Each year, my class always comes up with a fun, new idea for a compliment party. Some of the previous parties include classics such as pajama day or a sundae party. However, I love when my students come up with rewards I have never done before, such as a fiesta or camp in. The most recent class party theme is a snow day!
For this class reward, the set up was very simple; however, you could go above and beyond to do a complete classroom transformation. The first week back from winter break, we studied snowflakes in science so we already had several snowflakes decorating the room. Throughout the day, I had either a snowstorm or fire playing on the projector. Click on the links below to access the videos I used from YouTube.
As with any snow day, students were able to wear their pajamas all day and bring some cozy items from home, including a small blanket, pillow, and stuffed animal. One student even brought in a heated blanket and I was VERY jealous. With these items, students made a cozy spot to work at for the day.
Throughout the day, I integrated snow into all of our learning activities.
Reading
For reading, we started off with some D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) by reading next to the fire. My class LOVES D.E.A.R. time and knows reading helps you become a better reader. Then, we worked on questioning and identifying main ideas and supporting details using THIS lesson from Core Inspiration by Laura Santos. The headings from The Story of Snow are covered up using Post It tape prior to reading. After you read the details on each page to your students, they have to guess the main idea.
Writing
This year I am trying to incorporate more opinion writing since we do a lot of informational and narrative projects. I found a fun and interactive lesson to practice opinion writing. The kids loved comparing their answer during this Opinion Writing: Would You Rather? Winter Theme activity by Susan Morrow from Keep ‘Em Thinking. Another great writing piece is this Trapped in a Snow Globe Writing Freebie by Teach Create Motivate.
Math
In math, I combined a get-to-know-you activity with our current concept in math which led to a snowball fight! Many of you have probably done yourself or used this in your class before. It requires students to write something on a piece of paper, in this case we wrote customary measurement problems (without the answer, i.e. 3 G = _____ qt). Then, they crumpled up their papers and when everyone was ready, we had our “snowball” fight using our paper snowballs. When time was called, students found a “snowball” to uncrumple and solved the problem. Lastly, we went around the room and shared our answers for a quick check.
Another fun option to teach symmetry are these Geoboard Snowflakes by Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls.
Science
Making snow dough was a last minute addition to our fun day. However, I wish I would have tried it out myself beforehand. It was fun to feel the textures and see how it changed forms. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the ratio of lotion to corn starch figured out. The students still had fun getting a little messy. After attempting to do this as a whole class, I highly recommend doing this in small groups.
Another option is for students to make their own crystal snowflakes. It’s very simple with only a couple of ingredients. I would have done this with my students but I saw the fourth graders doing it before winter break.
Of course, no snow day is complete without a snowball fight! I was lucky enough to have two students who received indoor snowballs for Christmas. These are plush snowballs that have enough weight to be thrown a decent distance and even feel like snow when you squeeze them. They brought these in and we had an EPIC snowball fight to end our day. I put on some music and it was on!
To relax after the snowball fight and end our day, the students sipped on some hot chocolate while I read aloud. Our fantastic kitchen staff provided me with a large thermos of hot water so I could easily make the hot chocolate in my classroom.
It was a great day and I look forward to doing this again next year!
What are some of your favorite class rewards?
