It’s January,
and teachers are deep into that long winter stretch in the classroom. Meanwhile, what the kids (and teachers) are
actually thinking about is snow holidays and how much fun they could have with
a few of those!
With the
major winter holidays behind us, it can be difficult to think of fun classroom
activities to keep everyone interested and engaged. With that in mind, I’ve collected some links
to ideas for the smaller winter holidays still to come and just for winter in
general. I’ll mention just a few below,
but you can see more on my Winter and Winter Holidays Pinterest board.
Groundhog Day
I’ve listed
a number of ideas in a Groundhog Day post that I wrote recently for my own
blog, but I’ll just mention one favorite here.
These groundhog cookies, from Sheknows,
are so cute. They’re made from no-bake
cookie dough. You could make the cookies
ahead and have the kids just add the groundhog for a quick, edible craft.
Valentine’s Day
“Today I Got a Valentine,” by Kenn Nesbitt, is one of the many funny kids’ poems that you
can find at one of my favorite poetry sites, Giggle Poetry. Explore the
site a little further, and you’ll find a whole section of silly love poems that
might also be perfect for the holiday.
President’s Day
The History Channel has good
informational text and a video for President’s Day. The text tells about the origins of the
holiday and holiday celebrations, and the fast-paced two-minute video is full
of facts about the White House.
Saint Patrick’s Day
“Saint Patrick’s Day Riddles” is a FREEBIE from my own store, Classroom in the
Middle. With this PowerPoint, students
reveal clues one at a time to solve Saint Patrick’s Day Riddles.
For a Saint
Patrick’s Day treat, these little shamrocks, from a blog post at Qbees Quest, look really great. They’re made from Hershey’s Kisses and heavy
paper (green, of course).
Winter
·
The “Winter Storms” web page, from Scholastic
includes informational text, a vocabulary cloze activity, and an
experiment. Students will also enjoy the
“interactive weather maker” where they can manipulate temperatures and humidity
to create weather changes. There are related pages about volcanoes,
earthquakes, and other types of severe weather.
·
Recently, I found these directions for making
sparkly snowflake window clings from puffy paint, glitter, and plastic freezer
bags at the blog One Little Project at a
Time. This project looks like one
that can be enjoyed by any age.
· "Close Reading – Wild Winter” is a resource
available in my store. It includes four
informational text articles, and everything needed for a full three readings of
each. The image below shows all of the
activities for one of the readings.
·
Sticker Snowmen Cards, a project from Art Projects for Kids, looks like a fun
activity. Kids make a number of snowmen
using round white stickers, mailing labels, and markers, and then change the
expressions on each one and even give them a sense of movement by altering just the facial features and the snowman’s
buttons.
Do you have
favorite lessons, treats, or fun activities that you like to pull out
mid-winter? If you would like to share,
please leave a comment!
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