Baby, it's (still) cold outside!

In the mountains we may be doing snow dances on the ski slopes (boooo), but in preschool we're getting cozy and trying to enjoy the rest of winter Dramatic Play style! This year we brought the outdoors in and combined a cozy cabin with some sledding and ice skating fun.

I rolled up big sheets of brown butcher paper like ribbon candy and used a stapler to attach it to a large piece of cardboard for our little log cabin entrance. Inside, students are cooking up some hot cocoa while we work on sequencing, peer interactions, and concepts of "hot" vs. "cold."

We made our little cocoa station using empty hot chocolate containers, spoons, mugs, and white pom pom balls for marshmallows. Some of my team members were kind enough to lend their thermoses and we've had a bit of a tailgate at the ice rink...

To create an ice skating rink, I used four pieces of white poster board, rounded the outside corners, sprayed with adhesive, and coated them liberally with blue and silver glitter before running each through the laminator. The four boards are attached together using clear packing tape and the whole "rink" is stuck to the carpet with velcro. We then created "ice skates" using paper plates and more packing tape and we've been working on our winter s-blends. So easy and my students are seriously loving it.

I target size concepts, comparatives and superlatives, pronouns, and following directions while preschoolers work together to build a snowman. We spray-painted cardboard boxes for stacking and punched holes for buttons and facial features (we found a kit at the dollar store, similar available here and here). How cute is this spontaneous snow-woman?

 

This unit I am learning that sometimes the simplest, least expensive things can make for a lot of play and creativity. What kind of winter fun are you getting into this January?