Welcome back! Over the last two weeks, Sweet E and I did a number of activities for our snow theme. Take a look!
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Sticky Paper Snowman
I bought a brand new roll of con-tact paper for this round of tot school, and here is the first thing we did with it. I drew a simple snowman shape on the paper, tore off the backing, and taped it to the wall sticky-side out. Then I supplied Sweet E with cotton balls, so she could place them up there.
She enjoyed this activity, and this is about as far as she got.
But then Little M&M got home and helped her finish it up! LOL. He still loves activities!
Snowflake Tape Resist Painting
I remember this being one of Honey Pot's very first tot school activities too! I placed some strips of masking tape down onto cardstock, resembling a snowflake, and provided Sweet E with a foam paintbrush and some paint. She first explored her paintbrush...
Then she started painting freely!
After lunch we came back upstairs and pulled the masking tape up. There was her beautiful snowflake! We've hung it up on her wall, and she loves to point it out to us.
Faux Snow
I found a recipe online for squishy, moldable snow: 2 cups baking soda + 1/2 cup conditioner. So I made a double batch, and threw in an old Olaf toy. Then I provided her with a bowl and scoopers to play.
We made a few snowballs!
And squished them!
She loved getting messy!
Then I pulled out a small shovel from the big kids' bin of kinetic sand accessories. She enjoyed this new way to play!
Pom Pom Push
I had seen this all around Pinterest, usually with a plastic container or larger box. But this was an impromptu activity, so I just grabbed what was in front of me. I showed her how to push the pom poms through the holes. The color matching was a bit advanced for her though!
Sticker Snowballs
Sweet E woke up grumpy from a too-short nap one day, so I grabbed the first thing I thought of to help keep her happy. Blue paper + some white circle stickers = a simple snowy scene.
It worked! She kept busy for a little while with this. And it brought her out of her post-nap funk!
Snowy Stamps
This has become one of Sweet E's favorite activities! I supplied her with a piece of paper and all of the snowy stamps we had. She LOVED stamping!
At first, she was all over the place...standing on her chair:
Then she climbed up onto the sofa and bent over to stamp some more:
Then she climbed onto the craft table to stamp again:
And what added to the fun of it all, was placing all the caps back on.
Super fun! And this became my go-to throughout the week when I needed to grab a quick activity to entertain her. We have accumulated a ton of these stamps over the years, so it really keeps her busy!
Where's Olaf?
For this activity, I took our trusty Olaf toy and three cups. Then I let Sweet E see me place Olaf under a cup. First, I just asked her, "Where's Olaf?" And when I saw that she understood the game just fine, I began to move the cups around once or twice.
She doesn't talk much yet, but this gesture has long meant, "Where's ___?"
There he is! She loved this.
We kept Olaf and the three cups out, and Daddy and her big siblings love to play it with her once in a while!
Snowflake Molds - Activity #1 - Ice Cube Sensory Bin
I bought a pair of snowflake silicone molds, and wanted to be sure to get a lot of use out of them. So first, I froze colored water in them for Sweet E to explore!
They were beautiful!
I placed them into a tub of warm water, so I didn't freeze her little hands, and let her play freely!
She loved playing with these!
And watching as the water turned blue and the snowflakes got smaller!
Till they were just about gone.
Then I brought out this fun squeegee tool, and taught her how to fill it with water and squirt it out.
This was a great activity for her. Though as you can imagine, after she filled it, she lifted it straight out of the water and squirt it directly at me LOL.
Snowflake Molds - Activity #2 - Frozen Yogurt Snowflakes
We made a yummy treat with our molds next.
I dropped a couple spoonfuls of yogurt into the molds, and let her pour some sprinkles on top.
After a couple hours in the freezer, I popped them right out, and we all had a tasty snack!
Snowflake Molds - Activity #3 - Melting Crayons
Honey Pot and Little M&M were so thrilled to be doing an activity! Recently after reorganizing our craft supplies, I separated out all of the broken crayons. There were a ton! So I set the big kids to work, taking the papers off of them.
Then we broke them up, and separated them by color.
They each were allowed to fill an entire tray as they wished.
Then I baked them in a 200* oven for about 20 minutes, and left them out to re-solidify. Placing them in the freezer sped up the process! The final result was these beautiful snowflake crayons!
They are nice and thick, easy to grab, and color wonderfully.
Here's Honey Pot trying hers out:
And Little M&M sharing his with Sweet E:
Both big kids were so happy with this activity, and can't wait to bring them to school to show their friends.
Snow Play!
Finally, on the last day of our snow theme, we got a little dusting of snow. We took advantage of it and played outside for nearly an hour! We did plenty of exploring, playing...
and even shoveling!
