Snowmen Ideas

To get my students back in the groove of centers and school after our winter break, I am going to do several snowmen activities and homework assignments that first week. I know I could probably find LOTS of ideas, but I am only doing snowmen for 1 week. Then I move onto my Gingerbread Unit.

Here are a few items, ideas I have found or made.

Math
Snowmen number and pasta snowflakes
Snowmen tally marks (matching I made)
Snowmen ordinal numbers (matching I made)
Snowman ordinal numbers page  (found in a book)
Place Value Snowmen Spinner Game

Snowman Graph - the students use white circles (pre-cut or they cut themselves) and write each letter of their name on 1 circle. They then spell their name vertically. I have my students glue their snowman all on the same long strip. They then can draw their hat and arms and what not. You can use this graph for graphing questions and comparing names. I believe I saw this on pinterest.











Reading and Writing
Listening center (books about snowmen)
Snowman at Night Book: Write and draw what they would do if they were a snowman at night. Can be used on art of a snowman at night or used on pages to create a book.
Choose 2 snowmen books and read them to the class. Have the students write an opinion writing about which book they liked the most. I require my students to write two "I like..." sentences.
1. I like (title of the book).
2. I like (the reason or part).
My snowman has page. I really liked the idea from msmcbeeskinderbugs.blogspot.com, but needed different tracing letters being I don't teach my students writing with curves. My example shows the students that they can write how many circles are on the snowman or the color of his buttons.
Snowman Blends  This is a great game to play to practice blends!

Phonics
Snowmen Word Families - I have my kids play a word family game with snowmen found from HeidiSongs.


Art

Snowman Painting - First, the kids trace lids (overlapping) to form snowman. They paint their body. 2nd day: they paint the snowman's eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons. Last day, the kids use a black rectangle and square to form a hat. They also use thin strips of brown for arms, they draw the fingers on if they want.  The students also use little rectangles in red and green to form a scarf around the snowman's neck.  Next year I would like to use the elmer's glue idea for 3D appearance.  IDEA:  Mix in some epson salt really well and then the snowmen will sparkle!









Snowmen at Night: Students using little squares of white paper to form the face of the snowman on a black or dark blue construction piece.  If you want to connect this activity with Snowmen at Night book, then the students can draw snowflakes and a moon to show nighttime.  At the bottom they attach their sentence about what they would do if they were a snowman at night.  If found this cute idea here.

Marshmallow Snowman
Use marshmallows to paint and design your snowman!  Large marshmallows for the body and little ones for forming eyes, mouth, and buttons! I loved the idea she had of using salt in the paint on one of her snowmen... however, I think I'll do that with my elmer's glue snowman!

Gingerbread Man Unit

It is not yet January, yet I figured it would be easy to just type up my plans on here rather than all my index cards I collect my ideas on! Plus I can always go back and see what I have not done. Of course, I will add to and figure better ideas as the Gingerbread Man Unit actually proceeds. I was given several more ideas from a fellow teacher, but just didn't work for me. (I personally don't like to waste time on something I don't think will REALLY benefit my students or wastes paper- unless its just pure fun it is allowed.)

I have found two online reading of the story of the basic Gingerbread Man story. I have not decided which one I plan to use for the story just yet, but want to keep both options in my memory bank.

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/stories/gingerbread.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnAgA1aZGkY&feature=related

Reading Comprehension
We will be learning story elements. (Characters, setting, plot, ending)  I will ask the class questions to practice identifying each of these elements.  I also plan to do a beginning, middle, end story organizer for the stories.

I have found great chracter masks online for the original story that students can wear to act out the story as it is being read or as it is being retold. They could also be put at a center for dramatic play.

For the entire month of January, I plan to compare two different Gingerbread books. My class will make a Venn Diagram each week using paper plates. Being they are just Kindergartners, we will make a class Venn Diagram. 

Book reading Comprehension or Shared Reading
I have reading comprehension questions to go with the following books:
1. Gingerbread Friends  by Jan Brett
2. The Gingerbread Pirates by: Kristin Kladstrup
3. Gingerbread Baby





Writing
Gingerbread Friends
I give the students a blank house that has been printed on brown cardstock. Then give them optional candies (more candies and strip candies) printed on white paper. (Parent volunteers are great to cut apart candies for easy access.) Then have the students copy the words:    
Then the students get to write their own reasons why the Gingerbread baby should go to their house.

