West Coast Winter

Kindergarten/Grade 1

*Snow!* *Snow!* *Snow!* - Wishing for snow on Canada's West Coast is not always the most productive use of one's time. Our kindergarten/grade one class has been exploring winter themes including snowmen, snowflakes, hot chocolate, and what our winter looks like on the West Coast including lots of rain and learning to distinguish between clouds and fog.

Nature Snowman On an adventure to our forest classroom, we had the opportunity to build a nature snowman! That morning we had surveyed the class on who had built a snowman before and about half of the class had, and the other half had not - the cost of living on the beautiful coast. It was a good thing we had planned this opportunity for students. In the forest we read students the book "On the First Day of Winter" by Denise Flemming. The book is written to go to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas using items that are used to build a snowman. Since many of the items in the song are found in nature, it was a great starting place for the students to think of ideas for their nature snowmen. Afterwards the students created their nature snowmen, and they all turned out beautifully - many students decided to add their own hats or leaves for hair!

Hot Chocolate! - Yum! We got to have a playdate with the other kindergarten class last week! We sipped delicious hot chocolate and talked about our holidays. Afterward, we did an art activity where we learned how to make hot chocolate. We talked through the steps together, and wrote down the steps on our recipe cards. Then we decorated our own paper mugs with a spot of hot chocolate and fluffy cotton ball marshmallows! Another day we got to decorate snowmen with cotton, buttons, coffee beans, and popcorn!

Cloud or Fog? A few weeks ago we talked about what are clouds made from? Students learned that they are made from water that evaporates up in to the sky and collect together to form a cloud. They learned that when the cloud gets too heavy with water, it begins to rain. We tried this with a raincloud experiment. Students were given a cup of water and we went around and put a "cloud" of shaving cream on top of the water. Based on what we learned earlier about clouds, students circled an estimate of what they thought would happen if we added more "water" - food colouring - to the cloud of shaving cream. We then let them choose a colour of food colouring and put a few drops on top of their clouds. They watched as the food colouring broke through the cloud and "rained" into their cups! Students then drew a picture of what actually happened in the experiment. This week, we had a few debates over whether it was cloudy or foggy outside across the bay. To clarify, I had one student describe the difference to the class. She said "Clouds are up high in the sky, and fog is like clouds low close to the ground." She was exactly right! Fog is a kind of cloud that touches the ground because the ground is cool enough to freeze the water. Afterwards, the students concluded that we have a lot of foggy days here in the winter!

- Lessons also with classroom teacher and other kindergarten teacher. -

#weather #science #outdooreducation