have sea shell math activities or water/volume, measurement, reading, writing postcards, or letters in a bottle. Science has many areas related to water or sea life. Health, first aid or nutritional picnic ideas. I don't teach social studies but my partner always comes up with ideas for that. Just pick your theme & run with it. Have fun!
I love this idea. We may actually have a real snow day tomorrow (actually ice, but no school). They are suppose to make the announcement by 10:00 pm. Anyway, I was planning on trying something new in reading starting tomorrow. I teach 4th grade and want to try doing centers for my Langauge Arts block. I may try and incorporate this one day before Christmas break. Sounds like something my students would really enjoy!
When I got out my file I remembered that we also had a Winter Picnic by eating lunch in the classroom. We also wrote spelling words on the desks in shaving cream. Lots of fun!
11-26-2006, 05:39 PM
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