SNOW Much Fun… with a HUGE Freebie

Snow much fun learning ideas are here. We are here to cover everything about SNOWMEN in a kindergarten classroom, including an awesome Classroom Management idea with a HUGE freebie. {Keep reading… it will be worth it.}

Snow Much Fun!

Each January, I get excited when I get to teach about snow, ice, and SNOWMEN. Here in Georgia, we get snow maybe once a year. And usually that doesn’t “stick” to the ground for more than a day. Snow is a novelty here; fun and exciting.

When we talk about snow and ice, my students know what fake snow. This is my Instant Snow sensory station. We use Be Amazing Insta-Snow in plastic bins. Although this is cool, we have to add the educational element and the fun element by adding Arctic and Antarctic toys to the snow bins. I love the size of these Safari Ltd Arctic TOOB.

{I have larger toys in there too, but I don’t recommend that size. The smaller figures work better and last longer.} And ice is something people from the south put in their tea… or it is in their freezer.

Making Ice

We love doing water science experiments like this one pictured above to make ice. As a class, we predicted which cup of water would freeze first. Since each cup had a different amount of water in it, it was fun to check on our cups over the entire morning.

Again, since I live in Georgia and it is rarely below freezing during the school day, we take advantage of cold days. I believe it was actually below freezing outside on this day so we placed the cups outside our back door to the classroom. We also discusses whether the cups should be in the sun or shade. If it is not cold enough outside to freeze water, you can use various locations around the school including a refrigerator and freezer.

Integrating Books

Good thing we have some great children’s books to help bring alive the fun of snowmen to aid our lack of experiences. You can read more about great book titles here.

I highly recommend using the fictional book Sneezy the Snowman book.

Integrating Snowman Fun

Check out some of these differentiated snowman number writing activities.

We role the die and fill in one box in that ten frame to match the image on top. They keep going until one of the images has all ten frames. Then, they count all the totals and place it in the box. I check them and ask them comparing numbers questions.

Additionally, we go through the steps it takes to make a snowman. Remember that although some students may make snowmen regularly, many students like my little learners, may find this difficult.

Writing Fun

Additionally, since our standards include informative writing, we can also use the idea of a snowman to cover this. We can write about things each snowman has, using the provided prompts. These prompts work well in independent writing station. We also write to describe the snowmen using the second set of prompts. After using these, my students have all the tools they need to write some awesome informative writing.

Classroom Management Idea

 This is a Hide and Hug Olaf doll and book. It was marketed to me as a way cooler version of that creepy elf. When I got the book I was pleased to read it wasn’t Christmas or holiday based. It seems to actually be a little more like a fun hide and seek game to play at home. Well, lets fix that! I am going to use this as a motivating game in my classroom.

After updating this, this Hide and Seek Olaf is harder to grab but you can get other Olaf Stuffed Animal to use instead. This means that Olaf is making his appearance in my classroom in my classroom. He will be hidden and none of the kids will know where he is.

The Hide and Hug Olaf book is very general, which helps in some ways. Here is my idea. I wanted to plan a specific way to use this Olaf as a Classroom Management tool in my room. My solution? An AWESOME freebie to help you find kindness, thoughtfulness, and positive students in your own classroom.

Grab this Freebie Idea

 Our Olaf experience begins when I read this book to my class, THIS letter from Olaf will “fall” out of the back of the book. This note gives my class an idea of what Olaf is looking for in his friends. I plan to give this note to my weekly star student to start the game. THAT STUDENT gets to find Olaf, who will be hiding in the classroom. Once the star student finds him, that students gets to keep Olaf with him all day.

Snow Much Fun Printables

Yes, I know this won’t be perfect, but it will be FUN. And I know it will encourage the behaviors I want to be seeing in my classroom. And the students who earn the right to hug Olaf all day are the ones who deserve something a little more fun. And my idea isn’t to use Olaf to reward those who are the BEST behaved, but those who are kind, thoughtful, and positive.

I made some fun printable encouraging note for those that try so hard, but don’t get to hug on Olaf that day. I will print these and have them cut out and on hand to place on desks of those kind, thoughtful, and positive students.

I also made a printable card that you can write in great student efforts to give them too! They are the white ones in the back. Please customize these with specific great acts “Olaf” sees through the school day.

Next, Olaf leaves the note for ONE new friend to find every day. But that friend has to FIND Olaf. I am thinking of having my friends who got Olaf to sign the back of the note each day too. So they leave Olaf and the note behind at the end of the day. You can also have Olaf hidden and  watching your students all morning long, but not giving out the note until after lunch.

Finally, remember you can chance this so you can do whatever works for you and your needs. I also wanted a way to encourage the class. There are two additional classroom note to encourage the class. One is from Anna and the other from Elsa.