Hibernating Polar Bear

This is a fun winter craft. This is an art project that works fine motor skills and adds sensory input.

Supplies:

• Blue or black construction paper
• White paper
• Crayons
• Cotton balls
• Glue
• Scissors
• Polar bear printable

Activity

Have your child color the polar bear. Cut out a white mound of snow. Have your child glue cotton balls to the snow. Your child can color the construction paper to have snow and snowflakes if desired. Glue pieces on.

Ice Skate Craft

This activity provides a fun winter decoration while working fine motor skills.

SUPPLIES

• Yarn or string
• Popscicle sticks
• Aluminum foil
• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue or tape
• Paper hole punch

METHOD

1. Cut out skate shapes (older preschoolers and older can do this step).
2. Punch holes for the "laces."
3. Have your child wrap the popscicle sticks with the aluminum foil. Tape or glue one to the bottom of each skate.
4. Have your child string the laces through the holes (tape down the string on one side--you can see that done on the skate on the right in the picture). Go through both skates with the yarn. Then tape it down on the other skate when done lacing.

Top 5 Pinterest Winter Finds

Puffy Paint Snowflake Painting
by Frugal Family Fun Blog
Great For: Art

Shredded Snowman

by Babycenter

Great For: Sensory, Art

Borax Crystal Snowflakes

by Delia Creates

Great For: Science

Build A Snowman Sensory Tub

by Our Cup of Tea

Great For: Sensory, Fine Motor

Number Snowman

by Kindergarten Hoppenings

Great For: Numbers

You can see more learning activities I have found and pinned or repinned here: http://pinterest.com/valplowman/learning-ideas/

Egg Carton Snowman

I had extra egg cartons (cardboard) from the grocery store and I was convinced that something fun could be done with them. I had an idea, but when Val posted the Puffy Paint snowman ( http://learningdevelopmentactivities.blogspot.com/2012/01/puffy-paint-snowman.html ), I knew that my idea just got a new twist!

Prep: Cut cardboard egg carton compartments out. They will stand up on their own, and they don't need to be pretty. :)
Make puffy paint (equal parts glue and shaving cream). I used 1/4 cup of each and it was WAY too much for 3 snowmen. Maybe try 1/8 cup (2 T) of each to start. I felt like I wasted a whole bunch of glue.
Gather supplies: paintbrushes, cut out carrot nose (construction paper), buttons, beads, wiggly eyes (or cut out of paper), small squares or circles for the mouth, ribbon for scarf, glitter. The decorations are optional, so go wild with what you have on hand. Oh, and you'll need toilet paper.

Directions:
I put down a coffee filter for them to paint on so it didn't get on the table. It's easy to clean up, so that part is not necessary.
Stuff one carton w/ toilet paper for stability. Paint with puffy paint.
Stuff 2nd carton with toilet paper (this allows for stacking like a snowman is built). Either paint in hand or while on the 1st carton.
Stuff 3rd carton (head). Paint. Decorate!! Allow to dry before moving. Should take about 12-24 hours to dry, depending on the amount of paint used.

Winter Books 2012

Time for some great winter books! These really are all must-haves in our home.

The Big Snow by Berta Hader and Elmer Hader

Caldecott winner of 1949. This is my four year old's favorite winter book right now. She is my major animal lover and this book is right up her lane as a story about the animals preparing for winter.




Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner

This is a great story for sparking the imagination of children. What do snowmen do at night? Why do their shapes change over time? It must be that they are out playing with their friends.




The Snowman by Raymond Briggs

This is a total classic. It is a wordless picture book, which is great on so many levels. My two year old loves this for telling herself the story.




Here Comes Darrell by Leda Schubert

This has been a favorite of my six year old son's for several years. It is about Darrell and the various service he does for his neighbors. It isn't all about winter, but part of it is and it is definitely worth taking note of. Anyone who loves equipment like plows and tractors will love this book.


A Polar Bear Journey by Debbie S. Miller

This is another favorite of my animal-loving four year old. This book is factual and offers lots of information on polar bears told in a way that is interesting to children.

