Winter Landscape {Home Art Studio}

Have you tried something and it just didn’t work for you or your family like you hoped it would?  Well, that happened to us.  You see, for the first half of school we attended a co-op.  My eldest son was so excited!  And all in all it was a wonderful opportunity for him.  However, it was rough on baby brother.  It just interfered with his schedule, which in turn left us with a grump the rest of the evening and sometimes even a sleepless night.

So, I just had to say NO to returning for the spring semester.  We just aren’t in the right season of life.  We hope to return another year, but until then I had to find some alternatives for our Friday lessons. 

After reading several reviews, mostly from Carisa at 1+1+1=1, I decided to purchase Home Art Studio for Kindergarten and give it a try.

There were several reasons, I wanted to test this program out – 1. minimal planning and prep, 2. educational and 3. age level specific.

My son is a huge art kid!  I mean HUGE!  So, he was jumping at the bit to get started. Now, the lessons to build on prior knowledge, but we didn’t start at the beginning. We actually had snow that morning, so we decided that the Winter Landscape (Lesson 8) would be a lot of fun to try. 

About the Project – Winter Landscape

• Time - 2 days to complete
• Main Focus – background and foreground

The first day I gathered all the supplies and started to do the lesson with Ms. Volin.  I paused it several times, so my son could catch up.  Once he got the snowy hills and cloud on the paper we set it aside to dry. 

The second day we finished it up, but I decided to let him watch the whole video first.  After watching the full video segment he worked on creating the snowmen and evergreen trees.  

How He Did

My son really enjoyed this project, however there were several tasks that he struggled to complete on his own.  He had a hard time drawing the trees.  To make it easier for him, I told him to draw 3 triangles on top of each other.  He also struggled with creating 3 distinct sizes of snowmen.  To help him, I cut out 3 white rectangles – one small, one medium and one large.  I told him to draw a snowman that would fill each rectangle.  Finally, I had to help him cut out the small images.  Cutting is an area that he is improving in, but in which he still gets frustrated.

Overall

This was a fun project.  I would say my son completed 75% of it by himself.  I can see us revisiting this, but maybe switching up some elements to make a different season landscape.

Do you have a favorite art curriculum?

 

Please note: I was not asked to review this curriculum. Be aware that affiliate links may be present.  If you purchase anything through an affiliate link, you give back a percentage to our family…thanks!

FREE Disney's Frozen Inspired Printable Pack

Disney's Frozen hit theaters today! Since the Monsters University and Plane’s Inspired Packs were such a hit with my son, I knew I had to make him one to go along with Disney’s Frozen.

Snow Queen K Extension Pack

While I was at it, I went ahead and made some preschool/pre-k printables too. Of course, a variety of the activities can be tweaked to work with kindergarten students.



You will need to be able to view pop-ups to download the unit, as it will appear in a pop up window from my site!

Here are the printables that may be included in this unit:

• Olaf Parts
• Number Order Puzzle (1-10)
• Magnet Page
• Letter Match
• Patterns (ABAB and AABB)
• Stamping Strips
• Beginning Writing/Cutting Practice
• Size Sequencing
• Roll & Graph

Want more? Grab a free family pack at the bottom of this post.

UPDATE: New Tot Pack now available! Grab it here.

Products We Use with Our Units
The following are affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Are you planning to go see Disney’s Frozen? Check out my review to see if its worth a full ticket price.


Please be aware that affiliate links are present.  If you purchase anything through an affiliate link, you give back a percentage to our family…thanks!

Please do not sell or host these files anywhere else. You MAY link people here. When leading others to these printables, please link to THIS page, not to the file page.  Thanks! (See TOU)

Snow & Ice {Expanded}

Check out our new and expanded “Winter Fun” unit! We’ve added a few new printables, which you can now download.

All our printables are in one easy download. Just click the image above to download a single zip file of all the printables. (Can’t unzip it. Try Hamster Free Zip Archiver approved by Amber’s husband. Remember to download carefully.)

You will need to be able to view pop-ups to download the unit, as it will appear in a pop up window from our site! Last year’s printables are also included in this download.   

Here are some of the printables that may be included in this unit:

• Patterns (ABAB and AABB)
• Roll & Graph
• Letter Sort 
• Writing Maze
• Icicle Count (You’ll need our counting cards.)
• Beginning Writing/Cutting Practice
• Size Sort
• Number Order Puzzle (1-10 and 11-20)  
• Spelling Puzzle
• Count & Clip 

Tot Pack

Looking for some ideas for a younger tot?  Check out the Winter Tot Pack from 1+1+1=1.

Products We Use with Our Units

Looking for more ideas?

• Devotional & Memory Verse Helps
• Center Ideas
• Snow & Ice Counting Book and Magnet Pages
• Winter Nature Walk
• Movie Night & Snowball Treat
• Winter Water Cycle
• Book Recommendations
• Last Year's Post

There are also more  ideas, units, printables and crafts available on this theme.  Check out our Pinterest Board for some of our favorites!

