101 Ways to Play in the Snow!

Winter is in full swing here in Northern Michigan! Sometimes the cold winter weather is a challenge to getting out and active-- So, I thought I would put together a list of 

101 WAYS that you can get outside TO PLAY IN THE SNOW! 

1-Sled down a hill. 

2. Build a LUGE to sled down

 3- Make a sled out of a cardboard box and duct tape to slide down the hill

4- Slide down the hill in a plastic swimming pool

5-Slide down the hill on your bottom

6- Make a sled train

7-ROLL down the hill!

 

8-Pull the sled back up the hill

9- Pull your friend (or anyone who is willing around in a sled)

10- Push someone around in a sled

11- Dig to China- or Antarctica, or just dig, dig, dig!

12- Shovel the driveway- and help dig out the car. 

13- Build a snow fort

14- Make Snow Castles

15- Build a snowman

16- Build a snow sculpture
(and check out these amazing sculptures at Michigan Tech University for Winter Carnival!)

17- Make snow! (Just be careful not to throw the water into the wind!)

18- Make colored snow (add food coloring to the water before you throw it!)

19- Blow bubbles and watch them freeze

20- Add food coloring to your bubbles to make frozen colored bubbles!

21- Go for a walk!

  

22- Make tracks in the snow - these cardboard "feet" worked well for us!

23- Have a snowball fight! 

24-  If you are concerned about the children throwing snowballs

 at each other make targets for throwing at. 

Hula hoops work great and so does a target on a fence. 

25- Play snow basketball! Set up a hoop to throw the snowballs through!

26- Send snowballs flying with a giant catapult!

27- OR   Paint the snow with sponge balls and a giant catapult!

28- Use cookie cutters to make prints in the snow.

29- Spray paint the snow with spray bottles filled with colored water

30- Color the snow with pipettes.

31- Paint the snow with turkey basters

32- Paint the snow with paint brushes

33- Paint the snow with GIANT mop paint brushes

34- Paint the snow with colored water and a GIANT pendulum

35- Melt the snow with colored salt and a GIANT pendulum

36- Roll the biggest snowball ever

37- Make a snow angel

38- Make a snow maze

39-  Make a snow cave for a bear!

40- Color the Snow and throw it onto paper to make Snowball Art!

41- Freeze Colored Water in Balloons

 42- Make a Winter Ice Bunting

43- Make Winter Ice Lanterns

44- Go on a Winter Scavenger Hunt

45- Look for Animal Tracks in the Snow

46- Make some "Snow Cakes" in the Outdoor Kitchen

47- Open Up Your Very Own Outdoor Concession Stand!

 (Make sure that you have a lot of Ice cream and hot chocolate!)

48- Make Snowcones

49- Make Snow Ice Cream

50- Dig a Tunnel

51- Collect Icicles!

52- Compare Icicle Lengths

53- Make Colored Ice Bricks

54- Make a Snow Gauge

55- Feed and Observe Winter Birds

56- Build the Tallest Snowball Tower

57- Play Snow Bowling!

58- Play Boot Hockey

 59- Bring Prisms Out into the Snow

60- Make a Snow Volcano!

 61- Race through the DEEP snow!

62- Make an "ICE AGE" Excavation (Indoors or Outside!)

63- Make a Snow Obstacle Course

64- Add Ice Cream Scoops, Spoons, and other odds and ends for digging and sculpting! 

65- Make a "snow flake catcher" with black construction paper. 

(Make sure that you store the paper in a cold place so 

that the snowflakes do not melt when they land on it).

66- Play "King of the Mountain"

 67- Make Winter Outdoor Music

68- Try Snowshoes

69- Bring Glow Sticks Out in the Snow

70- Make Stairs/Steps in the Snow

71- Go Ice Skating

72- Waddle Like a Penguin Across the Ice

73- Create a Winter Outdoor Theater Production

74- Carve Out Furniture in the Snow- A bed, a couch, whatever you decide!

