Snow much fun!
We have a freeze wave happening. The temperature has been hovering in the negatives. When you add in the windchill (-20 or more) we get lots of indoor recess days. We have our frozen fingers and frost-bitten toes crossed that it will warm up enough to let the kids out soon! It’s looking like it may be 18 degrees soon and here in MN that’s outdoor fun time!
In the mean time I have been trying to keep the energy focused in the speech room. This has led me to pull out more hands on and movement activities. Here is one activity I tried this week…
Take two second graders working on social skills, comprehension, perspective taking, inferencing and add one Grow a Snowman.
First we looked at the front of the packaging. What do you think grow a snowman means? How can we find out what to do? We checked out the back and looked at the pictures to make our guesses before we read the instructions. There was new vocabulary and concepts to discuss: room temperature, full size, 72 hours, near original size, grow over and over again. Hunting for a container was an adventure and we discussed why the cover on our container was a good idea or not.
We walked and talked about where we could find the best placed to get room temperature water. We found hot water in the teachers lounge (another learning experience on why they should wait by the door). Now we had hot water- was it too hot? The boys said I should add a little cold water. Returning to the speech room we noticed the cover was steamed over… hmmm why? Finally we measured the snowman so we could compare his changes and plopped him the water. Now we looked for a good spot to keep him safe.
The instructions stated that we would see growth after 2 hours so the boys came back to check it before going home. After the first check we noticed it was a little fatter but not really taller. I guess we’ll see what happens next… just like our weather!
Now how will you add your own twist? Leave a comment and I’ll pick one idea and send you your own Grow a Snowman! (I will choose on 12/20.)
Cindy
Cindy L. Meester's Blog- Speech Therapy with a Twist 
on December 12, 2013 on 9:28 am
You could always make predictions about what would happen if you placed the snowman in another liquid other than water. Of course, you can compare two snowmen or three (in water, another liquid and nothing). Or even predictions about what will happen when you take the snowman out of the water.
on December 12, 2013 on 10:45 am
Great fun! You could also try “Shrink A Snowman” with the same or different group of students. Compare and contrast original size and then discuss what actually happens with water/ snow/ ice as it changes forms in the weather. Thanks for sharing! ~Christine
on December 13, 2013 on 5:28 am
Fun! I might do a before and after activity (temporal concepts) with some first, next, then sequencing concepts thrown in for good… (wait for it…) measure!
on December 20, 2013 on 9:42 am
Karen- I drew names and you are the lucky winner! Please e-mail me your address and I will send your snowman.
CIndy
cindyleemeester@gmail.com
on December 13, 2013 on 7:03 am
If you had two of them you could measure the snowman ‘before’ and ‘after’ – working on those concepts; which are always difficult for children to understand. After you go through the sequence you could discuss; ‘Before we put him in the water what did we have to do?’ and ‘After we put water in the container, what did we have to do?
OR
You could also discuss – what is making him change in size; heat/water – .
I also think it would be fun to talk about how do we measure the weight of him and you could bring in a small food scale and discuss how that the larger he gets the ‘heavier’ he becomes.
And on and on and on we go 🙂
on December 15, 2013 on 5:08 pm
The idea of larger means something is heavier is an idea to explore. For example if a balloon gets bigger with more air is it heavier? Does the snowman actually get heavier and why?