Investigating Snow

I set out some invitations to provoke their thinking about snowflakes! They were very aware of what snow looked and felt like, but not as individual snowflakes! I was curious what they would notice! I set out nonfiction books about snow, close-up pictures of snowflakes and random materials for them to use the language of art to show what they notice.

Using open ended materials that we call “loose parts” in our room, they showed me that they had some awareness of symmetry in snowflakes. They also made the snowflakes show different emotions! Can you see the cotton swab tears in the second flake? 



The fourth one in this group is feeling sweaty! So creative! Again, you can see the creative and mathematical thinking going on here as they create symmetrical patterns on the flakes, just like in the real photos! Math, science and art all mashed together! Many collaborated and worked as a team to create these!







I set out an invitation for them to show what they noticed using clay. This was not easy as our non-drying clay was as hard as rock! They really gave their finger muscles a workout trying to tear pieces off and warm/soften them up! Working these muscles will help with their handwriting!

As they looked closer they noticed that most snowflakes had a hexagonal shape to them, especially in the middle! This is what helped them realize they had six sides, since a hexagon has six sides.









I also set out an invitation for them to create stories about the fun to be had in the snow. They played and wrote stories about sledding, getting buried in the snow, snowball fights and building snowmen.

Here is a first page of a story two friends were creating together through what we call “small world play.”

Another story inspired by this area.



We looked outside one day and big fluffy snowflakes started falling! It was 62 and sunny the day before so we were very excited! We stopped what we were doing, grabbed some black paper and magnifying glasses and went outside to look closer at some real snowflakes! They noticed the patterns like they saw in the photos! 





We went inside and looked even closer with snowflake photos and created observational drawings of snowflakes. I was amazed at the detail they captured as they drew as scientists! They wrote a sentence about something they noticed about their snowflake.

We created snowflakes with pattern block shapes. Like real snowflakes, no two were alike!

I created another invitation to encourage them to create stories, this time about animals in winter. I added some nonfiction to see if this area piqued any interest to investigate winter animals further. I plan on making white play dough to add here to explore animals footprints in the snow. These plastic animals have realistic footprints!  I can’t wait to see what stories they create here!

We brought some snow in for them to play in and explore.

Of course, days after a snowstorm, when the snow was not too deep for normal shoes, we all went outside and played in the snow. Their favorite activity (and mine) was pelting me with snowballs!

How we became Kindness Ninjas

A class up in Canada (Joysofkinder) started The Kindness Ninja movement and sent us an invitation to become Kindness Ninjas! It included a guide written by them, directions, the Kindness Ninja Pledge, a Kindness Ninja Master, a plaque, and two headbands. I went out and bought a 3’ x 3’ piece of felt and made ninja headbands for the class, then presented the kids with the kit! We read their guide, put on our kindness ninja headbands, took the pledge, put our thumbprint on the plaque to seal our pledge and voila! We were now official Kindness Ninjas! The kids could not wait to do our first RAK (Random Act of Kindness)!

I mentioned they could change the world with kindness and they were very doubtful. “We can’t change the world,” was heard over and over. We read the book Ordinary Mary’s Extrordinary Deed. It’s about how one girls random act of kindness in the end affected millions of people. One little girl ended up changing the world through her on little act. It really helped them understand how powerful their acts of kindness can be!



It was Mrs. Rigg’s Birthday so we decided to RAK her! They were so excited! They painted a banner to hang outside her door.

She was so surprised and said she felt so loved. She also wondered who in the world the kindness ninjas were! What was really cool was our act of kindness inspired her to have her class do an act of kindness for another teacher. When I told th skids, they saw how there acts of incense was already spreading kindness around our school!



Our next act of kindness was to make a book for Miss Reese filled with kind words about her! 



We got ready to deliver it to her room without being seen! We had been practicing our stealth ninja moves!





We had brainstormed kind words when we made Miss Reese’s book. I set up an area where they could write notes of kindness to friends and family. This was a very popular station with good authentic writing! 

Our Next RAK was to create posters that would encourage others to choose kindness.

We used our stealth ninja moves to hang them up where there was a lot of traffic before anyone could see us!



We often repeat our pledge to help us remember to choose kindness that day!



Next, we decided to RAK our beloved Literacy Lab Teacher, Mrs. Coberly! They painted hearts and wrote words of kindness on them to Mrs. Coberly. More authentic writing experiences! That is when they always do their best writing!





Using our stealth ninja moves, we taped them all to Mrs. Coberly’s door.







She was so happy! She came up and told us that it made her day and she planned on spreading the kindness, but wondered if we had any idea who the kindness ninjas were? The kids all said they had no idea! They really want to keep their identity a secret!

They came up with the idea of sending out Kindness Ninja kits like the one we had received! It was perfect because I had been getting requests on social media for kits. We studied maps so that we could figure out where we were sending the kits and keep track.





They painted Kindness Ninja Masters.







We made “A Beginner’s Guide to Becoming a Kindness Ninja (more authentic writing happening!) and I typed up directions, the pledge and made plaques, then cut headbands. 



I put them in envelopes to send off. Unfortunately, the ones going out of the U.S. were going to cost $10 to send and I had fourteen that needed to be sent internationally. So unfortunately, I had to take the Kindness Ninja Master out of the international ones. The ones sent within the U.S. came with Kindness Ninja Masters. 

We told them to tag us on social media when they did their Random Acts of Kindness. We can’t wait to see how we have helped spread kindness all over the world! I am so thankful to the class from Joysofkinder who sent us our invite and started this wonder wat to teach kids about how kindness affects the world! 

We will keep you updated as we continue our Random Acts of Kindness!