Indoor Winter

What a great week we've had! Per usual, I had many activities planned and this week went so smoothly we were able to do almost everything! Thank goodness because with temperatures like -38C there was no way we were going to get outside very much! Come see all the fun we had inside!

I did up a batch of play doh and added some mint extract to it! It smells like winter to me for some reason?! Then Piper and I spent a morning building playdoh snow men. I hauled out our odds and ends craft box and we used things from that to add features to our snowmen - pipe cleaner for his nose, hat and arms, googly eyes, beads for his buttons, ribbon for his scarf and construction paper boots! Pipe had so much fun with this! She didn't want to squish him when we were done (she gets a little attached!) but once I explained thats the way of snowmen - they melt away until you can build them another day - she was alright!

She made a little pet for her snowman too which I thought was adorable!

We had a snowball fight using cottonballs! This was a blast! Who wouldn't like pelting another person with endless 'snowballs'?? I took this picture as I was retreating from a coming onslaught!

Next, we grabbed some spoons and worked at scooping the cottonballs up and spooning them into a bucket...

And finally, we ended this playtime with some races balancing a styrofoam ball on the spoon and getting it in the bucket without dropping it!

On another morning, we worked with these snowman number cards from Confessions of a Homeschooler Letter S Unit. Piper had to put the right number of paperclips on each card. We initially tried using mini clothespins I had bought but that proved way too hard for her. The paperclips were a perfect alternative.

The most important thing was which color paper clip to use! This made the activity way longer than it was supposed to be but it was important to her, so I patiently waited as she dug through the box, looking for just the right color! Oh, to be 3!

We also spent time playing with ice! This was extra fun since we had friends join us that day! I was so impressed with how colorful the ice turned out! I simply added a few drops of food coloring to each container of water before popping it in the fridge and voila! I also gave them spoons to use since that ice can get pretty cold very quickly on bare hands! For good measure, we threw in some Arctic animals and Inuit figurines!

Later that day we had a special snack...

Tortilla Snowflakes! YUM!

I think Taitum was impressed with how big her snack was! haha! Bigger than her head!

During Tait's tot time, Piper worked on using tongs to transfer the rocks from the bowl to an ice cube tray and a container with a hole in the top. She kept getting frustrated because although she could pick the rocks up easy enough she kept dropping them on the way to the container! She kept at it though and really seemed to enjoy the challenge!

I gave this puzzle to Piper to work on while I was making breakfast one morning. In no time at all she had completed it! I was actually surprised since she had struggled with the one I had given her to do at Christmas. I left it at the table and she did it again multiple times throughout the day! 

She did a fantastic job at finding the colors for these snowmen! She has had a hard time with colors but is finally recognizing them really well! You might notice the one she had to correct (the green snowman) but I thnk that had more to do with being a little over zealous with the purple marker (its her new favorite color, she informs me!).

We read Stranger in the Woods: A Phototgraphic Fantasy this week, too. I love this book! It contains real life pictures of different forest creatures who are trying to figure out who the stranger in the woods is. When they are brave enough to approach him they find a snowman with seeds on his hat for the birds and his carrot nose for the deer! At the end of the story there is a 'recipe' of how to make your own forest friendly snowman. But since our snow was just not very good snowman making material we made bird feeder ornaments instead! 

Then we hung them outside on a tree in our yard! We have yet to see any birds eating them but with the crazy cold weather we've been having I can't blame them for staying away!

Piper tried a new type of activity - snowflake task cards. There are 10 different cards and for each she has to try and arrange her snowflakes the same way they are on the card. She needed some help but did quite well with this overall. I think next time I might put magnets on the back of the snowflakes and do the activity on the fridge since it was hard to keep the snowflakes in their proper place.

We made an 'S' snowman to go along with our letter theme. I plan on using the ABC crafts from Totally Tots but it just seemed like the wrong time of year to be making a snail!

Again, we went to Piper's preschool group at the library and their letter of the week was 'S'! Thus the crafty squid!

We had a snowstorm this week and were able to catch enough fresh snow to make snow ice cream! Piper requested purple ice cream so we put red and blue food coloring in and it made this cool tri color ice cream!

Finger lickin' good!

Haha! She liked the snow ice cream but doesn't deal well with the cold!

Now here is an activity that I think will become a regular pastime in our home during the winter! Indoor snowplay! Piper spent an hour playing right here with the snow and kitchen tools I provided for her! She built castles...

And a mini snowman!

She got so into the snow play! She kept thinking of new tools she needed for different projects. At one point she needed a butter knife. At another she requested the craft things we had used for the features of our play doh snowmen! I love to watch her come up with her own ideas and the places open ended play takes her! I also gave her some warm water to experiment with. I told her to be careful though, asking, "What will happen when you put warm water on the snow?". I was surprised when she answered, "It melts, Mama!" She has been listening after all!

This is the verse we've been working on. Its the Winter song from Songs for Saplings and the printables are from Totally Tots - In My Heart. I'm really enjoying this way of memorizing! I find Piper and I singing this randomly throughtout the day!

That's it for another week! I hope it inspires you to have lots of winter fun even if it is too cold to go outside!

P.S. We did get outside this week...for a whole half hour before we were too cold to have any fun! Thankfully, they are forecasting warmer days ahead!