Arctic/Winter Theme

This past week we did everything Arctic and winter themed!  We had so much fun!  Here are some of the highlights:

Books:

 There are so many great books about arctic animals and winter time.  I had a few of my own books, and I got some more from the library.  My students really liked the non fiction books about all of the arctic animals.

At one point, my students got tired of looking at the books and wanted to play with blocks.  To make sure that we were still working on our vocabulary words, I had them pretend like the blocks were food and they helped feed all of the animals on the covers.  It's important to always follow the child's lead, and you may have to get creative!

Sensory Play: 

Arctic Sensory Bin

We had so much fun with our Arctic sensory bin! With this bin we worked on answering questions, learning new vocabulary words, following directions, and eliciting spontaneous language.

Contents:
Arctic animals (i.e. penguins, walrus, polar bears, artic foxes, arctic hare, etc.)
Large cooking utensils
Ice
Water
Anything you can find that is white and floats to look like an iceberg

Gross Motor Activity 

For our gross motor activity, we watched clips of Arctic animals on Youtube and then acted like them!  I put all of the videos on silent, and we talked about what the animals were doing and what they looked like.  The kids loved acting like them!  

Actions:

Polar Bear: Walked on four legs

Walrus: "Swam" on our stomachs

Hare: Hopped 

Penguin: Waddled

Seal: Rolled around on our stomachs and back 

*** Remember to put the videos on silent, and you may have to fast forward through some clips to see more of the animal actions!