Winter Round-Up 2012

Winter 

• Winter Round-up 2011
• Feed The Penguin
• I for Igloo
• Icy Winter Scenes
• Slippery Roads--A Science Lesson
• Winter Books Recommendations
• Winter Games

Snow

• Cotton Ball Snowman
• Defrosty The Snowman
• Marshmallow Snowman
• Nutter Butter Snowman
• Paper Plate Snowman
• Snowbox
• Snow Painting
• Snowball Fight
• Snowmen Rice Krispie Treats

Surviving Winter

• Homemade Highways
• Surviving Winter: Bath Play
• Surviving Winter: Dancing
• Surviving Winter: Dress Up and Imaginative Play
• Surviving Winter: The Easel
• Surviving Winter: Go Outside Anyway
• Surviving Winter: Once There Was a Snowman
• Surviving Winter: Sledding
• Surviving Winter: Snow Sculptures
• Surviving Winter: Television Time (and other Technology)
• Surviving Winter: Winter Sports

I for Igloo

This igloo craft was a lot of fun to make and I think it turned out really cute too!

 

What you need:  blank label stickers (I actually used mailing labels and cut them down to size), construction paper, scissors, glue, black marker
What you do:  Have your little one build a wall on the construction paper, using the labels.  Once they're finished, turn the paper over and draw a semi-circle on the back.  Either have them cut out along the line or you do the cutting for them.  To create the door, cut out a second semi-circle and have them color a black door, then glue the smaller piece on top of the larger one.  After gluing his igloo together, J added some snow to his picture.
This was honestly supposed to go with a winter unit I was going to do with J... but 3rd trimester exhaustion has set in so the unit didn't happen.  I ended up cutting out the upper and lower case letter I, letting him fill those in with "ice blocks" and decided reinforcement learning was enough this day!  J was quite proud of his final work of art.

This idea is from the Frugal Family Fun Blog.

Feed The Penguin

This is a fun math activity for penguins. 

AGE RANGE

Your child needs to be old enough to be able to count dots and recognize numbers. This will vary greatly from child to child. My 3 year old could do it, as could my 5 year old. 

SKILLS TAUGHT

Counting Skills

PREPARATION

You want to have a penguin with a number on the belly as well as a fish with dots. I Googled "penguin clip art" and choose an image I liked. I then put it into Microsoft Word, copied it 11 times, and ended up with 12 penguins. I then created a text box and typed a number in for each penguin. I made the border and the fill as "no border" and "no fill" so that the box didn't cover up the penguin, then I put the number over each penguin. 

I Googled "fish clip art" and choose a fish that looked like one a penguin would eat. I then copied it and put it into Word and copied it 11 times. I then used the shape tool to draw dots on each fish.

I then printed the documents. I have uploaded two versions of this into my Google Documents. You can click on these Documents for blank Word file of just penguins and just fish. These documents have no numbers and no fish. If you plan to edit, please save it to your computer and edit your own copy. I also saved the exact files I usd in a PDF here:

Fish
Penguins

Then I laminated the pages. I got a laminator for Christmas and I LOVE it. 

I then cut everything out.

ACTIVITY

The idea is to tell your child the penguins are hungry. A number four penguin needs a number four fish to get full. You have your child match the penguins to the fish.

Younger children will do best with starting with numbers 1-5. The higher numbers get hard to count the dots, especially because I made it a little challenging intentionally. That is one reason I provided  you with blank fish so you can make it how you want it. You could also do dots on the penguins and numbers on the fish if you want. 

There are further extensions. If your child needs more of a challenge, you could tell him to feed the penguin two fish to feed it. So a number three penguin would get a two fish and a one fish.

You could also do numbers or dots on the penguins but then just print out blank fish and have  your child feed the penguin the correct number of fish. 

Winter Round-Up

If you are looking for some ideas to do around winter themes, we have some for you! Here they are:

Marshmallow Snowman

This is a fun treat you can make while learning about snowmen.










Paper Plate Snowman

A fun way to make a snowman indoors :)










Cotton Ball Snowman

Fun texture activity for building a snowman.






Snowmen Rice Krispie Treats

YUM! I love rice krispie treats so this one fills me nicely.






Nutter Butter Snowman

A simple treat that looks a bit silly, but works.










Winter Games

A fun gross motor activity.










Icy Winter Scenes

Icy art.





Snow Painting

Have some fun outside with this snow painting activity!







