Joy School - Winter

This week we had our winter unit. After the Hello Song, O Canada, and Saluting the Flag, we dived straight in to the lesson.

Lesson Time: We covered why we have winter, and what parts of the world don't really have winter the same as we do. We also talked about animals and birds and what they do in the winter time. (hibernation, migration). Then we talked about how people adapt in the winter and what we need to do to stay warm and safe.

We had a child be our 'model' as we went over how to keep our bodies warm while we play outside in the snowy cold weather.

Craft Time: This Joy School day was full of crafts that were just awesome. This first one was making a detergent-snowman. The kids got to mold him into shape and then decorate him with buttons and strips of felt to create their own indoor snowmen.

Story Time: There are so many great stories with cold weather in them. We read two by Robert Munsch. First was Thomas' Snowsuit, and then 50 Below Zero.

Snack Time: We had some nice hot cocoa with mini marshmallows in it and popped some popcorn for our winter time snack.

Science Time: We ran out of time for science during our actual Joy School hours, but I asked the mother who prepared this lesson plan and she told me what it was going to be, and I did it in the afternoon with my son. It was to show about freezing and melting. First cut a length of yarn, then take a bowl and fill it with room temperature water, and get a frozen solid ice cube. Put the ice cube in the water, and then dangle one end of the yarn until it is resting on the ice. Wait a few seconds, and then pull back on the yarn, and you can lift the ice cube out of the bowl because the yarn has frozen to it. I suppose for a real-life demonstration, you could take the kids out in the dead of winter and have them lick a flag pole, but I wouldn't recommend it!

Art Time: Another great project here! We glued sticks on paper to make a tree, made up a mix of shaving cream and white glue, and spread it on the trees to create a winter scene.

The last art project was making paper snowflakes. My boy was so amazed when he unfolded his creation and saw the pretty pattern he had made.

Singing Time: We sang, Once There Was a Snowman, Five Little Snowman, and If All the Snowflakes Were Candy Bars and Milk Shakes.

Wiggle Time: Our game this week was a memory game. We laid out all the pieces to our outdoor snow gear and the children all looked at it for a minute. Then we took one item away and they had to see if they could figure out what it was. It was pretty tricky!

There was one more wiggle game that we didn't get to due to time constraints, but we had planned on doing some indoor tobogganing. We have a short stairway in our home and the kids were going to climb into sleeping bags and slide down. I did it as a kid and loved it. My children haven't done the sleeping bag version, but they have done it on an inflatable mattress, and it was awesome.