You’re going to put them out and set it up and the kids will make of it what they will and they will take it and run with it. And it may not be exactly what you had in mind, but that’s okay because when they’re making the play their own, when they’re guiding the play, it’s going to be way more engaging to them.
~ Zeba from Episode 63 of The Kindergarten Cafe Podcast
Episode Summary
In this episode, we discuss enhancing winter playtime in the classroom with five creative setups. We explore a snow habitat activity for storytelling, sensory exploration with snow and ice, artistic expression using black paper and white crayons, loose parts play with snowflake materials, and reimagined dramatic play centers reflecting winter themes. These engaging activities aim to prevent monotony, boost student motivation, and foster resilience and creativity in young learners.
In this episode I share:
- Winter Playtime Ideas
- Engaging Winter Play Setups
- Creative Winter Activities
- Dramatic Play Center Ideas
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Read the Transcript
[0:00] Hey, teacher friends, if you’re like me, the play area, playtime can get a little stagnant if you aren’t changing it up, and the kids’ play can get repetitive, and I already said stagnant, but that’s kind of what I mean. Just like, it could stay the same, and then they get bored, and if they aren’t engaged and bored, that’s when misbehaviors start to happen. So we can easily re-engage them by changing up our play setups, by changing up our play invitations. And so I want to give you five easy winter play setups in today’s podcast episode that you can take and run with very easily and get in the winter spirit, winter mood. So let’s get into it.
[0:46] Music. You’re listening to the Kindergarten Cafe podcast, where kindergarten teachers come to learn classroom-tested tips and tricks and teaching ideas they can use in their classroom right away. I’m Zeba, creator and founder of Kindergarten Cafe, and I help kindergarten teachers with everything they need from arrival to dismissal in order to save time, work smarter, not harder, and support students with engaging and purposeful lessons. I’m here to cheer you on through your successes and breakthroughs and offer support and resources so you never have to feel stuck or alone. Ready to start saving time and reducing your stress?
[1:39] Okay, our first winter setup is, our winter play invitation, is to encourage kids to make a winter snowscape. So have a little tray or just like on the table itself, put out some cotton balls, even some little of that like white stuffing, stuffing that you use to like stuff a pillow with, right? I’m sure you can go, I’m sure you have some lying around the house. I did. I’m sure you go to a fabric store and be like, hey, can I have like a little handful for my classroom? and I bet they’d give it to you. But anyway, Cotton Balls works just fine. And some little animal figurines. And it’s a bonus if it’s like a forest or winter animal, but it doesn’t have to be. It just makes a little more sense than like having, you know, an elephant be in the snow. And then let the kids play with these animals. Let them set up their own imaginary snow world and habitat. You could easily include books as inspiration that maybe you’ve read that showcase winter animals and their habitats.
[2:39] And honestly, they’ll run with it. That’s the thing with all of these. You’re going to put them out and set it up and the kids will make of it what they will. And they will take it and run with it. And it may not be exactly what you had in mind, but that’s okay. Because when they’re making the play themselves, when they’re guiding the play, it’s going to be way more engaging to them. So it’s better to follow their lead. But you set it up, invite them over, and then see what they do with it. So having that sort of winter snowscape habitat with some animal figurines is very inviting and is going to be very interesting to see what they do with it. Second play invitation involves your sensory table, sand table, water table. If you don’t have that, no big deal. You can just use a bin on a table. And one of the things I love to do in winter is actually bring snow inside to my sensory table when it snows, when we have enough snow. I love to do that. Not always available, though. Sometimes I get impatient. We haven’t had enough snow. That’s not a big deal. If you don’t have snow, you can make ice instead and put that in your sensory table. And I like to do both of those things. So if you’re making ice, fill up a bin with water, put it in your school’s freezer. I assume they have one. You know, we have a staff room fridge and freezer.
[3:59] Then I take the ice, I put it into the sensory table, like I said, or a bin on the table. And I let them explore with the ice. Then I’ll put out different things with the ice, different days, like I’ll put out just a cup of water and some paintbrushes or some water droppers and let them explore how adding the water to the ice can make little holes in the ice. Or what if you just gave them paintbrushes with watercolor and saw how they could paint the ice or the snow? All of this works with the snow as well. If I do have snow, sometimes I’ll put in some of the sand toys and just let them play with the snow. You do have to go over expectations. just like with sand snow stays in the sand table but generally they’re they’re really good about it but it’s more about the experimenting of if you add a little water or if you add watercolor like what happens to the ice or the snow and that also helps because the snow and ice can be quite cold on their little hands so having the paintbrushes with the watercolor or the water droppers means that they’re not like putting their hands all up in the snow and getting too cold
[5:02] they do some really cool experimenting and really cool things with the ice and the snow. So highly recommend in some capacity bringing in ice and or snow.