Slippery Roads: A Science Lesson
Fun ice activity for getting science into your day.


Snowball Fight
Have an indoor snowball fight and burn some energy! But with paper snowballs.


De-Frosty The Snowman

This is a fun one for when (if) your snow starts melting.










And don't forget about the Winter Books Recommendations.

Surviving Winter: Bath Play

Last summer, we ran a popular series on simple summer fun ideas. I live in a very wintery climate and have had questions both from friends here and from readers on one of my other blogs on how to entertain children during a long winter. So I will be doing a Surviving Winter series this winter! Hurray for surviving winter!

We can easily have snow on the ground from October until May. Last "winter," we ditched the snow around the end of March/beginning of April, but it literally rained and rained and rained until Father's Day (which is odd for us because we live in a desert climate). So we can get a little house-bound and need to come up with ideas for keeping our children (and therefore ourselves) sane.

First up...Bath Play!

At my house, bath time has ALWAYS been just another playtime. This is true year round. A couple of months ago, my neighbor asked me for ideas to keep her almost four year old occupied in the day. He is the fourth child in their family, and his older brothers are all at school. I listed off things I do with Kaitlyn, and playing in the tub stuck out to her. She started doing that with her son each day and says he LOVES it. He loves to play in the tub and will stay occupied for a long time.

My kids also love the bath. The bathtub is one giant water play activity. You can easily get at least 30 minutes out of a bath. Oftentimes, I have to force my kids out after an hour! 

So what do you play with in the tub? Anything you would use with water play and more. We have several posts on water play on this blog. Here are some ideas:

• Bubbles
• Spoons/measuring spoons
• Cups of various sizes
• Pitchers
• Measuring cups
• Washcloth (my kids like to wipe the walls)
• Squirt bottle
• Goggles 
• Paint brushes
• Tub Painting

There are also a whole lot of bath toys out there!

• Bath Letters are great for adding some fun letter learning to bath time
• I have written a Toy Review on Bath Toys
• I have also written a Best Toys For Children on bath toys, and it includes care guidelines of bath toys

And what about you? What will you do during this loooong bath play each day? Here are a few ideas:

• Play with the kids
• Sneak extra learning in there (like with the alphabet letters--"What sound does A say?"
• Sit and quietly read a book. This is very relaxing! It is nice and warm and humid! 
• Clean the bathroom
• Call a friend if you can still focus on the kids
• Take pictures--enjoy these sweet moments
• Get ready for the day
• Sit and do nothing! How fun does that sound?

Marshmallow Snowmen

Materials: Large marshmallows, pretzel sticks (or toothpicks), mini chocolate chips or raisins, craisins (something for the nose), fruit leather/fruit roll-up/pull-and-peel licorice for the scarf, marshmallow fluff (for "glue").

Directions: I built one first to show my daughter how to do it. Take one marshmallow and stick a pretzel in it. Some of the pretzel will still be sticking out. Take another marshmallow and stick it on the pretzel piece sticking up. You now have 2 marshmallows stacked. Stick another pretzel stick in the 2nd marshmallow and add the 3rd marshmallow on top.

Add 2 pretzel sticks for arms.

Twist around whatever you decided to use for the scarf. They'll need help with this!

I let my daughter use a pretzel stick to smear on some marshmallow fluff (we used ricemallow creme) on the face or on the individual chips. The chocolate chips/raisins/craisins will all stick to it and you won't be able to see the fluff since it's also white. :)

Ta-da!

Then eat! Yum.

Skills: fine motor, hand-eye coordination, hand strength, building and stacking, self-control not to eat :)

Defrosty the Snowman

Snow melting? Ours is! Instead of mourning, we're celebrating! Everyday Fun magazine had this cute idea last winter, and I thought I'd share it with you!

What you'll need:
-White candy melts (one 14-ounce package makes 16 snowmen)
-Miniature chocolate chips
-Light cocoa candy melts
-Rolos
-Candy corn (I used a piece of a real carrot for lack of candy corn)

Here's the directions they give:

For each snowman, you'll need 6 mini chocolate chips, a light cocoa candy melt, and a Rolo. To make the nose, cut the orange section from a candy corn, then slice it in half lengthwise. Roll the piece between your fingers to form a carrot shape.
To assemble your snowman, melt the white candy in a bowl according to the package instructions, then scoop a rounded tablespoon onto a sheet of wax paper. With the back of a spoon, smear the candy into a puddle. Working quickly, stick on the light cocoa candy melt, add a dot of white melted candy, then place the Rolo on top. Finally, add the candy corn nose and mini chocolate chip eyes and mouth.