75- Have A Snow Treasure Hunt

76- Find the Biggest Chunk of Snow You Can to Carry Around

77- Go Snowboarding

78- Write Your Name in the Snow

79- Throw Fluffy Snow High Up Into the Air

80- Make an Igloo

81- Make a Quinzee

82- Go Cross Country Skiing

83- Go Downhill Skiing

84- Go Ice Fishing

85- Bury Someone in the Snow (Like you do in the sand at the beach)

86- Play Snow Baseball (use a snowball)

87- Make a Mini Avalanche

88- Measure How Far You Can Throw a Snowball

89- Make a Snowy Golf Course

90- Add Potato Heads to the Snow

91- Catch a Snowflake on Your Tongue

92- Use a Rake to Make Patterns in the Snow

93- Dig a Hole You Can Crouch Down In and JUMP Out Of

94- Follow Someone's Boot Tracks

95- Build a Snow Wall

96- Blow On the Snow to Make it Melt

97- Melt Snow in Your Hands (You can do this outdoors or indoors!)

98- Make GIANT designs in the snow

99- Make TINY designs in the snow

100- Make the TALLEST pile of snow you can (and climb it!)

101-  Jump in a SLUSH puddle!

TOO COLD OUTSIDE? BRING THE SNOW INSIDE!

 Melt Snow in a Container (This is a great way to show you that snow is dirty!)

Create a snowy  or icy "Small World" sensory exploration

Use "Blubber" gloves in the sensory table

Make a snowman inside

Painting snow inside

DON'T HAVE REAL SNOW OUTSIDE- TRY THESE:

Faux Snow Day

Have a "Snowball Freeze Fight!"

Indoor Snow Day

DO YOU HAVE A FUN WAY TO PLAY IN THE SNOW? I'D LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT IT!

 More About Amy

Amy Ahola is the owner/operator of Child Central Station, group home daycare in Marquette, Michigan.  She has been running her own business since 2005. Prior to that time, Amy worked in a childcare center and public school. In addition to her childcare business, Amy also provides educational training sessions. Amy earned a Bachelors of Science in Psychology from Northern Michigan University and a M.S. in Training, Development, and Performance Improvement.  For more information about any of her programs, please visit Child Central Station, AmyAhola.com or Find her on Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr! 

"Sense"ational Learning Fun!

Young children are concrete learners.

This means that they learn through hands-on experiences.

They learn through active engagement of their senses.

At Child Central Station- we LOVE to make a mess and learn at the same time!

Here are some of our favorite sensory activities, follow the links to the recipes and/or enjoy the free download of my workshop handout!

Colored Gems aka Sensory Salts

Sensory salts are a simple and easy recipe that leave your room smelling delightful! Just a few drops of coloring and essential oil or extract added to epsom salt and voila! 

Shiny Paints

Homemade paints are also another great sensory experience. The shiny paints are made with corn syrup and food coloring.  You can also find our recipes for scratch and sniff watercolors and homemade finger paints on the blog.

Slime is one of our favorite things to play with! We decided to have a slime off to determine our favorite type of slime..... I don't think we came to a conclusion, but we did discover many similarities and differences in the various recipes.

These three slime recipes require you to cook them on the stove:

Flubber/Slime made with fiber and water

Super Sweet Stovetop Slime

Kool-Aid Slime

There are another couple of slime recipes we tested that did not require heat in order to make them:

Gloop/Slime/Silly Putty/Slime made with laundry starch and glue

Gak/Slime made with Borax and Glue

If you add styrofoam beads and adjust the above recipe just a bit- you can create your own fabulous homemade floam!

Homemade Floam! 

We are always making all kinds of different recipes and contraptions to use in and out of our sensory table. You can find over a hundred different ideas in my workshop handouts here! 

What is your favorite sensory activity (In or out of the table?) I'd love to hear about it! Please feel free to share your links in the comments! I'll be sure to share them on Pinterest and Facebook!

