Winter Wonderland Lessons in Sunny South Florida

​How in the world did I teach about Winter in South Sunny Florida??
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Sometimes, you just have to use your imagination and think outside the box. For my students, the concept of winter/snow and wearing cold weather clothing is something they may never experience. But in my classroom, we were determined to help them learn about this real life concepts and experiences.

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Every month, I would cover different concepts/holidays/events during the whole group or morning work sessions​ (see left pic). I would practice these monthly events at least 2-3 times per week and every week for the rest of the month.  This is a great resource if you need visual boards for monthly themes.
​One thing I have learned throughout my 16+ self contained teacher years is that the repetition, consistency, and manipulation of learning helped all my students learn and remember the varying thematic academic concepts.

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One of my favorite seasons to teach was Winter. In sunny South Florida, winters are very different than in other areas or states. Most of my students have lived in South Florida all of their young lives. In some cases, families opted from traveling, especially during my student's young years due to various factors based on the student's disability. However, I didn't want my students to miss out on learning about real life concepts and experiences. So if we can't bring freezing/snowy winters to South Florida, I would at least simulate and educate about it in my classroom. Plus, it is super fun and engaging when you have to pretend, imagine and act out!

We always started with decorating the class for the theme!

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Let me walk you through some of my winter lessons:  

• I created digital classrooms that contain various books, songs or educational lessons. This is a great way to get the season introduction started.  I also created digital differentiated activities to help students engage during whole group learning based on the theme.

• Next, you want to make sure that you start creating activities that are engaging & hands-on to truly captivate the students and make sure that the students get the opportunity to manipulate learning. 
• I began by creating an interactive song based on a lullaby. This is a great way to always remember the tune of the song. There are tons of song examples that you can google or find on Pinterest.
  
  • Do not just play the song in the background!
    
  • Make sure to create a visual board on a chart paper where students can follow along. This will be great so students can take turns coming up to the board with a pointer and direct their peers to sing along. Some may require more physical prompting, therefore having an assistant or yourself help them will be beneficial. 
  • Another way to make the song interactive is to actually have the copy visual board of the song for each student, and maybe even manipulatives that students can use as you sing different parts of the song. ​​
• You can incorporate role playing. Students can role play how they would have to dress up in cold weather, or to go out to the snow. I had a winter bin with various scars, mittens, and sometimes even coats that I would find in thrift stores. Students would actually get the experience of what it was like to dress up for this kind of weather.

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• This is a great time to experiment with making fake snow. For my science experience or science time I would purchase the instant snow and make it with my students. They were able to explore the texture while also learning about the concepts of snow. There are different products that will help you create snow. Additionally, I would have in my refrigerator freezer ice cubes, so that students could feel how cold and snow would feel and how the process of melting would occurs. If you have students to don’t like to touch ice cubes, you can also use the gel ice packs.

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• For outdoor play, I would share stories about how when it is snowy outside, many kids and adults like to play around by throwing snowballs at each other. I would buy fake snowballs and we will play outside going through the process. The kids and myself included has a blast!

• Any type of theme allows you the opportunity to teach various vocabulary words related to that topic. This is a great way to increase students language so they can use it not only when they’re having conversations but also for reading comprehension and possibly writing activities. My centers would incorporate the different vocabulary words in different capacities in the various areas. A great way to differentiate activities is to have maybe make matching file folders that have were student can match word to photo, photo to photo, photo to icon, photo to word, or photo to sentence. It all depends on the students capacity and cognitive level the version you will have to use. ​

• Of course, last, but not least, we would do multiple arts and craft activities related to winter. This could vary anything from building snowflakes, to building snowmen, or creating snow globes.  

• I had various resources incorporated throughout all my different centers on the various core content, subject, such as reading, writing, and math.

It is very important to always remember to make learning fun!!! I hope that this blog gives you some ideas and inspires you as you’re getting ready to teach about winter.

Check out my Amazon: Teaching Winter Season Resources List  or check out my TPT Winter Resources You will find different items to help you teach Winter Lessons.