Back from our extended Christmas Break!

Today was our first day back from our extended Christmas Break!  The Snow Storm caused us to close Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and have a 1 hour delay Thursday this week.  Since we missed so many days this week, I have pushed all the lessons back a week.  Today and tomorrow, the kids will participate in fun, educational, learning activities that hit a variety of learning standards.  Today, the kids had a BLAST exploring snow and experiencing different textures and sensory experiences.  The first snow activity was water coloring snow.  I took a large plastic tub outside and filled it with snow.  In then placed cups of water in the snow and allowed the kids to paint with water colors, with out the paper.  During this activity, we were able to work on fine motor skills, pencil grasp, problem solving skills, social skills, colors, and directional strokes.  We mixed shaving cream and glue to make a puffy paint.  The kids used it to make snow creations that had texture and areas of puffy "snow drifts."  During this activity, the students used their creativity and imagination to paint the picture, worked on fine motor skills such as holding a pencil and holding a piece of paper so it did not move.  The third snow discovery activity was painting on the art easel.  I mixed white paint and glitter to give the paint a gritty, rough texture.  The students were allowed to free paint and use their creativity to create whatever they wanted, from painting a snowman to covering the whole paper with "snow."  Tomorrow, we will continue to explore snow and further explore these activities and playing with the new toys and activities I added to the classroom when I rearranged the room.