Pretend Play Ice Skating with Mozart

As much as I love and try to take the girls outside during winter sometimes it's just not possible. When the temperature  is below zero for example.

That's when we try and get creative with activities that get us moving and grooving inside!

On this day I set up a "play" ice skating rink in our living room. I sectioned off the area with masking tape. I have a fairly small house but was still able to use quite a bit of space for this after moving around some furniture. If you don't have hard wood floors this could work in the kitchen as well.





I told the girls we were going ice skating and asked if they wanted to name our ice skating ring. My 4 year old decided it should be called Snowy Ice Skating Rink. So I suggested we make a sign to post near the rink.

 


This is an excellent way to tie in writing and print through play as well as to teach print has meaning. We proudly displayed the sign next to the designated rink area.

 

I used wax paper and tape to tie around the girls feet for the "ice skates". I also suggested that we may need hats, scarves, mittens to keep warm. My 4 year old chose a hat and my 2 year old decided she didn't want anything (This is very typical of her personality- to go against the norm) :) I also played Mozart music so the girls could skate to classical music. I encouraged them to listen to the music and skate slow to the slow parts and fast to the fast parts.

 

We also spent a lot of time just moving around and being silly!! You'll see my very opinionated 2 year old decided after awhile she didn't want the "skates". Perfectly fine, she chose to take them off and had fun in her socks.

 

Such a fun way to beat those winter blues and get moving inside!!


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Snow Scenes

Last week we were hit with a few inches of snow in March! The girls loved it as we have had a fairly mild winter here in the Chicago area.

To go along with the wintery scene outside we read this delightful little book called Snow by Uri Shulevitz. It's a Caldecott Honor book. If you are unfamiliar with The Caldecott Honor books it means the book won this distinguished award for their illustrations. The book is perfect for preschool age children and probably even a little bit older. The illustrations (as indicated by the Caldecott Badge) are beautiful and the text is simple and poetic. Throughout the story one, two, snowflakes slowly turn into an inviting wintery scene.  Really cute book!

Both my girls enjoyed the book and after we read the story we made our own wintery scenes.



We started with blue construction paper, cotton balls, and white paint mixed with salt.



The girls dipped the cotton balls into the paint and painted "A snow scene".





At the end they sprinkled silver glitter onto their scene and waited for it to dry. The salt mixed with paint once dried made a cool looking texture that added to the "blizzard-y" feel to the picture! (Yes, I know blizzard-y is not a real world) ;)



My 3 year old's completed "Snow Scene".



For anyone wondering my 23 month old lasted about three minutes and was done as is age appropriate.  There are times where she surprises me and lasts much longer which is why I always allow her to join us in the projects even though they can get quite messy! She still enjoyed spreading the cotton balls full of paint all over her paper but her attention span was very limited.

Bringing Outside In!

The weather outside is frightful....

Yep, it's just too darn cold to take the kids out in this midwest winter so we decided to bring the snow inside!



The girls used measuring cups to experiment with the snow but you could use plastic cups, shovels, small buckets, mini containers, the list is endless.  For my 21 month old the experience was all about feeling the snow, touching it with gloves and without gloves, and dumping it in and out.



For my 3 year old she also enjoyed the process of simply "playing" with the snow but for added stimulation I included these nifty little magnify glasses in her tray. She was able to put the snow in them and look through to see the magnified individual snowflakes. A great way to introduce the word magnify . We also talked about the word observe as I asked her what she observed in the magnify glass.



For more added fun I also gave the girls a spray bottle with red food coloring mixed with water. They had fun making the snow red!





Who says you have to freeze to enjoy the snow!!!