Snow Dough

Turn your usual play dough into snow dough! Your child/ren will have plenty of fun playing in the "snow" with this dough. They can make snowmen, icebergs, or whatever their little heart desires!  Add some penguin figurines and they can even pretend they are in the South Pole!

 Materials/Ingredients:  Flour, salt, water, oil, cream of tartar, silver glitter, wax paper, wooden spoon, saucepan, measuring cups, measuring spoons, Ziploc bag or air-tight container.

 To make the dough you will need 2 cups of flour,

 1 cup of salt,

 4 tsp. cream of tartar,

 4 tsp. oil,

 and 2 cups of water.  Mix all of these ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat.

 Mix continuously until the mixture thickens and pulls away from the pan.

 Form dough into a ball and place on a piece of wax paper. 

 Allow to cool and then knead until it is no longer sticky.  If the dough is still too sticky, then dust with a little bit of flour.

 After kneading, sprinkle generously with silver glitter.  Knead and sprinkle with more glitter.

When dough has cooled, save in a sealed bag or air-tight container so that it does not dry out.

Snowshoe Hare

Make this snowshoe hare during a study on winter animals.  To camouflage, snowshoe hares turn brown in the summer and white in the winter.

   Materials: Cotton balls, rabbit stencil, glue, scissors, sharpie, white construction paper.

 If you right-click the picture above, you should be able to use it as a template.

Trace the rabbit pattern onto white construction paper, cut out, and draw details with a sharpie.

 Add glue all over the rabbit cut-out.

 Add cotton balls.  Cotton balls may be stretched out to take up more space.  The rabbit may also be made from brown construction paper to represent the rabbit in the summer and then covered in white to show how it changes to camouflage in the winter. 

Some children will cover the whole rabbit pattern with cotton balls, some will just put a few and some might even outline the rabbit with cotton balls.  Whatever they choose to do is acceptable.  Try to focus more on the process instead of the finished product. Let them do as much as they can on their own and ask questions throughout such as, "What do the cotton balls feel like? Why do you think these rabbits change colors in the different seasons?  Why would they turn white in the winter?"

Snow Pal Experiment

Want to make a snow pal, but it's still too warm this winter? Don't worry, you can try this snow pal experiment at home.  In this experiment, children explore the properties of water as they discover why snow pals melt. 

 Materials:  2 dishes or pie tins, crushed ice, baby carrots, small rocks, red sour punch straws/twizzlers/or pipe cleaners.

 Fill both dishes with crushed ice.

 Add two rocks to each dish to represent eyes.

 Add a baby carrot to each dish to represent the snow pal's nose.

 Add a sour punch straw for his smile.  (This would also be a good time to talk about symmetry, since you will be making both snow pals identical.)

 Explain to your child/ren that they will be putting their first snow pal in the freezer.  Questions to ask: Where should we put the snow pal so he can stay cold? How does it feel in the freezer?  Why should we put him in the freezer?  What do you think will happen to our snow pal when we take him out in a couple of hours?

The second snow pal will be placed outside.  In a couple of hours let your child revisit their snow pals and let them describe the changes they observe.  Questions to ask:  What happened to this snow pal?  How are the two snow pals different? How are they the same? Why did one snow pal melt? Why did one stay the same? (Remember when asking young children questions, don't be particular about "correct answers".  Also, give them time to ponder, they don't need to answer right away, give them a few minutes to think about what you ask them and accept their answers.)

***I will be updating in a few hours with the results of our two snow pals

 About 3 hours after I made our snow pals, I took the one snow pal out of the freezer and I took him outside to compare him to the other snow pal.

 Questions to ask:  How do our snow pals look?  What happened to the snow pal that was left outside? Why?
Be prepared for some interesting responses from your little ones.  For example, a child once remarked, "Ms. Maria, the ice melted but the rocks stayed the same!"  I replied, "Why do you think that happened?"  By asking them more questions instead of giving them the answers right away, it gives children a chance to think and find answers on their own.

Bagel Bird Feeder

Your child/ren can help feed the birds and squirrels during the winter by making these special bird feeders!  Explain to your child/ren that sometimes animals have a hard time finding food in the winter time. This statement rings more true in certain parts of the world vs. others, but it's a fun project to do nevertheless...you never now what creature will come nibbling on your creation!

 Materials: Bagels, Peanut Butter, Birdseed, butterknife, plate, string.

 Each child may get half of a bagel.  You may also use whole day old donuts instead.

 Let child spread peanut butter onto the bagel.  It might not look so uniform when they do it, but it's good to let them try.  You can either finish the spreading or leave it as is.

 Let your child sprinkle the bird seed onto the peanut butter.  Cover  all the peanut butter with birdseed.

 Pat it down to make sure it has adhered to the peanut butter.

 Cut a long peice of string.  I just used leftover string that was used to tie down our christmas tree.  I like to recycle products as much as I can:)

 Thread the string through the bagel.  Depending on the ability of the child, the adult might have to do this part.

 Thread through the string and then tie a knot.  Now it is ready to hang!!

 My wonderful fiance helped me hang it on a branch right outside our house.  You might want to have a step stool handy in case the branches on your nearest tree are too high.

If possible, try to pick a tree that is visible from your classroom or home window so that your child/ren can better observe if any wildlife have come to visit.

Snowman Bagels

Guide your child/ren to make these tasty snowmen out of bagels!! I used mini bagels but you may use large ones if you like.

 Materials: Mini bagels, Laughing Cow cheese wedges, pretzel sticks, chocolate chips, crunchy cheetos, plastic knife.

 Split bagel in half.

 Spread cheese. (You may also use cream cheese.)

 Apply chocolate chips for eyes, (You may also use raisins.)

 A crunchy cheeto nose,

 And 2 pretzel sticks for arms.

Voila!! You have a tasty snowperson treat! (You can also put 3 chocolate chips or raisins vertically on the bottom bagel, between the two arms, to represent buttons.  I just thought of that:/) Oooh, just had another idea, you can also add a skinny red vine candy for the mouth! I wish I would have that of these ideas when I was making it!! I'm sure you all have some ideas to add on or do differently with your edible snowman and that's great.  Be creative!!