Guest Posted January 4, 2005 Posted January 4, 2005 hello. My theme for next term is Winter. I have lots of ideas for activities to do with the children, but I wondered if anyone knows of any fun songs, and movement and action games along this theme. We are looking at penguins and , hopefully igloos, clothes and other animals in cold climates. Any ideas would be welcomed
Susan Posted January 4, 2005 Posted January 4, 2005 hi leanne and welcome! Its always good when a new member takes the plunge and makes a post, especially on the day of joining. Take care you will soon be addicted! However, I'm not sure I can answer your request, without more thought and consideration. I would be looking at weather characteristics too I think! Have you access to any of the scholastice "Nursery Projects or Education" magazines as they have had winter topics before and I am sure they have a title in their "Themes for Early Years" range. Hopefully someone else will be more inspiring!
Guest Sycamore Posted January 4, 2005 Posted January 4, 2005 I spent a period of time looking at the text Cuddly Duddley . We use the Val Sabin dance scheme and there is a lovely section on icicles. Have fun.
Guest Posted January 4, 2005 Posted January 4, 2005 thanks everyone for making me feel so welcome. I thought about doing a penguin dance- but will play it by ear. I have sent off for the book Cudley Dudly because I love it and the school in Italy I am working at doesn't have a huge supply. Ok, next question. Does anyone have any great ideas for a role-play area which is cheap, practical and very child friendly? I thought about a clothes shop, a comparative beach to compare with the theme of cold, winter and dressing up. Ideally, I would love to have an igloo, but feel a bit pressured for time and resourses to set it up.
Andreamay Posted January 4, 2005 Posted January 4, 2005 we have a cafe in winter theme and we serve hot choc at snack time
Guest Posted January 4, 2005 Posted January 4, 2005 A great non fiction book is The Emperor's Egg by Martin Jenkins ISBN 0-7445-7259-2 ALSO AVAILABLE AS A BIG BOOK The male emperor penguin is 1.3 m tall draw out a life size penguin and stick on the wall for the children to stand next to to see if they are taller. Sung to Have you ever seen a lassie - Have you ever seen a penguin a penguin a penguin Have you ever seen a penguin swim this way and that way and this way and that way and so on Slide / waddle / 5 little penguins sitting on an iceberg far far away in the stormy sea...... If one little penguin jumped into the water, SPLOSHSHSHSH how many penguins would there be. Give the children small ice cubes to build an igloo. Freeze some water in a tray and pass it round at the same time as a hot water bottle when talking about Hot / Cold. Please remember that penguins and polar bears live at opposite poles.
Inge Posted January 5, 2005 Posted January 5, 2005 we made an igloo with an old white sheet, over a clothes horse with a tunnel to crawl through to get inside, not difficult to do, How about packing suitcases for a holiday, skiing or beach, supply 2 cases and a varitey of things found for each type of weather, I was lucky with all this at home, my son skiis in winter and scuba dives in all weathers!! so we had fins, snorkel mask sun cream, (which went on both holidays of course) ski goggles boots slopettes etc etc, need not be so elaborate as most people can find suitable items to pack. The children spent all day packing and repacking the clothes for each holiday. It was paryticuilarly good ans many had never seen a lot of the items we had, and we had to use pictures to help explain them. Put shaving foam ( This smells lovely in lime) or soap snow flakes in the water tray and cold climate animals, add ice blocks too if you want to go one step further. Inge
Guest Posted January 7, 2005 Posted January 7, 2005 We use a parachute and some big plastic fish. We start by making waves with the parachute, low, high, fast and slow - gets the children used to handling it. Once they are ready they take it in turns to "swim" like a penguin under the waves (Get used to being under!!) Then I put the fish underneath the parachute. A child is chosen to "swim" under the water and catch a fish for tea and put it into the bucket "barbeque". They will play at this for ages. How about musical icebergs, but with a co-operative element. We use large carpet mats to represent the icebergs and while the music plays (the Snowmas music etc) the children waddle, slide, swim etc around the room. Once the music stops they have to find an iceberg. Each time remove an iceberg but explain to the children that all of the penguins need to find a piece to stand on and need to help each other. They love all having to squeeze onto the last iceberg and hold each other steady. We also do penguin skating painting, card penguins, laminated and textures stuck onto feet. Children move the penguins around their paper to suitable music. Have some songs too, when I find the file I will post
Guest Posted January 7, 2005 Posted January 7, 2005 I've just saved some polystyrene blocks to use as icebergs in our water tray - might be less cold than real ice!
