Snow snow snow

17 December – Daily Journal

On our 3rd day of Winter Wonderland 2014, we learnt about snow snow snow. It was another cold day - so cold that it felt like it could snow any time. We didn’t have snow yet outside but in the classroom, we used our eyes, ears, hands and nose to experience snow.

When Karl came in to the classroom, the first thing he was attracted to was a pan filled with something powdery. Soon after Leanne joined Karl and the two started to explore this new texture. Karl described that “it’s soft” and that “it’s like a snowman.” Yes, indeed, the teachers had prepared some snow dough which you can make by simply mixing two cups of corn starch and half a cup of vegetable oil and adding a few sprinkles of silver glitter at the end. The dough was not as smooth and with moisture as what we are used to with our other play dough; when you squeeze it, you can make a ball but crumbles easily and falls between your fingers like powder. In the seasonal sensory tub, we had the green colored rice, peppermint leaves and candy canes from yesterday and today we added real branches from a fir tree and some acorns. Lanah, Hana and Faith had a great time looking, smelling and feeling all the different things in the tub.

On another table, we each made a white Christmas tree ornament which did not turn out the way Nanako had hoped…First we put some corn starch and baking soda in a bowl then poured some hot water and mixed them altogether. It was very interesting to see how the baking soda was making the cornstarch grow bigger and smaller – it looked like a white slimy monster dancing in the bowl. Sadly because of the effect of the baking soda, when we tried to get star and Christmas tree shapes out of the dough, the shapes did not stop expanding. Even when Nanako tried to open a hole at the top of the shape so we could tie a ribbon later, the hole would close up after a while and especially in the hot oven. However, we still think we can find a way to decorate the Christmas tree with our pretty snow ornaments in white and sparkles.

In our circle time, we sang What’s the Weather Today? Yesterday, we needed rain boots and rain coats in the wet, windy weather but today we were lucky to have such a beautiful sunny weather. We then talked about snow and what happens when it snows. We read a book called Snow by Uri Shulevitz. In the city where a little boy with a dog lives, everything was grey even the houses and rooftops. One day, one snowflake starts falling down from the sky and even when some grownups or the radio or television don’t agree with the boy that “it’s snowing,” the snow keeps falling and falling until it covers the whole city white. It is true how snow can turn even an ugly city in to such beauty.

We then gathered around the water trough that we had borrowed from upstairs and took out the cupcake pan out of the freezer. On Monday we had filled up the cups with some green leaves, red leaves, yellow leaves and branches and poured some water on top. We were talking about “First…., then…” such as “First the eggs, then the chicken” or “First the tadpoles, then the frogs.” On Monday when Nanako asked, “First the water, then…what?” we couldn’t answer the question but today we knew: first the water, then the ice. We each carefully took a piece of ice in our hands and enjoyed the coldness biting our small fingers. Then something interesting happened – between our fingers dripped water! No one was pouring more water on to our hands so who was dripping the water? We found out that the ice was dripping the water from the warmth of our hands and Nanako explained that this was called “melting.” First the water, then the ice; first the ice, then the water. Every day, we discover new things and new words. By the time we came back from the park, all the ice had melted in to water…

Just so that we sum up today’s theme of snow, Nanako showed us the book Snowman. It was funny because this book had no words like the other books. Still we all sat down nicely and quietly, enjoying each page of the story. We were all excited and happy to see the little boy making a snowman and the same snowman greets him at midnight as a friend. At the end of the story, we were all sad to see the sad boy seeing the Snowman melting the next morning…

Nanako, Sayaka, and Maki