We hope you enjoy these printables and please let us know if you have any issues with downloading or using the items provided. 

Please do not sell or host these files anywhere else. You MAY link people here. When leading others to these printables, please link to THIS page, not to the file page.  Thanks! (See TOU)

 

 

The Winter Water Cycle

We try to come up with fun activities for science with your little ones!  Since we are studying snow and ice this week it presents a wonderful opportunity to introduce the water cycle to your kiddos and then revisit the process when spring rains come.

This puzzle goes through the water cycle stages of Evaporation, Condensation, and Precipitation.  It uses snow as the precipitation of choice, and we will be updating it to rain in the spring.  Until then, enjoy the printable and learning about the science of snow!

In addition to the puzzle here is a fun song you can sing with your little one that will get this process in their heads, and probably yours too!  This was my favorite just because it has this awesome “whoo whoo” part.  You’ll  know what I am talking about!! Visit Have Fun Teaching to listen to it.  Lyrics are provided also.

Snow and Ice Counting Book and Magnet Pages

Well, there is no snow and ice yet in our neck of the woods.  Apparently that is the case with most of the country though!  I heard today that parts of Texas have had more snow this season than Buffalo, New York!  Talk about crazy!   So you won’t likely be counting any real snowflakes for awhile this Snowflake Counting Book might fill in the gap!

    

Here are also two magnet pages for you!  This unit is really letter intensive…we are working with SNOW and ICE.  All the same, you can use these pages to work on letter recognition and beginning letter sounds! 

  

Wondering how to use magnet pages?  Check out this FAQ post and it will help you out! 

Amber

Snow & Ice Center Ideas

So, I’m a lot late getting this post up today.  The boy had his well check and had to get 4 shots today!  Poor guy.  He did pretty good for the first two, but wasn’t really thrilled with having to get two more.  Fortunately, he won’t have to get any more for 7 years!  He was a trooper and shook off the experience quickly.  This mama sure doesn’t like to deal with the whole shot thing.  I was so relieved that my husband was in there to hold my hand, I mean the boy’s hand.

Alright, I guess you’d might like some center ideas this week, huh? Well, we are expanding our Snow & Ice Theme printables, so I tracked down some ideas that I hope you’ll enjoy. Remember to go over how to do the activity with your kiddo before allowing them to do it independently.

Felt

For our Snow & Ice week, I found some felt matching activity using shapes from Making Learning Fun. I’ll you’ll need is some white or blue felt.  Then cut out several of the shapes on page 1. Using the felt shapes to create the snowflakes on the cards provided.

Snowflake Visual Discrimination Activity

Felt or Flannel boards are a fun way to retell stories or even for matching activities.  If you don’t have one, they are easy to make.  I found several tutorials on the web, my favorite from Itty Bitty Love. I love that it is small for kiddos and CHEAP!!  If you’d like to make a bigger one then check out Totally Tots or Teach Preschool for inspiration.

Fine Motor

My Montessori Journey has wonderful winter based activities that will help your child work on their fine motor skills and practical life skills.

"Snowy" Practical Life Activities

Pretend Play

Sensory bins are a great way to keep kiddos entertain for long periods of time.  Here are a couple of examples I found around the world wide web.  Just follow the links below to get a closer look at what’s inside.

From Katherine Maries

From Nurturing Naters

Winter Fun {Expanded}

Check out our new and expanded “Winter Fun” unit! We’ve added a few new printables, which you can now download.

All our printables are in one easy download. Just click the image above to download a single zip file of all the printables. (Can’t unzip it. Try Hamster Free Zip Archiver approved by Amber’s husband. Remember to download carefully.)

You will need to be able to view pop-ups to download the unit, as it will appear in a pop up window from our site! Last year’s printables are also included in this download.   

Here are some of the printables included in this unit:

• Patterns (ABAB and AABB)
• Roll & Graph
• Letter Sort 
• Writing Maze
• Beginning Writing/Cutting Practice
• Size Sort
• Number Order Puzzle (1-10 and 11-20)
• Spelling Book
• Count & Clip 

Tot Pack

Looking for some ideas for a younger tot?  Check out our Winter Fun Tot Pack. (Tot Packs inspired by 1+1+1=1.) Here are the printables included in this pack:

• Winter Fun Match
• Winter Fun Shapes 
• Count the Hats
• Mitten Colors (mini book)
• Size Sequencing
• Winter Fun Picture Puzzle

 

Products We Use with Our Units

Looking for more ideas?

• Devotional & Memory Verse Helps
• Center Ideas
• Winter Scene Craft & Color Book
• Family Theme Night- Winter
• Book Recommendations
• Last Year's Post

There are also more  ideas, units, printables and crafts available on this theme.  Check out our Pinterest Board for some of our favorites!

