As I mentioned in this post, my preschool theme for my children in the month of January is always SNOW. Today I am sharing some of the snow-themed activities we have done (or still will do) this month.
*Side note about the activities: In December I discovered something interesting. That month I made a list of the December craft activities and games that we wanted to do. I created a very simple advent countdown (think super simple here–I stuck six clothespins on the wall and then wrote the activities on red and green paper). The children took turns choosing an activity to do each day, and when we ran out I just added more activities to the clothespins.
This system worked so well for us! My 5-year old can often be heard “What are we going to do?” If I tell her “We are going to … (insert random craft activity)” she is often resistant to the idea. But when she gets to pick the activity from the wall (even when she can’t read and is just randomly selecting a piece of paper), then she is always happy to participate.
So I decided to continue the clothespin system into January, just changing the color of the paper. We don’t do an activity every day (probably 3-4 a week). But so far it is working well for us. I plan a list of activities in advance (most only take 20 minutes (or longer if the kids are really interested), all can be done with minimal prep and supplies I have on hand, and the kids have the freedom of selecting which activity we do. It’s a win-win situation for us!
S0…here are the snowy activities on our list for January.
Read The Snowy Day. Conduct an ice melting science experiment: sugar, salt, mitten, control (more details here from Joyfully Weary).
Make snowflakes using coffee filter papers.
Play a snowflake match game (snowflakes available in this packet here from Confessions of a Homeschooler).
Read Thomas’ Snowsuit. Have a winter dress relay race. Then do a snowball relay race (transfer cotton balls on a spoon to a bowl across the room).
Read Snowmen All Year. Make a shape snowman (more details here from Preschool Alphabet).
Make snowflakes with marshmallows and toothpicks
Decorate popsicle stick snowflakes–use glitter.
Read Snowman at Night. Make a toilet paper night snowman (more details here from No Time for Flashcards).
Play with shaving cream in a dish. Pretend it is snow.
S is for Snowman preschool packet (download the packet here from Confessions of a Homeschooler).
Activities still to do
Play and learn with Arctic Animals games (download the game here from File Folder Fun)
Melting candy cane experiments (more details here from Teach Mama-technically not a snowy activity, but a great activity to do with the leftover Christmas candy canes!)
Make a snowman out of felt shapes.
Make crystallized snowflakes using borax (more details here from Silver and Chalk).
Make a snowman from a top-down perspective (more details here).
Snowflake painting using painters tape (more details here from Little Page Turners)
Thanks for the idea about the clothespins and the papers. Simple is good! I wonder if I could get kids to do jobs if they got to choose them in a novel way? 🙂
I love all your listed activities! It sounds like it was a great snow month for you.