Winter Is Coming

2 min Magic Box hook

First, the welcome back. Before the box, before anything: go right round the circle and say every single name out loud, and let them look at each other. Two weeks is a long time when you are three.

Now the box. It is heavier than usual and it makes no sound at all.

Open it, look in, and pull your hand back sharply as though it bit you. Do it twice. Then lift out the bowl, and pass the ice cube itself round the circle so every child holds it for two seconds and hands it on fast. Shiver: “Cold!”

4 min Teach · Cold

The whole class shivers together, twice — small and shaky, then enormous:

Littles do the shiver and say “Cold!” Bigs owe you the sentence: “It is cold.” “My hands are cold.”

Then the bowl goes on the shelf, in front of everybody, and stays there. Say one sentence about it and no more: “That ice cube is going to sit there all week and we are going to look at it every single day.” Do not explain. Do not ask what will happen. Leave it.

Teacher fails: take off your own coat, fan yourself, and announce “Phew! It's so HOT in here today.” Wait. Let them shout you down.

Chinese moment: lay the 冷 card beside the bowl. Say 好冷! once with the shiver. The card stays; the row grows by one card a day.

3 min Song · Brr! It's Cold! — chorus + Monday verse

The one song of the week — same chorus at every circle, one new verse each morning, the whole thing on Friday. Chords and the full sheet are on the Song tab. Sing it standing, always: this song has feet in it.

3 min Game · Hot or cold?

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Two wrapped bundles go round the circle in opposite directions: the warm bottle one way, the ice pack the other.

Each child holds one for two seconds, shouts “Hot!” or “Cold!” and passes it on. When the two bundles meet on the far side of the circle, everybody cheers. Then swap directions and go round again, faster.

Wrap both bundles in a tea towel so nothing is ever painful, and check the warm one on your own wrist first. Warm, never hot.

1 min Close

Everybody standing, arms wrapped round themselves. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats) — a small boy, a red snowsuit, and a whole day outside. Read it slowly and let them look.

2 min Magic Box hook

Look at the ice first. Every day this week starts with ten seconds at the shelf. Point. Say nothing. Let somebody else say it.

Then the box — today it is soft, and something is hanging out of one corner.

Pull the scarf out very slowly, hand over hand, as if it will never end. Keep going. Let it get silly. Then the hat, straight onto your own head, crooked, over one eye.

Everybody mimes pulling on a hat: “Hat!” “Scarf!”

4 min Teach · Coat

Now the coat, and the order it goes on in. Stand up and do it together, twice, naming every step:

Then the Montessori part, and it is the point of the day: show the coat flip — coat on the floor, hood at your toes, hands in the two armholes, flip it over your head. Do it once, in silence, slowly. Then let one child try while everybody watches.

Littles say “Coat!” with the two-arm mime. Bigs give the frame: “I put on my coat.” “It is cold, so I put on my coat.”

Teacher fails: put the coat on backwards, or both arms down one sleeve, and stand there looking pleased with yourself. Wait for the roar.

Chinese moment: the 衣 card joins 冷 on the shelf — 衣服. Today is 小寒, Minor Cold: say it once, and tell them what it means — the cold has started, and the big cold is still coming.

3 min Song · Brr! It's Cold! — chorus + Tuesday verse

Count one, two, three out loud and slowly, with a real arm going into a real sleeve on each number. The song is teaching the dressing sequence; do not rush it just because it is a song.

3 min Game · Dress the snowman

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Two teams, one child from each team standing out front as the snowman. A pile of clothes on the floor in front of each.

The team dresses their snowman, calling the item out as it goes on. First team finished stands still and shouts “Winter is here!” Then swap the snowmen and go again so everybody gets a turn at being dressed.

Play it as a race only with the bigs. With a mixed circle, drop the racing and make it one child at a time with the whole class calling the order — the sequence is the learning, not the speed.

1 min Close

Everybody still wearing something — a hat, a scarf, one glove. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? Froggy Gets Dressed (Jonathan London) — a frog who keeps forgetting one thing and has to go back for it. They will shout the missing item at the page, which is exactly the lesson.

2 min Magic Box hook

Ten seconds at the shelf first. Today somebody will say it out loud without being asked. Let them.

The box is heavy today, and it thumps. Chant, then drop it (gently) on the floor from a hand's height — thump.

Lift out one boot. Hold it up in silence. Turn it over and show the sole — the pattern, the grip, the mud. Then the second boot, and bang the two together, hard, twice.

Everybody stamps: “Boots!”

4 min Teach · Boots

Boots are the loud word of the week, so teach them with the feet:

Then the real work: one child sits down in front of everybody and puts the big boots on by themselves while the class counts the steps — sit, hold the top, push, push, stand. Nobody helps. Everybody waits. Then they walk a lap of the circle and the whole class stamps in time with them.

Littles stamp twice and say “Boots!” Bigs give the frame: “I put on my boots.” “My boots keep my feet dry.”

Teacher fails: put a boot on your hand and try to walk. Or put both boots on the wrong feet and set off round the circle, waddling, very pleased.

Chinese moment: the 鞋 card joins 冷 · 衣 on the shelf — 靴子. Say 穿鞋 with the pushing action as the child pushes their foot in.

3 min Song · Brr! It's Cold! — chorus + Wednesday verse

Sing this verse twice: once sitting down, stamping on the floor, and once marching in a circle round the room. It is the middle of the week and they need to move.

3 min Game · Stamp your boots

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” A pure echo game, and the quiet ending is the good bit.

Start with two stamps. Then three. Then a pattern — stamp, stamp, pause, stamp. Then loud, then medium, then tiptoe-quiet, then a stamp so small it is only one toe. End sitting down on the floor with everybody's hands on their knees.