[5:13] Third, play invitation for winter. Put out some black construction paper and white crayons and see what the kids create. Just let it be. You could always suggest snow people. You could read the Snowman at Night book and then leave that on the table and see if they create their own snowmen with the white crayons and the black construction paper. But again, go with their lead. Go with what they’re interested in. But it could be really cool to see what they do. the other thing that I somehow came upon is these like snowflake stencils where you put them under the paper and then you do like a crayon rubbing on top and the image of the snowflake appears so sometimes I like to do that and just do an example of like part of it and see if they notice that the crayon rubbing is becoming a snowflake and see if they can finish it but I honestly don’t know where I got those from. So when in doubt, just put out the black construction paper and white crayons and see what happens. Our fourth winter play area, play invitation, would be loose parts with snowflakes. So for this, I would put out pictures of snowflakes and then just a few simple materials and felt paper.
[6:31] Felt paper helps keep the loose parts steady on the table and creates like a placemat for it. We can talk more about loose parts at some point if that interests you. So I would put out maybe blue or black so that the snowflake really stands out. And just a few simple materials, maybe Q-tips, maybe ribbon pieces, maybe those little washers like the metal ones that are like the circle washers or buttons. If you have buttons of different shapes and sizes and colors. That could be really good. Just a few, three or four, no more than that. And just see what happens. But I definitely recommend Q-tips if you’re asking them to do snowflakes. And again, you’re not asking them to do snowflakes. You’re inspiring them by putting out the pictures of the snowflakes, but see what they do. See where they take it. But it can be really cool to see how they use the loose parts to create the patterns and mimic the snowflakes that you’ve been possibly learning about in class. This could also segue to making snowflakes. If you teach them how to cut the paper, I remember doing that as a kid and just loving that and having the snowflakes hang up around the classroom. It could be a fun little activity. That’s a bonus.
[7:42] That’s not one of the five. That’s just a bonus play invitation. So number five would be of our winter play invitations would be to change up your dramatic play center. Some of the stuff that I do in the winter that are usually favorites, they’re not exactly a winter theme.
[8:00] But some of the favorites that we do are making a post office. It goes great with learning about community helpers or the like winter holidays, because maybe kids are sending cards or gifts. They’re just like around the post office a bit more. Same with the travel center we’ll do because a lot of my students go on vacation. So we’ll do like a train or a plane in the wintertime. But you could create like a hot cocoa stand. And you could, I’m just thinking this on the spot, like a gingerbread making place. I wouldn’t do Polar Express. I talked about this in the December episode last year. I’ll link below, but not everyone celebrates Christmas. So I wouldn’t do Polar Express, but something with like polar bears. Yeah, I’m trying to think on the spot. Not great. Anyway, I always do post office, travel center in the wintertime. A movie theater as well is always
[8:52] a really fun one. And that’s what I have set up right now, actually. So those are my five winter play invitations to change up your play areas, keep kids engaged, re-invigorate, re-engage them with their play.
[9:07] And I know you’ll see a shift in their behavior and their engagement when you change up these areas and offer these new engaging play invitations. All right, our quote of the day. Five-year-old girl said, have you tried ice skating? and the boy five-year-old said i did and i fell on my nose but i’m not quitting.
[9:32] I just love that talk about persistence fell on his nose that’s a lot of people would quit after that anyway i hope you enjoy these winter play areas if this is something you like and you want more of let me know send me code word play to my dm to let me know that you enjoyed the episode i I would love to hear from you and send this episode to a teacher friend who could use some more play inspiration for their classroom. Thanks so much. Have a great day.
[10:00] Music.
[10:06] Thanks so much for listening to the Kindergarten Cafe podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes for more information and resources, or just head straight to kindergartencafe.org for all the goodies. If you liked this episode, the best ways to show your support are to subscribe, leave a review, or send it to a friend. I’ll be back next week with even more kindergarten tips. See you then.