We hope you enjoy these printables and please let us know if you have any issues with downloading or using the items provided. 

Please do not sell or host these files anywhere else. You MAY link people here. When leading others to these printables, please link to THIS page, not to the file page.  Thanks! (See TOU)

 

Winter Fun Center Ideas

Brr.  It has been cold here in our neck of the woods and we actually got some snow for the first time this season!  So, I am so excited to start doing some fun winter themed activities.

To get you started, I’ve found some fabulous resources that can be use in independent centers.  Remember to go over how to do the activity with your kiddo before allowing them to do it independently.

Writing

Love the free resources from Busy Bee Kids Printables! Their mazes have varying levels of difficulty.  Plus, they have several choices on dot-to-dots. My son will be using our Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center with these printables, which will allow these pages to be used over and over again without having to laminate them. If you don’t have a Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center, then I would suggest laminating them.

Winter Mazes

Winter Dot-to-Dots

To simplify the dot-to-dots for kiddos that struggle with numbers, just connect the larger numbers for them before hand. 


Games
I found a easy to create matching game while browsing Pinterest.  All you’ll need is some assorted scrap paper and a pair of scissors. Just follow the link below to learn more.

Source: tonsoffunpreschoolactivities.blogspot.com via 2 Teaching on Pinterest

Hope your staying nice and toasty!

Winter Crafts and Colors!

As the cold month of January begins we will be rolling out our expanded unit on things we do in winter!  I just can’t bring myself to a recipe post because like many of you I am sick of sweets and baking!

Since we have been out of the swing of things for a couple of weeks due to a Christmas break I will be starting E off with a favorite of hers, a color book! 

          

And, just in case cabin fever starts to set in we might make one of these from Family Fun magazine.  I found this fantastic book on Winter Fun treats and crafts in the dollar section of our Target! 

All of the ideas are cute but here are two of my favorite ones:

These are Sparkling Ice Crystals.  I don’t work for Family Fun, but I would have called them pipe cleaner snowflakes :)  I did read in the comments that for little ones you might want to use fewer pipe cleaners.  That is likely what we will do! 

 

 

 

This Christmas E discovered window clings.  I cannot tell you how frequently she played with the ones in our house.  When I saw this idea for Glittery Window Clings I knew she would want to make them!  Have you made any homemade window clings?  Do they ok?  Give us pointers if you have any!

 

 

I hope these few ideas make your return to the routine a little easier!  

Tots in Action-Snow and Ice

Here are some pictures of this unit in action! We hope they help you as you plan your week ahead!

All Things Snow & Ice

This unit has been expanded. So, make sure and get all the printables here.

 

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Did you think we forgot?  We have been tweaking some of the printables, so we are sorry for the delay.  Here is what we’ve been doing this week. Let us know what you think.  We hope by providing these materials to you free of charge, it will make your life easier! 

Lesson Plan: The lesson plan includes all the lessons for the week, as well as optional ideas. Items following the lesson plan are just the printables or links to websites we used to teach these plans.  (Please note: On top of our lesson plan we are reading books daily that relate to our theme.)

Memory Verse: This memory card is for daily use during our calendar time.  You can learn more about calendar time at 1+1+1=1 or Homeschool Creations.  Our weekly devotional is an object lesson that will help your child apply the meaning of the verse to them.

Day 1: Snowflakes 
ABC Snowflake Letter Match- Have your child match the capital letter to the lowercase letter to reinforce letter recognition.

Snowflake Graphing-  This activity will introduce your child to making a simple graph using concrete manipulatives (wooden cubes) and to practice reading the data displayed on their graph.

Snow Observations- We found this activity at Hub Pages- Easy Snow and Ice Experiments.  If you don’t have snow this page also tells you how to make a mixture that has the consistency of snow, which would work for your snow observations.  We created an observation sheet to go along with it.

 

Day 2: Icicles 
I is for Icicles- Teaches your child how letters are linked to sounds to form letter-sound correspondence.

Flip & Draw- Icicles Count- This activity will help your child begin to read, count and model whole numbers 1-10.

 

 

Making Icicles- Another activity we found at Hub Pages- Easy Snow and Ice Experiments.

 

 

Day 3: Snowman 
Snowman Spelling Puzzle- This activity will help your child begin to recognize that when letters are combined they form words.

Roll & Build a Snowman- This activity will help your child begin to read whole numbers 1-6.

Salt and String- Another activity we found at Hub Pages- Easy Snow and Ice Experiments.

 

 

We hope you enjoy these lesson plans and please let us know if you have any issues with downloading or using the items provided.  

 

Please do not sell or host these files anywhere else. You MAY link people here. When leading others to these printables, please link to THIS page, not the 4shared file page.  Thanks! (See TOU)