ice play with a twist

 

We at the 'do! live in a pretty sunny climate. Our winter temps can get pretty chilly at night but for the most part we can get away without a sweater for much of the year. During our week of The Mitten, I thought it would be fun to fill our outside sensory tub with ice and when I found these awesome ice sphere molds from ZOKU on sale an idea was born!

It took me a few days to freeze about 10 spheres mostly because I kept forgetting to do so and partly because it does take quite a few hours. I played with adding a little and/or a lot of food color for variety and got a kick out of each sphere as I removed them from the molds. Really, it takes very little to please me. I wish I had taken photos of them, they were so pretty!

Just before outside play time, I put a little bit of water into our two sensory bins and separated the ice spheres by cool and warm colors (the food color leached out qucikly enough to tint the water so I thought it would be prettier plus we've been working on cool colors and warm colors in the classroom). The kiddos were very curious and there were shouts of "circle ice! spheres! snow balls!"

 

 

It did not take long for the kiddos to realize just how cold the spheres actually were and there was a discussion about how to play with them other than dropping them on the ground to see them break (which did happen rather quickly because ice balls!) After a little debate the children realized mittens would work and after much running around was had, one of the kiddos returned with a single mitten on his hand followed by others, each one bearing only one mitten a piece (or a glove). I loved that...thank you happy thrift store mitten find!

After the mittens got completely soaked, the kiddos returned to the room to retrieve another mitten (I am just now wondering where did all those mittens go?) to continue their investigations.

 

 

 

Play narratives came out, color matching, rich language, songs, math, and science all made an appearance. They had so much fun I think I need to make more...once I remember where I put the mittens...

classroom set up: the mitten

A basket of wool pieces (from thrifted sweaters turned headbands) for exploring and playing with along with a mitten matching game picked up from Oriental Trading last year. Half of the mittens are used for a matching game while the other half was treated to the hole punch to hang on our mitten tree.

Another mitten matching game set up on our fine motor table. The kiddos can match by color, size, and/or number.

A happy little bushel of thrifted mittens in the building area. I wondered if the kiddos would use them as decoration or put them on for building. They did neither but they did use them. Pics and post to come soon.

Chopsticks and a glittery bin of rice with mitten erasers hidden throughout. The kiddos can search for the mittens and match them up if they choose to...or they can do something completely different which is what usually happens. Here is what the bin looked like last year.

Mitten painting. I made these mittens last year from my favorite sweater and a thrifted sweatshirt. I set out glossy fingerprint paper and squirted paint onto trays (one tray held warm colors, one held cool colors) and waited to see what would happen. Some of the children jumped right in while others used their hands and/or got paintbrushes. We had cool wintery colors on the easel which is just to the right of the table here so they had many opportunities for all sorts of painting fun. I picked up the doily platter at Michael's last year but noticed they have them this year as well. We also use the trays to hold play dough and play dough tools.

I made these lacing mittens in a feverish fit of productivity the night before we went back to school. I used a mitten template from Teachers Pay Teachers and cut out pairs of mittens from scrapbook paper that was then hole punched, laminated, and re-hole punched. The shoelaces came from The Dollar Tree. The children can lace up the mittens however they choose though I did tie a few together to see if anyone could lace a double set.

three kittens: more mitten fun

 

 The children selected a large sheet of construction paper in the color of their choice. I drew a mitten shape onto the paper in a color of their choice then they went to town with our oil pastels. Some chose to add white paint. I wish I had pictures, they were really fun and the children love a resist project.

 

 

Here we began with some pre-drawn mittens but the children wanted to make their own so we talked about how we made out patterns for our stitched mittens. They then put their hands on the paper while we traced around them. The children added scribbles with the oil pastels and then painted over them with liquid watercolor in their choice of color. As you can see, purple is really popular in our classroom.

the three little kittens: painting with wool

For our second round of all things mitten I brought in a variety of other mitten titles which included this sweet little book that introduces the origins of wool (albeit in a somewhat roundabout way). I thought I would talk about wool and fibers a bit more than I did back when we stitched together our own mittens. This time we brought out our basket of wool pieces and then added a variety of bits of roving. The children then placed their pictures into a zip close bag. We added warm water and a squirt or two of dish detergent, sealed the bag and got to smooooooshing. After that we used our pool noodle pieces as rolling pins and rolled a bit more for good measure before picking up the bags and squeezing them. I had to bring the art home with me for rinsing as we do not have hot water at work (a microwave easily heats up water for us when we need it). I rinsed the art in hot water working the fibers in a bit more then lay them out to dry.

 

Some wool pieces held onto the roving better than others but overall we had success! The higher the wool content the better grab you will have. The blue one in the center there had only 60% wool and many of the fibers just rolled off. The one on the right was 100% wool and the fibers worked themselves in quite nicely. The children really enjoyed the process and the parents really enjoyed the product!

the three little kittens: painting with mittens

 

We had two weeks of mitten fun in our classroom. It was all mittens all the time. Our mitten painting accompanied The Three Little Kittens and after they mittens were all paint-goopy, the kiddos got to wash them in a tub of soapy water.

