Welcome to the classroom! We love to play, learn, create and sing together in the classroom, and we’d like to encourage our classroom friends to keep learning and playing at home once Caitie’s Classroom is over. We’ve put together activities and resources so the playing, learning, creating and singing doesn’t have to stop once Caitie says goodbye. Try these out at home or in your own classroom, and have fun!
In this episode of Caitie’s Classroom, we are exploring spectacular snow! Whether it snows where you live or not, you can explore snow along with Caitie with these crafts, activities and more for learning and fun at home.
Snowflakes
Caitie is making paper snowflakes! They are also decorating the classroom, today.
You can make paper snowflakes easily at home. All you need is a piece of white paper (or try making colorful snowflakes!) and scissors. First fold the bottom corner of your paper up to the top edge of the page, and cutt off the extra paper. Continue to fold your paper into smaller triangles a couple more times. Now take your scissors and carefully cut out little shapes from the edges. You can cut off the top corners to make a different shape for your snowflake. When you are done, carefully unfold to reveal your snowflake.
Look for shapes and patterns in your paper snowflakes. How did the different folds make the snowflake look different? How did the cuts you made turn out once you unfolded the snowflake?
Little Snowflake
Caitie sings the song Little Snowflake. Watch the animated Little Snowflake video.
This is a great song for exploring different body parts. Sing it at home and try pointing to other parts of the body. For other tips on how to use this song for more learning and fun, watch our Teaching Tips video for Little Snowflake.
Play Snow
You can play in the snow no matter where you live or what time of the year! All you need are a few simple ingredients you probably already have around the house. Find step by step instructions on how to make play snow Caitie uses in the classroom here (Make At Home Play Snow blog post), as well as tips for learning with play snow.
Getting Dressed for Outside Play
Sometimes it can be hard to get little ones to wear their hats and mittens. Try making it into a game or singing a song! Put On Your Shoes is a good one. https://supersimple.com/song/put-on-your-shoes/
Playing In The Snow
There are lots of ways to have fun in the snow! Caitie shows us a few ways on her field trip to play outside. Here are some other fun activities you can do for learning and fun.
- Make shapes in the snow using your footprints on untouched snow. Try make stars, circles, squares and triangles.
- Try making other figures too! Like a smiley face. See your little ones can figure out a way to make the eyes and mouth without walking into the picture.
- Make shapes, numbers and letters by pressing snow into tree trunks! The bark of the tree often will hold the snow so you can “draw” on it with the snow.
- Make snowballs and count how many you can make.
- Make a snowman using a big snowball, medium snowball and small snowball. Talk about the different sizes and which one should go where.
Looking At Snowflakes
In this episode, Caitie looks at snowflakes close up with a microscope in the classroom. If you don’t have a microscope, you can still get a close look at the shapes of snowflakes with a black sheet of paper.
- Take a black sheet of construction paper outside and gentle scoop some snowflakes onto the piece of paper without squishing them. Shake the paper gently so the snowflakes separate and you can see the shapes of the snowflakes better.
- If you do have a microscope, try looking at snowflakes outside so they don’t melt!
- Each snowflake is different. Look at a few different snowflakes to show how different each one can be!
Shapes In Snowflakes
- Download and print out our Snowflake Worksheet and trace the shapes!
- Try making paper snowflakes and finding shapes in your snowflake creations.
- Design your own snowflake with crayons on a piece of paper. How many different shapes can you add?
I’m A Little Snowman
Watch the animated version of I’m A Little Snowman!
Snowman Craft
Step by step instructions on how to make the snowman craft from the classroom.
Once you’ve made your snowman, act out the song I’m A Little Snowman. Try putting on a snowman play with your snowman puppets.
We hope you have fun singing, playing, learning, and creating! We love to see photos of our friends having fun in the classroom and of their wonderful creations! You can share them with us a few different ways:
