Winter Wonderland

My classroom was starting to look a little sad after all of the Christmas projects were down and the walls were bare. But now we have some fun stuff back up and I'm loving the way it looks with the kids' hard work all displayed. 

Our first week back after winter break was focused on snowmen. We read lots of fun books and did some writing. First, we created winter scenes by fingerprinting, tear art, and marble painting. We learned about describing words and came up with sentences for our each snowman. Afterwards, we watched "The Snowman" by Raymond Briggs, a wordless book & movie. The kids were in awe! I highly recommend it. 

Next, we discussed snow globes, what they are, and how they work. We watched the adorable Pixar movie short of the snowman stuck in a snow globe wanting to get out. This helped the kids brainstorm ideas for what they would do if they lived inside a snow globe. 

Then we spent a week learning all about Martin Luther King. My class seemed very interested in learning about him which makes it even more fun to teach. We read books and our monthly Scholastic magazine focused on MLK. Then we created him and wrote our own speeches, "I have a dream to....". They came up with such wonderful dreams. We also watercolored peace plates to go along with the MLK theme. 

Next week, it's all about penguins!