Unit Study - Snow {Homeschool Kindergarten}

After a snowfall last weekend, the girls and I did a mini-unit on "snow" in our homeschool Kindergarten.  It was simple, but a lot of fun.  Here's what we did:

The girls enjoyed painting with white paint.  I don't think I even told them to paint snow, but that is what both of them gravitated towards (in different ways).

Our big project of the day was making "dictionaries" of winter words.  Last time that we did this (dictionaries about body parts) I had the girls trace over my handwriting.  This time they copied the words all by themselves.  So far this year I'd have to say that the biggest advancements they've made in school is handwriting.

The girls read some snow-themed stories:

• Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost (I'm trying to get the girls to memorize this poem, but it's slow going right now)
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London
• "Down the Hill" from Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel
•  "What Will Little Bear Wear?" from Little Bear by Elsa Minarik

The snowflake illustrations (prints?) in The Snowy Day inspired me to make this quick activity where the girls had to copy snowflakes. 

 I found out that six-sided snowflakes were pretty tricky for the kids to copy, but 8-sided ones were easier.

I've been meaning to try this snowflake craft for a while so this was the perfect opportunity to do so.  The girls put a generous pool of glue on a piece of wax paper (obviously white or even glitter glue would be the better choice but we only seem to have colored glue in our house).  Then they placed cotton swabs (AKA Q-Tips) in a snowflake shape and we let them dry overnight (actually I had to add a little more glue later that night to get it to all stay together.

The next morning the girls were excited to peel their snowflake decorations off the wax paper and play with them.  These could also be neat Christmas ornaments if you add a little glitter glue to them.

Of course what would a snow-day be without some sensory exploration (AKA Playing in the Snow).  They can relate to the story in Froggy Gets Dressed where they have lots of layers of clothing they need to put on before they get to go outside - it seems to take forever to get ready and then they decide they're too cold and want to come back in.