This month in our Preschool 2 classroom, the children have been working hard on our winter wonderland in block centre. We sat together as a group and talked about what we like about winter time. Some of the answers were building a snowman, making a snow fort, drinking hot chocolate by the fire, and listening to Christmas music.
We decided to create some of these items for our classroom. We collected a variety of different cardboard boxes from our cook, Stephanie, and also asked families through the Digibot Parent Portal if they had any boxes at home they would like to donate. Once we had enough boxes, then painted them white to give off the winter/snow look. When asked what we were going to use them for, we asked the same question back to the children to see what they would use them for. This way they would have to really think hard about what to use them for, rather than just copying what we said. We watched as the gears started turning in their heads and here is what they said; “We can build a big snow fort, inside of course with the blocks!” We also heard, “I can make a really big snowman with these!”
Once the boxes had dried we removed our wooden blocks from block centre and replaced them with our new painted winter boxes. The children began building with excitement! Next, we talked about making sleighs for the snow. We asked the children what colour they would like the sleigh to be, “red” they said excitedly! We painted the sleighs red and once dried, we added them to our block centre as well. The children also requested to have some Christmas music playing while engaged in the play. As we continue into December we can’t wait to see what else the children think of creating!
