Snowflake and Snowmen Independent Work

Wilson Bentley was the first person to take actual photographs of snowflakes 

using a special microscopic camera.  The children listened to his story in the 

video book, "Snowflake Bentley" by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.  The book was 

a Caldecott Medal book for the fantastic artwork featured.

Our independent work featured many snowflake and snowman activities.
This work is located on the shelves.  The children choose a tray of work
and take it to a table.

Stamping snowflakes in patterns is a mathematical skill.  Many mathematical
concepts relate to looking for and creating patterns.

Winter Stencils

Snowmen/Snowball game.  Roll a die.  Add that many snowballs to the snowman chart.
Reinforces instant recognition of a number, one-to-one correspondence, counting, and
addition.  This game came from: http://prekinders.com/grid-games/

One activity involved punching out snowflake shapes.  Next we glued these to paper to 
create a design or scene.  This was a great small motor building activity.  We also 
used the strips the children punched to create a multiplication activity.

Playdough, snowflake, and snowmen cookie cutters.  This was extremely popular.

Build a snowman with a choice of felt pieces, buttons, and accessories.

Creating snowflakes with chenille stems. Snowflakes generally have six branches.

Schultüten Ceremony on the First Day of School 2013/14

We utilize the Theory of Multiple Intelligence at The Capitol School.  As part of our Verbal-Linguistic activities, we have lessons in German, Spanish, and Chinese.  We have many students from all over the world.  Our families have come from almost 70 different countries.  We have many students from Germany.  

In Germany, it is traditional for parents to give their child a cone-shaped gift, or schultüte on the first day of the first grade.  We utilize a multiage group structure, so our kindergarten and first grade age children are together in a cluster of 5-7 year olds.  This year, 2013/14, we have two 5-7 year old clusters.  

Our German teachers help us celebrate the first day of school by having our own Schultüten Ceremony. It is a great way to open school on the first day.  The teachers make a schultüte for each student. Hannah Box, one of our Lead Teachers devised this method several years ago.

Hannah picks some great colorful materials.

To use Hannah's method to make Schultüte, you will need:

poster board

scissors

duct tape

tissue paper

ribbon

gifts

Cut the poster board into this shape to roll into a cone.

Cut the duct tape to get it ready.  This really helps.

Roll the poster board into a cone shape.  Tape the bottom to secure.

Add a strip of duct tape to hold the ends of the poster board together.

Crumble some tissue paper into a ball.  Put it in the bottom of the cone.

The tissue paper ball will keep the gifts from falling through the bottom of the cone.

Tape some tissue paper around the top of the cone on the inside.

We used duct tape to tape the tissue paper around the inside of the top.  The duct tape is strong.

Add some gifts to the cone.

Hannah picked some great gifts.

We added play dough,  a glow in the dark bracelet, a whistle, a prismatic viewer, a ball, a lei, and some photo props.  The photo props were great since the parents took photos when the children opened their gifts.

Gather the ends of the tissue paper together to close the top.

Secure with a strip of ribbon.

Yes, we made 48!

Five of us worked together.

It took us about 2 1/2 hours.

It was so worth it.  The children loved them.

Here we are starting the ceremony on the first day of school.

Frau Schad taught us how to sing the traditional song in German.

The parents helped us sing, especially the German parents!


We walked to our classroom as we sang:

Hurra, ich bin ein Schulkind...

Hurra, ich bin ein Schulkind und nicht mehr klein.
Hier hab ich viele Freunde, das find ich fein.
In der Schule singen wir, schreiben, rechnen, zwei, drei, vier,
ich möchte vieles lernen, drum bin ich hier.


Und bei dem vielen Lernen da spielt man auch.
Und auch mal kräftig lachen, das ist hier Brauch.
In den Pausen toben wir, uns gefällt’s schon lange hier,
und alle neuen Schüler, die grüßen wir.

(Melodie von "Ein Männlein steht im Walde")