S is for Snow

S is one of those letters with endless possibilities. Things we didn't do- sewing, spooning from bowl to bowl, smell memory, painting in shaving cream, simon says, stringing beads.... And snow? Oh the snow crafts available! I could have done S is for Snow for a whole month, that is for sure. But here is what we did do.

Circle Time
Snow books and songs

Activities
Snow in the Sink
Stacking Cups
Sound Matching
Play Silks

Art Study

Starry Night by Van Gogh

Snack
Soup, Sandwiches

Arts and Crafts
Painting Snow (aka white paint)
Cutting Snowflakes with Scissors
Marshmallow Igloos
Winter Stickers

Cooking
Snickerdoodles (a cookie rolled in Sugar)

Other
Of course we also played quite a bit in the snow outside! Even making our own snowman!

We also watched Frosty the Snowman (a recent favorite movie) one last time before storing it away for next year.

Snow Books

The First Day of Winter by Denise Flemming

Handmade paper and stencil illustrations show a snowman from many different interesting angles as the story of his outfitting is told in a "12 Days of Christmas" style. A winner on many fronts.





Welcome Winter by Jill Ackerman

A bright tactile board book with simple rhyming text, perfect for my littlest one, takes us thru what a child first sees, tastes, feels, and touches in wintertime.







White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt

This book is somehow able to capture all the magic, and childhood excitement over that very first winter snow. And the illustrations, with their pale blue and splashes of bright red and yellow, are as captivating and exciting as the text.

Snow Songs

Five Little Snowman

5 little Snowman standing in a row,
Each had a hat and a big red bow.
Out came the sun and it shone all day,
1 Little snowman melted away.
4 Little Snowman standing in a row,
Each had a hat and a big red bow.
Out came the the sun and it shone all day,
1 Little snowman melted away.
(continue until you are out)

Frosty the Snowman
Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul,
With a corncob pipe and a button nose
And two eyes made out of coal.
Frosty the snowman is a fairy tale, they say,
He was made of snow but the children
Know how he came to life one day.
There must have been some magic in that
Old silk hat they found.
For when they placed it on his head
He began to dance around.
O, Frosty the snowman
Was alive as he could be,
And the children say he could laugh
And play just the same as you and me.
Thumpetty thump thump,
Thumpety thump thump,
Look at Frosty go.
Thumpetty thump thump,
Thumpety thump thump,
Over the hills of snow.

Frosty the snowman knew
The sun was hot that day,
So he said, "Let's run and
We'll have some fun
Now before I melt away."
Down to the village,
With a broomstick in his hand,
Running here and there all
Around the square saying,
Catch me if you can.
He led them down the streets of town
Right to the traffic cop.
And he only paused a moment when
He heard him holler "Stop!"
For Frosty the snow man
Had to hurry on his way,
But he waved goodbye saying,
"Don't you cry,
I'll be back again some day."
Thumpetty thump thump,
Thumpety thump thump,
Look at Frosty go.
Thumpetty thump thump,
Thumpety thump thump,
Over the hills of snow.

Snowflake Song (sung to Are You Sleeping?)

Dance like snowflakes, Dance like snowflakes
In the air, In the air
Whirling, Twirling snowflakes, Whirling, Twirling snowflakes
Here and there, Here and there

Marshmallow Igloos

This was an easy craft- and had the bonus of a few marshmallows snacked on the side!

We simply coated the outside of a small plastic cup with white glue, and then attached marshmallows to build our "igloo".

An older child might be dexterous enough to actually design and build an igloo with sugar cubes but for a toddler I thought this was perfect.

Paper Snowflakes

There are about a hundred different methods of cutting paper snowflakes, some of them with quite amazing results. I found this method to be easiest for little fingers, however. And for fancier results you can always use one of these patterns- http://www.marcels-kid-crafts.com/snowflake-pattern.html

First I get out coffee filters, and scissors.

The coffee filters are thin enough to be easily cut, even when folded over a dozen times. And they are already circular.
For a 6 pointed snowflake you want to fold your coffee filter in half, then into thirds, and then into half again.
But Zeke folded a few of his a bit differently, and in the end they all looked good.
Once folded, start cutting chunks out of the sides and top. And then, the big reveal...unfold your snowflake (carefully, the filters are thin and fragile).

We picked out our favorites and taped them to our front window.

And then we swept up about a million little tiny pieces of paper off the ground. But hey, the baby loved the "snow" while it lasted.

Snow in the Sink

It's really as simple as that. Collect a bucket of snow outside...and pour it into the sink!!

I've found that as much fun as it is to play outside in the snow (and we do that too all the time) you can really explore and experience the snow better when you are nice and warm inside the house. Not to mention up close and personal with the snow up at eye-level.

And clean up is as easy as waiting for it all to melt.

Sound Matching

To create our sound matching game, Zeke and I filled 2 of each of these eggs with different materials we picked out of the kitchen -rice, pepper corn, ect. We kept the colors the same, since I thought Zeke would be confused by eggs that looked different yet sounded the same. I've seen other people make this same game with film canisters, however, that all look identical. That would be ideal for an older child, forcing them to rely on sound only to match them. I suppose you could do the same with eggs, if you had enough eggs of the same color?

Either way, we had a lot of fun putting this together, as well as talking and playing with our shakers in the days after. They are great for shaking in time to music, playing memory, and just plain matching.