The first snowfall of the year came with much surprise last week. My kindergarten students were thrilled at the prospect of going out and playing in the snow.
Not so fast though – seems we needed to cover some basic ground rules about dressing (and undressing) if this was going to be a stress-free snow season.
Snow pants stuck at ankles, blocked by clunky boots, scarves wrapped around heads, unyielding to hoods asking to be removed, coats unzipped, mittens on too soon…
Arrrrgh!
This year, to make it more fun, I decided to teach the dressing sequence through a song I wrote.
I started by reading Robert Munsch’s somewhat befitting story,
I have to go, and after a few good laughs, introduced my new song, Let’s Go Out and Play.
Now we were grooving!
LET’S GO OUT AND PLAY
Written by Lora Rozler (tune: The Hokey Pokey)
You put your snow pants on.
You put your boots on too.
Before you know it, you’ll be ready,
But now there’s more to do.
You zip your coat right on,
And you put your hat on too.
Woohoo – we’re almost through!
You put your cozy scarf on,
And those furry mittens too.
You thought you’d never finish,
Somehow you managed to.
Can’t wait to go and play now,
So much to see and do.
Woohoo, we’re done – we’re through!
Let’s Go Out and Play by Lora Rozler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
As a follow-up activity, I had students cut and paste winter dress-up clothes on a template of themselves. While students enjoyed crafting their mini-me’s, my ECE and I walked around and observed whether students followed the correct sequence we had discussed (this can be a great assessment piece and a good time to exercise and check on students’ cutting skills).
You may want to photocopy the templates on different colour construction paper and let students mix and match the articles, or else plain white paper and have students create patterns and designs on their clothing. Add some yarn for hair and googly eyes and you’ve got a masterpiece parents will surely cherish.
For a more formal assessment piece, you may want to use the activity below, where students cut and paste clothing cut-outs into a sequencing table.
To download all the resources above, for your personal use in the classroom, click HERE.
Happy snow season everyone!
Lora
As we commemorate Remembrance Day and pay tribute to those who have fallen to give us the life we enjoy today, it is important to think about our role in maintaining that peace every day; whether it be on a global scale or in the minutia of our daily lives. As a teacher, this becomes a vital teaching opportunity to inject lessons about peace, love and acceptance through activities that foster friendship and respect.
Words On A Limb 
