Yesterday I spent the day with my friends from
Cantata Learning and
Capstone in Minnesota. In the afternoon we were invited to come to a very special school and share the Winter Around the World project we have been collaborating on with other children, teacher librarians and school communities around the world.
We went to Hillcrest Elementary School to visit my new teacher librarian friend Belle Nelson.
From the minute we walked into the library to meet the three classes of 1st graders, I knew it was going to be one very special day.
We kicked off our time together reading and singing
Winter...The Coldest Season of All from Cantata Learning. The little ones loved playing bells as they sang and moved along to the book.
(You can get to the eBook too
at this link....Username snowing and Password singing)
Next, Belle put the children into groups to rotate through four stations that were set up throughout their library.
They would create penguins or snowmen out of clay....
Decorate a pinwheel for their winter garden outside of the library windows....
Read winter books in their super cozy reading spaces....
and make
Wintery Mix in the cooking station with a recipe created by our friend Sarah Schuette at Capstone. Sarah creates a lot of the cookbooks at Capstone so we were very honored she shared this special recipe with us for our day together.
(Please feel free to copy and share the recipe for Wintery Mix with your students.)
I was excited to be in the cooking station for our time in their library. I enjoyed hearing them talk about how they love to cook and bake yummy treats during the holidays.
It was fun having Randy Klinger and Amy Cox from Capstone helping with this station and the others.
This was a fun tie in to our Winter Around the World project but also a terrific activity for following directions, measuring and working on those fine motor skills.
The little ones took turns measuring the ingredients and putting them in the big bag to mix. Then they decorated a small bag for their very own wintery mix.
We also printed off Wintery Mix recipe cards for them to put in their bag to take home. This is an easy recipe for them to make during the holidays by themselves or with a little help.
The QR code on the recipe card will take them to the
Winter...The Coldest Season Of All. They were excited to know they could share the book and song with their families too.
I loved the winter pinwheel garden station. What a creative idea Belle had in putting this together.
Kat Coughlan from Cantata Learning helped the children in this station. She commented how they enjoyed creating pinwheels that would send their wishes out into the winter air....So sweet and creative of them.
Joan Berge from Cantata Learning read with the children in the winter book station.
They loved getting cozy and reading all kinds of beautiful winter books from the library.
The 1st grade teachers helped the students create penguins, snowmen and other wintery things in the clay station. I loved to see what they were creating...everyone was different and unique.
Their creations and stories they told on this day will become part of the
Winter Around The World global collaborative story that we are putting together. We will add pictures from our day together, pictures of their winter creations and the winter garden and the Wintery Mix recipe.
Thank you Belle and all of the 1st grade students and teachers at Hillcrest Elementary.
Kat, Joan, Amy, Randy and I loved our time with all of you in your amazing library. We are so happy you will be part of the winter story now too.
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