Bigs love giving the pattern. Let two or three of them lead one each — and hold them to it: they must be able to stamp their own pattern the same way twice.

1 min Close

Standing, boots on (real or imaginary). Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? Take the boots outside and put them at the door with the class's own boots, all in a row, biggest to smallest. That row is a grading exercise and nobody has to be told so.

2 min Magic Box hook

Ten seconds at the shelf. If the cube has gone, do not say so — just point, and let the gasp happen.

Today the box is cold to the touch. Let three children put a flat hand on the lid before you open it.

Open it and take out the bowl of snow with both hands as if it were precious. Round the circle: one finger each, one touch each, no grabbing. Then a white feather goes up in the air over the middle of the circle and everybody watches it come down.

Everybody's fingers flutter down: “Snow!”

4 min Teach · Snow

Snow is a whole-body word. Stand up:

Then the snow itself. Hold a little in your bare hand and let everybody watch it go. Ask one question and no more: “Where did it go?” Take every answer they give you, in any language, and repeat each one back in English. Then look at Monday's bowl, and let them put the two things together themselves.

Littles flutter their fingers and say “Snow!” Bigs give the frame: “The snow is cold.” “Winter is here.”

Teacher fails: try to keep a handful of snow safe by putting it in your pocket for later. Pat the pocket. Look satisfied. Check it at the end of circle.

Chinese moment: the 雪 card joins the row — 下雪了! Say it the way you would actually say it at a window, with the surprise in your voice, and let them shout it back.

3 min Song · Brr! It's Cold! — chorus + Thursday verse

Sing this one quietly. It is the only soft verse in the song and the contrast with Wednesday's stamping is what makes both of them land.

3 min Game · Blow the snowflake

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Paper snowflakes on the floor at one end of a clear strip of carpet. Everybody lies on their tummies behind their own snowflake.

Whose snowflake travelled furthest? Kneel up and look along the line together. Then again, and this time everybody blows at the same moment on three.

This is a Montessori breath exercise wearing a party hat — the same control the candle-blowing and the feather-blowing work teach. Two rounds only, then stop; more than that and somebody goes dizzy.

1 min Close

Standing, fingers still fluttering down. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? The Snowy Day again, or fold one paper snowflake together with a pair of round-ended scissors — six folds, three snips, and the unfolding is the whole magic trick.

2 min Magic Box hook

Start at the shelf, and today let it take as long as it takes. The bowl that held an ice cube on Monday holds water on Friday, and nobody told them it would.

Take every answer. Then the box, and it is stuffed: pull out the hat, the scarf, a boot, and let the class shout each one as it appears.

Last out are the four dressing cards. Lay them face up in the wrong order and let them fix it: “Hat!” “Scarf!” “Coat!” “Boots!”

4 min Teach · Winter — the whole week

Quick-fire, one prop at a time out of the box. Hold it up, they name it, it goes down in a line on the floor:

Littles name one thing each with its gesture — that is the whole assessment and it takes ten seconds. Bigs put two together: “It is cold, so I put on my coat.” “Winter is here and there is snow.”

Teacher fails: pick up the dressing cards and start with boots, then the hat, then try to get the coat on over the scarf you have not put on yet. Ask them, sweetly, whether that is right.

Chinese moment: the last card, 冬, joins the row: 冷 · 衣 · 鞋 · 雪 · 冬. Read the whole row out loud, pointing, then say 冬天来了! together at full volume.

3 min Song · Brr! It's Cold! — the whole song

This run-through is the review of the week. Five verses, five words, five days — and they never once sat down and learned a list. Sing it in your coats, just before the walk.

3 min Game · Winter walk

Coats on, boots on, out of the door. The rule is simple and it is the only rule: find something cold and name it.

A railing, a puddle with a skin of ice on it, a bare branch, the wind on a cheek, somebody's red nose. Littles touch and say “Cold!” Bigs give you the sentence: “The gate is cold.” Come back in, hands round the radiator, and look at Monday's bowl one last time.

If the weather is impossible, walk to the coldest place in the building instead — the entrance hall, the fridge in the kitchen, a window pane — and do exactly the same thing. The naming is the work, not the outdoors.

1 min Close + awards

Every child gets a “You are a STAR!” award to take home with the wrap-up. Then, coats still on, all four gestures:

Got 3 spare minutes? Ask them to teach you the dressing order, one card at a time, and get it wrong on purpose one last time. Then send the “Dress MY snowman!” sheets home with the awards.

The four chords

Tempo: brisk and bouncy, like walking fast in the cold — not a lullaby. Am turns up exactly once, on “Coat zipped up” at the top of the chorus's last line, and it is the only shape in the song that isn't C, F or G7. Every one of the five verses is just C and G7. Chant it without the uke first; add chords once they know the actions.

Chorus — sing it every single day

Sing the chorus twice each time. The actions are the whole point — a two-year-old who shivers, stamps and zips their coat up has understood the week, whether or not a single word comes out.

One verse a day — every verse is just C and G7

The build: each day sing chorus → today's verse → chorus. By Friday they know five verses without ever “learning” the song — and Friday's finale, sung standing in their coats just before the winter walk, doubles as the review of the whole week.

If you're brand new to ukulele

Practice this loop for five minutes tonight: C (4 strums) → F (4 strums) → C → G7 → C. That is three quarters of the chorus. Then learn Am, which is one finger in the same place as F's first finger — if you can play F you can already play Am, you just lift the other finger off. It appears once, on “Coat zipped up”, and if you miss it and stay on C nobody in the room will know. C is one finger, F is two, G7 is three, Am is one; learn them in that order. If your fingers get stuck, put the uke down and do the finger-play instead: the class will not notice, and the actions carry the meaning either way.