I made our mittens out of a sweatshirt I picked up from the thrift for $2. I used the patterns we made from when we stitched our own mittens and zipped these through my sewing machine. These will get double play next year when we read The Mitten. I also made some from my very favorite now-retired orange muppet sweater...sigh. I set up the table with paper, trays for paint, and a shallow basket full of mittens so that the children could pick out the mitten they wanted to use.

 

After the children chose their paint colors they got work. There was a lot of investigation even before the first print was made.

 

Some made prints across their paper (after asking for more paint). They would comment on how the colors looked on the mitten versus their paper and they would tell me how their hands felt warm in the mitten but cool when the paint seeped through. We talked about how two weeks before we used mittens in our water tray when there were big blocks of ice in it and how at first our hands were protected and warm but then the water seeped in and our hands got cold.

 

It was really fun to watch the variety of techniques the children used for this project. Some chose just one or two colors to start but kept adding more as they painted. Some made prints while other used their mitten hands as paint brushes swiping and dragging the paint across their paper. They had a lot of fun and took these home right away as well so sadly I have no finished photos.

stitching mittens

Our first week after winter break was a mitten-filled week. Our literature for the week was Jan Brett's The Mitten. Our classroom was all mittened out from tiny mittens to match in the rice bin, to a mitten hunt, and a mitten tree. I thought it would be nifty for the kiddos to stretch their sewing skills by stitching up their own pair of mittens that we could revisit for our week of The Three Little Kittens.

The first thing we did to make out mittens was to gather up paper, pencils, pins, and scissors.  We needed to draft a pattern. Each child placed their hand on a piece of paper to be traced around in a mitten shape the size of their hand. I cut out their shape (otherwise this could take awhile) and had the children pick a front and back piece of wool from our wool basket (scraps of felted sweaters).

 

The children had the opportunity to pin their pattern onto their wool that I then cut for them. Wool is tricky and thick. We did this part twice, once for each mitten.

The paper was then removed, wool repinned, and needles were threaded. We talked about always poking the needle up (or down as long as it was in the same direction). The children sat quietly and really focused on this part, carefully stitching away. Some of them had trouble beginning so I would hold the mitten for them as they stitched but they soon got the hang of it and whipped through hteir mittens in no time!

 

We then removed our pins and put them back into the pin disc. Some of the children really liked this part and made sure each slot always had a pin in it so we wouldn't get stuck.

They were so proud! The next class day, the children returned with their mittens and their parents told stories of how the children wore their mittens all day and some even slept with them. I'm thinking we will make a pillow next and then maybe a stuffed lovey or two. I'm so excited!



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setting up the classroom for the new year

School has been on break for three weeks now. We return next week for a week of The Mitten. Here is how the room has been set up so far....I also have a basket to fill with wool squares. I'm going to see if the kiddos want to make their own mittens! First up, I added wee mitten erasers to our rice bin.

We pulled all of the fall items from the nature table and my co-teacher prettied it up. We added white stones and jewels and hope to have the children bring in items from around their homes. Our winter so far has been unseasonably summer-like. We'll see what happens.

 Mittens shapes on our chalkboards for fine motor painting. Some of our children will do this for all of their exploration hour. Sometimes they will request we redaw the same shape over and over again. Some want new shapes, some want to draw their own shapes, while others will simply paint the water onto the board over and over again.

 Mitten memory games as sorting fun. The mittens on the right are from Oriental Trading. I only put out half of the game (with their matches), the other half, I punched holes into one end, added a pipe cleaner loop and now we have ornaments for our winter tree. The mittens on the right are also a matching game but these feature numbers and colors. We'll see what the children do with them.

 Mitten shaped paper at the easel for the children to paint their own mittens. I will select a few harmonious colors (pictured here: red, pink, gold, white, and turquoise) for the painting but if the children wish to add any others they will tell me and we do. I have a few children who polish off five or six paintings a day so we have a pile of pre-cut mitten shapes and regular easel paper to choose from.

 I plan on making some snow dough but just in case I do not get to it, our festive cloud dough is set up. If I do not get the play dough made, I'm going to add a squeeze bottle of hair conditioner, a container of baking soda, and a container of cornstarch for the children to mix up to see what they make.

 Th art table is set up with mitten stampers, snowflake stampers, snowflake stickers, and crayons. The art shelves are always open and filled with markers, crayons, scrap construction paper, blank paper, scissors, glue sticks, white glue, and stickers. We also have watercolors and tempera available if the children ask for them.

 The train table has been turned into a winter inspired sensory bin for the children to use for dramatic play. It is full of pom-poms, glass jewels, snowflake shapes, forest animals and more. I am excited to see what the children do here.

Last, but not least, I have hidden mitten shapes around the room for the children to find during group time. There are two of each design and we'll do some mitten math with them. Later in the week we will add ice to the mix for the children to explore. Bring on the mitten!