Snowmen and STEM! This week in Kindergarten

Currently our efforts are completely focused on Winter and we are exploring topics such as the weather and clothing. The children started by making a winter hat with card and various other materials. While being creative, they practised different skills, such as cutting and pasting activities, which helped develop their fine motor skills. As you can see in the photos, the results are great!

Following this, we then made snow together. The children took turns mixing baking soda (2.5
cups) and white hair conditioner (0.5 cup) together until it had a snowlike texture. After that the fun could begin. First, they enjoyed exploring the snow, touching, kneading and shaping it. Then, with small orange triangles made out of card and chickpeas they made their very own snowmen, with some impressive results as you can see below. 

We also did a STEM experiment in class: a snowstorm in a jar. This involved mixing water with a little bit of white paint and then adding baby oil. We then added an Alka-Seltzer tablet. This caused the formation of white bubbles that rose to the top of the jar. Very interesting! The children could see that water and oil don’t mix.

Our next goal is to make our classroom into a Winter Wonderland! We will have a skating rink and the children are currently making their own skates. They will also make make some art decorations. On our big Winter Wonderland Day we will organise a number of other activities dedicated to sensory winter play such as playing with "snow"; exploring, drawing and writing with shaving foam; making snowmen with white play dough, and reading books about winter and snow. It definitely will be a lot of fun and we can’t wait for the big day!

Warm winter wishes from all of us in Kindergarten!

Marie-Louise, Teresa and the Kindergarten students