Guest Posted January 8, 2005 Posted January 8, 2005 Hi Penguin Small by Mick Inkpen is very useful. The TOP dance cards base a unit of work on the book. It leads to some lovely PSHE work- the polar bears are bullies so Penguin Small relocates to the South Pole. Also in Okki Tokki Unga music book is the song Okki Tokki Unga about Inuits fishing! cheers Lucyd
JacquieL Posted January 8, 2005 Posted January 8, 2005 Hey Jambo don't keep that wine to yourself but pass me a glass! Small note, polystyrene is not to be used in schools, certainly not in our authority. Some really good ideas which I shall be using. Thanks.
Guest Posted January 8, 2005 Posted January 8, 2005 Can I ask why noy polystyrene? I wanted to do a snow scene with it
Guest Posted January 8, 2005 Posted January 8, 2005 Hi, and welcome to the forum. We have a snow cave for our role play - piece of white material, (we put it in the corner), and various winter animals, mirrors etc. We use Penguin Small as one of our core stories, and this week, the activity we are doing from it is the children are going to draw an observational picture of a penguin on a piece of card, (LIT) then next week they are going to punch holes all the way round the card, and thread wool through the holes, (PHY). Hpopes this helps!!!
Beau Posted January 9, 2005 Posted January 9, 2005 I've always been told that if children eat it it doesn't show up in an xray. And it's always tempting for at least one to take a little nibble...... You can use that packaging that is made from starch, as it just dissolves when wet.
Guest Posted January 9, 2005 Posted January 9, 2005 If you put a little water in a low bowl and a generous amount of washing up liquid you can get the children to blow (Not suck ! ) with long straws and create bubble igloos. Really effective and good noisy wet fun!! I have also frozen tiny penguins and cold climate animals in individual blocks of ice and then let them slowly melt in the water tray, this fascinated the children. Teri
Susan Posted January 9, 2005 Posted January 9, 2005 I thought they could choke on the small polystrene beads that it breaks down into! Havent seen any for a long time now but certainly it was banned many years ago in my LEA too.
Andreamay Posted January 9, 2005 Posted January 9, 2005 I thought it didnnt show up on an xray so would be hard to detect if swallowed
Gezabel Posted January 9, 2005 Posted January 9, 2005 I hadn't heard anything about no polystyrene either. We use the preformed small shapes from packaging when doing collage. We have used the large pieces in the water tray too. I have heard of a child inhaling a small piece of polystyrene that required surgical removal from his nostril It happened when a group of children were having great fun breaking up large chunks of polystyrene so since then we have erred on the side of caution and they don't break it up. Would be interested to know the reason for your LEA saying no
Sue R Posted January 12, 2005 Posted January 12, 2005 Not detectable on x-ray and can swell in the stomach causing problems, I believe. Also, sorry to be a killjoy, be aware of possible reactions to shaving foam!! Sue
Guest Posted April 14, 2005 Posted April 14, 2005 Have just discovered a fab product called Insta-snow - it's a non-toxic powdered polymer to which you just add water. It swells to 100 times the original volume and actually feels cold! The children love it, only problem is it doesn't melt and stick together like the real thing. Can't remember which catalogue it's in but I've also seen it in Fun Learning (shop). Costs around £6 to make 2 gallons.
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