If I were a Gingerbread Boy/Girl Book
I print out a gingerbread outline for each student. The students fill in the blanks on the back and color the front.  Then I hole punch each gingerbread man on the head and ring them together. I have heard ideas where the kids can take turns taking class books home, I am still debating on this for our Gingerbread story.

We'll Stop the Gingerbread Man Book
Take a picture of each student posing in a STOP fashion. I show them a bunch of fun poses to tell someone to stop and let them then choose to show me their favorite/own STOP pose. I print those on pages with a repetitive line. My students love any books they can read that contains their pictures!

If I caught the Gingerbread Man writing page. (Student write what they would do.)

Kind of Gingerbread Man 
Print out several copies of Gingerbread People from Jan Brett's site and allow the students to pick what kind of Gingerbread Person they would be.  She has football player, soccer player, lollipop girl, boy with basket, hiker, boy eating, buckeroo, girl ice skater, and a dolphin trainer. They can then write what kind of Gingerbread Person they would be. You can have them write a sentence expressing why OR have them use that correct to write a story.

Gingerbread Story
Have the students write their own Gingerbread story. Fold 3 pieces of papers in half and cover them with a color cover and staple in the middle to make story books. (parent volunteers!) They can write their very own story. Encourage each page to have some writing from words to sentences (depending on their levels).

Math
We will vote and graph our favorite books each week.
Graphs for Gingerbread Glyph
Gingerbread Buttons Addition Mat - (large) students roll dice and write the 2 numbers down (or use square cards preprinted with numbers). They then put that many buttons on the gingerbread man. They add all the buttons up.
Gingerbread Measuring- students use gingerbread men to measure items around the room and then record their findings. If you wanted to do this activity twice, you could have them practice estimating and then measuring for accurate answer.
Play the Gingerbread Baby Game (practices counting skills)
Play Run, Gingerbread Man, Run Game (counting, data, tally marks, graphing, colors) - I REALLY LIKE THIS GAME with ALL the math practice
Gingerbread Men Pattern Book
Gingerbread number dot stamps
Gingerbread Teen Number Sequence Cards
Gingerbread Man Dot to Dot
Gingerbread Man Color by Number (I added a 1 in front of each number, so it was teen numbers rather than just single digits.
Gingerbread Houses with numbers (can't remember where I found.) The students can make candies with playdough to decorate. Or print and color candies. (These are suppose to be lollipops, but I like them for easy decorating.)
Gingerbread Stamp Numbers - Students could stamp the numbers with number stamps. They could color specific numbers that you instruct.
Gingerbread Man Fact Addition - This blog has a free one that is a good center if you have kids that can do this. I have only a handful of Kindergartners who would be able to do this by themselves.


Listening/Art Skills
We are going to do a Gingerbread Glyph to practice our listening and following directions abilities. I found this idea on www.kidzone.ws   On this same website, there are graphs you can use to show pink/blue buttons and nose amounts in the class. You can also do a blank one and have the students glue the shapes and decorations on the gingerbread man.

I do this one just for fun - Make a Gingerbread Man class chain at the beginning of the unit. Each student gets a Gingerbread man to decorate. Then we hang up our long chain to admire throughout the month! I do this as a center because even having 5 kids work on 1 chain can be challenging.


Social Studies - map skills
Find the 10 hidden Gingerbread Men. (whatever number you want)  Hide your gingerbread men around your room and give the students the mark off sheet. As they find that numbered gingerbread man, they write down where they found it in the correct spot.


Draw out a map of your classroom and have students search for gingerbread men and mark on their maps.  I make 1 gingerbread man and hide him every day and  the person who finds him marks the spot on our map every day. However, you could cut out gingerbread men with students' names on them and have each child search till they all find theirs.

Hide a gingerbread man around the school and have the students follow a map to find him.

Find the Gingerbread Man with clues. You give the class their clue, and they have to guess who has the Gingerbread Man. Then they have to map out how to get to that location. (Count their steps, draw arrows, and X marks the spot.)

If time (and with some help), you can have your students hide the gingerbread man and draw out directions for you the teacher to find the gingerbread man! 

Science
Science Experiment with Gingerbread Man getting wet. This blog has nice science papers already able to be used! My kids love science experiments!

Technology
Starfall has a very fun activity where the students design their gingerbread man. They choose the shapes and colors for his eyes, nose and buttons.

Still debating
I really like this fun idea I found where the students make a book where they are "eating" parts of the gingerbread man. I am just not sure if I want to take the time to have each student make their own book.



Additional Items
If you plan to read, Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, consider printing out the masks for this book as well so the students can act out and retell the story.