Have fun!

Paper Plate Snowman

This activity is pretty straight forward. My little girl asked if we could make a snowman, so I dug up a few supplies. It's super quick and really fun to let them put together. You just need buttons, wiggly eyes, construction paper (or foam), glue, and tape.

I cut all the pieces and let her decide where she wanted to place everything. She was so tickled that there is a button on the snowman's carrot nose. Fun craft in a pinch, especially if you want to keep the winter theme going. We're trying, despite the 61 degree weather today.

We also made snowflakes! I cut them out and she unfolded them and helped decide where to hang them.

Winter Games

Supplies: toilet paper, streamers (optional), old clothes, construction paper buttons, carrot nose (cut out of construction paper)

Directions: Break off into teams and see which team can decorate their snowman the fastest. Use TP to wrap (even the head, if you want!), tape on nose and buttons, use a real scarf or streamers for the scarf, and old clothes to dress.

This is a silly game that I think kids will really enjoy! It's fun to get a little crazy with your kids and a great game for your first snow day (like we recently had!).

Icy Winter Scenes

Drawing winter snow scenes is a fun thing to do with your kids. For a new twist on the usual snowmen, snow forts, and trees with snow, add some salt!

For glistening and glittery snow, painting with Epsom salt is the way to go! Here's what you do:

Mix about 1/2 cup Epsom salt with 1/2 cup of hot water. I prefer to do it on the stove top, but that's your choice!

Have the kids draw a winter scene (or cut out snowflakes) on dark paper. It doesn't have to be black, just darker than a white or yellow. Blue works great! You can also draw with white chalk for ease in drawing. This is fun to do with your kids and talk about things you see outside in the winter, what happens to the trees. A great book to read with this is When Winter Comes by Nancy Van Laan.

After drawing, let them paint the mixture (cooled) on the paper wherever they want that snow crystal effect. Let dry! I wish I could do the pictures justice on film. I'm just not that talented with a camera. It's really amazing to see how the snowy pictures transform into snow crystals that glisten like snow. Have fun!

Winter Book Recommendations

I know winter is in full swing, but with the holidays you may not have had a chance to check out some good books about winter! Here's a few to get you started!

**When Winter Comes by Nancy Van Laan-rhyming and full of information. A great into to the changing of the weather.

The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel-builds and repeats. Pictures replace some words, so it's fun for your toddler to read with you!

The Snowman's Path by Helena Clare Pittman- Longer story. A boy and a snowman become friends.

The Hat by Jan Brett- Cute story about a hedgehog that mistakes a stocking for a hat. Cute! Fun for all ages.

Old Winter by Judith Benet Richardson- When Old Winter decides not to leave town, the town gets messy! A fun way to talk about the ups and downs of each season.

The Mitten by Jan Brett- When a little boy loses his white mitten in the snow, a bunch of animals decide to make the most of their snuggly new find.

Snow Friends by M. Christina Butler- A great story about making friends. Appropriate for small children (due to length).

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin- A story about the man who took pictures of snowflakes. Based on a true story. Includes photographs of snowflakes at the end of the book.

Snow Day by Patricia Lakin- A story about principals that are excited about snow and call a snow day.

Sledding by Elizabeth Winthrop- Rhyming book about playing in the snow.

Penguins Penguins Everywhere by Bob Barner- A book about penguins in hot and cold climates

Snow Painting

Thanks to Val for the great idea!

For our first real snow in possibly 20 years, Val gave us the great idea to do some snow painting. It's easy and really fun!

All you need is a spray bottle or 2, water, food coloring, and snow!

Mix together and have fun! The more food coloring the better, in my opinion. I made 2 mistakes: not dark enough (but I wasn't going back inside to fix it at that point) and I chose blue. If I'd gone darker, blue would have been fine. But since everything takes on a blueish color anyways when it snows, it didn't show up as well as I'd hoped.

Giving her snowman a snow scarf!