Winter School Day One: Winter Forest

Welcome to Winter School everyone! We are so excited to meet new friend and play together! We started our day dropping our things off in Petals Class then went downstairs to Buds Class for our morning free play time! Our little Buds friends welcomed us with open arms and we played with the play dough and animal toys together! Nimo called us two at a time to do a fun finger painting activity! We started with the brown paint to make the tree. We wiped the paint off of our hands then used our fingers again to make little fingerprints around the tree to make snow! We really enjoyed the feeling of paint on our fingers!

We had our snacks together with Buds then went back to our Petals Class for circle time. We sang our “Good Morning” Song to introduce ourselves to one another. To start our “Sounds of Winter” theme, we reviewed our four seasons.

Nimo: What did we make today for our art activity?

M: Tree

D: Snow!

Nimo: What colors did we use?

M: White and brown!

We looked at some pictures from a book called, “A Tree for All Seasons” by Robin Bernard. We started with the winter trees.

M: Oh no, no leaves!

D: It’s winter.

M: *Pointed at the branches* Not so many snow!

N: Cold!

Then we looked at the same tree in the spring, summer, and fall.

M: Leaves!

A: Leaves are green!

D: Summer, hot!

M: Fall!

D and A: So pretty!

M: (Back to) Winter!

For the next part of our circle time, Nimo played an audio of the forest in the winter and asked us what we heard.

A: I hear the snow.

D: Wind!

Nimo: Do you hear any animals?

D: No, animals sleeping!

Nimo: That’s right Doheon! In the winter, many animal sleep for a long time like this mouse.

M: So cute!

Nimo: What is this animal that’s sleeping?

M: Bear! Sleeping!

M: Wake up!

N: Sleep!

Nimo: When animals sleep for a long time in the winter, its called hibernation.

Petals: Hibernation!

Nimo: Can I read a story for you? Please come a little closer so you can see the book. Please sit criss cross applesauce, don’t forget your spicy sauce!

R: Spicy!? Try it!

Nimo: Oh my! It’s so spicy!!!

A: How about banana sauce!?

D: I want to taste! How about strawberry sauce?

Nimo: We can try more (pretend) sauces later. What animal do you see on this book?

M: Rabbit! I like this rabbit!

Nimo: Do you like to play in the snow?

A: I don’t like to eat the snow.

R: *Pointed at the book* Snow!

M: I like to play in the snow.

M: Me too!

Today we read, “The Snow Day” by Komako Sakai. It was a cute story about a little bunny that couldn’t go to school because it was snowing so much. Together with his mom, they spent a quiet day at home.

After the story, we got ready for the park and met back up with Buds Class. We went to the park nearby today. We call it “Iki Iki Park” because there used to be a building called, “Iki Iki Plaza” there. We had a great time playing outside with our friends and when we got back to school we did a little bit of dancing together with Nimo’s guitar and talked about the rules in Petals Class. We have three big rules, #1 Gentle hands, #2 Walking Feet, and #3 Indoor Voices. 

We ate our lunch, then had quiet time! Some of our friends didn’t want to sleep so our teachers asked them to lie down for 15 minutes then had free drawing time.

Thank you all for a wonderful start to Winter School! Have a great evening and see you all again tomorrow!

Love,

Petals