It's Snowing in Alabama

Since there's a good chance we won't be seeing any real snow in Alabama, we started decorating the room to make it look like a winter wonderland.  Here are a couple of my favorites for winter:
Snowman Writing Activity
I first give the kids a cut out snowman and let them decorate it with construction paper.  We talk beforehand about what should go on their snowman- hat (what kind--toboggan, baseball cap, top hat..), stick arms, maybe gloves or mittens, a scarf, face details, buttons...  I remind the children that each snowman should look different.  I have found that when they create the accessories from construction paper the finished product turns out neater than if they use markers.  Although I give in a little because a scarf can be hard to make from paper. 

 

After they have created their snowman, they each write four descriptive sentences about it.  I give them a couple of sentence starters like "My snowman has _____" or "He/She is wearing ______".  The assignment is to create a LOST poster with a description of their snowman so that we can "find" their snowman.  We discuss using color words, size words, numbers, and other appropriate adjectives.
I like to display these on a bulletin board with the snowmen and posters seperated a bit.  Once they're up, we'll go back and read the descriptions and see if we can match the snowmen to their descriptions.

Click here to download the snowman template
Click here to download the LOST writing paper

3D Snowflakes
I love to hang things from the ceiling, but I'm not a huge fan of it hanging in my classroom.  Two other first grade teachers and I hang artwork in our little corner of the hall.  Each month we swap it out with something that fits the theme.  In August and September I hang the first letter of each child's name, in lots of different colored paper.  In October, the kids paint candy corn to hang.  In November, I hang their turkey glyphs.  The children make poinsettias to hang in December.  And that brings us to January.  For the past 7 years I've had the kids make these 3D snowflakes.  They are really simple to make and pretty to hang. 

All you have to do is have each child cut out two snowflakes.  Then line them up on top of each other and staple on the dotted line (I use three staples).  Fold back the paper so it becomes 3D, and volia... a snowflake!  Click here to download a copy of the snowflake.