Snow Week!

Playing catch up is such fun!  This month continues to be riddled with events that shake up our routine!  Regardless, I’ll post two different weeks of activities shortly.  Both kids (and myself) were sick so our weeks crossed paths and were delayed.

Anyway, enough of the excuses!  Here it is.  We focused week one on Snow.  The great thing about snow is just how it can apply to children and understanding our differences… and there are so many fun things to do that relate to it! 

Our learning activities were the following:

Tracing in the snow - - Using a printable from http://homeschoolcreations.com, H was encouraged to trace the lines; preparing the little one for letter writing.

Cutting the snow path – I’ve discussed it before, but I’m always amazed at how much concentration it takes for children to learn how to do seemingly every day tasks like cutting (Hey, these are my first!!).   H was instructed to cut along curvy and straight lines provided from printables from http://homeschoolcreations.com.

The letter S and W – We used letters from http://homeschoolcreations.com H traced the letters.  H was provided words starting with each letter to trace as well.

Identify the Letter – H was provided pictures with letters.  He sounded out the words and circled the letter the word started with. 

Identify winter and summer clothes – H was provided pictures of winter or summer clothes and asked to place them in the appropriate summer or winter box. 

Shape recognition – H was provided pictures of shapes and asked to identify the shape.  Both kids were then able to use Melissa and Doug shape puzzles to identify and reinforce the shape.

Snow flake counting – H counted snowflakes and had to circle the correct number. 

Games and Activities:

Snow in the heat – We had instant snow (and since we don’t get a lot of snow around here) we had to settle for instant snow.  Throw, scoop, play.  Cannot go wrong for 30 minutes of fun.

Snow Slime – A sensory play activity -

For our slime: 

In the first bowl:

-       1 cup of white school glue

-       ¾ cup of very warm water

-       Glitter

In the second bowl:

-       ½ tsp of borax

-       ¾ cup of warm water

Mix both bowls together using your fingers!  You have to have a little fun too!

Crystalized snowflakes – In fairness, this activity is more directed for older kids, but when I saw a friend of mine had done it with her two precious kiddos, I really wanted to try it too.  I found the instructions I used from the following website: http://www.giftofcuriosity.com/crystallized-snowflakes/.

Art Projects

Snow Paint– This was so much fun!  Both of the kids love painting so this was right up their alley.  To make the snow paint, I used equal parts of white glue and shaving cream.  To add to the playfulness, I added glitter.  The kids (and I) made snowflakes, snowmen, and some abstract art.  Ness has an eye for abstract art.

Personalized snow globes – Using clear plastic cups, fake snow (left over from Christmas), cardboard, and pictures of the kids, we created snow globes.   The kids filled the globes and helped glue the globes together.  They loved the snow globes at Christmas but those were “looking” snow globes.  Seeing themselves in the globe and being able to play with them was exactly what they needed!

Paper snowflakes – A follow up to cutting.  H was able to cut some simple paper snowflakes. 

Books:

The Snowy Day

The Biggest Snowman