 More About Amy

Amy Ahola is the owner/operator of Child Central Station, group home daycare in Marquette, Michigan.  She has been running her own business since 2005. Prior to that time, Amy worked in a childcare center and public school. In addition to her childcare business, Amy also provides educational training sessions. Amy earned a Bachelors of Science in Psychology from Northern Michigan University and a M.S. in Training, Development, and Performance Improvement.  For more information about any of her programs, please visit Child Central Station, AmyAhola.com or Find her on Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr! 

More on Mixed Aged Classrooms: How Do You Manage?

I run a mixed aged classroom. In fact, yesterday, there was a full decade - 10 years- in age difference between our youngest learner and our oldest learner. I am often faced with questions from a variety of sources trying to understand exactly - How Do You Manage a Mixed Aged Classroom?

 (If you remember, I have posted a little bit about our philosophy and our mixed ages groupings before, you can read that post here.)

First, I have to admit. EVERY classroom comes with its own challenges. Every child, regardless of age, brings their own strengths and experiences to the classroom. Every child has needs and different requirements. Working with mixed ages can be challenging, but in the end, age is just a number.

I'm going to take a few minutes to answer some of the more common questions I am asked about integrating such a wide range of ages in our classroom.

What do you do with the infants?

The majority of questions I receive in regard to mixed ages has to do with caring for infants at the same time as older children. Yes, infants do have some additional needs that you don't have with older children. However, having infants together with older children provides a wonderful reciprocal learning opportunity.  Older children are constantly modeling and scaffolding for the younger ones. Younger infants and toddlers provide ample opportunities for modeling empathy and treating others with respect. 

Logistically, What does this look like in our classroom?

We run an emergent play-based classroom. This means that we are very child centered. The children take the lead, and we support them through resources, conversation, and reflection. Our materials are set out at child level with any material that would be a choking hazard or require additional close supervision to be placed on higher shelves. We have real- honest and open conversations about our concerns with materials.

"Ms. Amy, Can we play with the dollhouse stuff?" 

"I'm a little bit worried about all of the small pieces with the babies here today....

How could we make that work?"

By sharing my concerns with the older children and asking them to be the problem solvers, I am not imposing rules..... I am inviting them to be active participants and to solve problems to come up with agreeable solutions. Sometimes the ideas the children come up with are brilliant......

Sometimes, it means that I engage the younger children in a different activity. Sometimes it means that the small pieces are only played with at a table or on a higher level than the younger children. Sometimes it means that I play too, sitting with the infants to make sure that they don't put any pieces in their mouths. Sometimes it means waiting until the infant(s) take a nap. Whatever the solution, the children own it.

I also try to promote as much independence as early as possible. This means that mobile infants are on the floor and mobile. I don't tend to use things like exersaucers, swings, or bouncers inside. We do have a few chairs for sitting in, and I use the high chair seats on the floor. (The ones that you would normal strap onto a regular chair).  By having the chairs at the child's level, they can crawl up to them. 

When older children are building with blocks and don't want the younger children to knock their creations down, I ask them to use their words. "Tell them you don't want them to touch your tower." It usually doesn't work very well as very young infants are quite egocentric and if they want to do something, they continually try to do it. So, I usually position myself on the floor near the structure and keep little ones from knocking the tower down, reminding them, "I think I heard M.. say that she doesn't want you to touch her tower. We need to find something else to do. I can build a tower for you to knock down or you can find something else to play with" I proceed to engage the younger children in something similar and keep them from the older children's creations.  Most of the time this works out well, and sooner rather than later they start to understand to respect the space and explorations of others. 

Then, sometimes, it all works out and we all explore together...

playing, learning, and growing with the help of each other. 

 More About Amy

Amy Ahola is the owner/operator of Child Central Station, group home daycare and educational toy store in Marquette, Michigan.  She has been running her own business since 2005. Prior to that time, Amy worked in a childcare center and public school. In addition to her childcare business, Amy also provides educational training sessions. Amy earned a Bachelors of Science in Psychology from Northern Michigan University and a M.S. in Training, Development, and Performance Improvement.  For more information about any of her programs, please visit Child Central Station or Find her on Facebook!