The last day before winter break we had a winter classroom transformation!! It was a blast!! The last couple of years I have started doing a few room transformations a year. My goal for this year was to still do room transformations, but to include more learning than I had done in the past. For this winter classroom transformation, my students rotated through 4 centers that reviewed digraphs, sight words, add/subtract within 20, and place value with tens and ones.
Here is a pano picture of how I set the room up.
Making my room into a winter wonderland classroom transformation was easy and fun!
I don’t think you need to spend a ton of money on a winter classroom transformation. It can be done on any budget. What kids love is something different than they see on a daily basis. I hung plastic table clothes over the window. I added some felt snowflakes on top. From the ceiling I hung snowflakes. All these items were purchased from the dollar store. You could totally make snowflakes out of paper and hang butcher paper over the window at pretty much no cost! The inflatable games I purchased from Target, but you can easily do these activities with just baskets or bins you already have. On my Promethean board I found a blizzard background on YouTube that even had blizzard sounds!!
Here are the 4 centers we did during our winter classroom transformation.
Penguin bowling for tens and ones.
Here students bowled and recorded how many pins fell down on the “tens” spot on the recording sheet, bowled again and recorded how many pins fell on the “ones” spot on the recording sheet. They then had to draw that number with tens sticks/rods and ones under the number. When it was not their turn to bowl, students helped count the fallen pins, and set them back up again, this way not one was standing around doing nothing. Next year I will probably set up 2 bowling sets. Again this penguin bowling set is not necessary. Any bowling set would be fun!
Digraph sort ring toss
At this game students sorted cards by the digraph sound and then tossed a ring on the corresponding antler or narwhal. If you don’t have these inflatables, students can still sort the cards into baskets and throw paper snowballs or rolled up socks instead of the rings.
Add/Subtract with 20 snowball toss
At this game, students solved an addition or subtraction equation using the giant number line if needed.. Then they threw a snowball into the snowman depending on which hole had their answer. I had my students put their equation card on the number line so I could come around and periodically check their work. Whiteboards would also work to help them solve the equations. You could easily replace the snowman with a few baskets.
Building sight words
Here students built words we have learned this year with mini erasers, putty, and hashtag blocks.
Each rotation lasted about 30 mins. I did notice the the digraph ring toss game went very quickly while to bowling game took almost the whole 30 mins for each student to get a few turns. So after my students sorted the digraph cards 2 times, I put out some legos for them to play with. The day before, I sent home a note that warned us of a winter storm coming to our classroom tomorrow. (You can find the note here). The note got the kids really excited. It also told them to wear their winter attire. Having them wear their winter attire really helped amp the theme up. I also turned off the heater in my room that day. (I live in CA so it wasn’t really that cold. LOL, This may not be possible where you live) I also put up a snow machine and a photo booth that day!!
The photo booth background is just a giant gift bag that I found at the dollar store. I enlarged some clip art that I have purchased and taped onto dowels for some fun props.
Here is a quick video of my students enjoying the snow. You can find the snow machine and snow juice that I used here.
A snow machine is not necessary but totally worth it. I was able to get the snow machine and snow juice for free through Donors Choose.
If you would like to try a winter room transformation in your classroom, you can check out more here!! I’d love to hear about your winter room transformation!!!
