Everything...Family Guide: Winter Fun Activities to keep your kids busy!

Hi there! We have been working hard putting together this winter activity guide for kids. We had so much fun and we hope you do too! Here we go...

A Monthly Moon Watch (Start-up)

Observe the night sky for the moon and fill in the moon chart with our findings. Make a Moon journal by observing the moon for 30 days. Sketch what it looks like daily and record the timings of when it appears in the sky each day. If there is no moon leave it blank and only color a night sky with other visible things like stars or not. As a parent, I double check for moon sightings dates and times on the Weather Channel website. Turn off all the lights, open the blinds/curtains and lay down to observe the beautiful views of the night sky.

One entry in the moon journal © Everything Family Guide

Moon Journal in-progress © Everything Family Guide

Other Ideas for Sky Watch:

Watch the night sky for northern lights, stars, planets and other moving objects. Make a daily visual journal to record your findings; one half of the page for drawing what you saw and the other half for writing a description of what you saw.
Observe the position of the winter sun during the day, from your window; look for a lower sun in the sky, which equals to shorter days in the winter time. As the sun rises in the east from a lower point, it travels through the sky and then sets in the west earlier than the summer sun.

Sun Activities

Make rainbow sun catchers by gluing various colored ripped tissue paper strips on clear contact paper. Then glue the contact paper on your window. You will need contact paper and colored tissue paper to make a colorful sun catcher. For this activity, we made heart shaped sun-catchers for a Valentine's day preparatory activity.
Make a sundial by placing a vertically aligned stick/ruler into the ground. As the sun rises in the morning the shadow will be cast on the opposite side of the stick and move across the ground through the day to tell time. You can mark the change with chalk to look at it later on. Start off with the basics like morning/dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, sunrise, etc.

Colored Ice-cubes

Mix a food drops of food coloring with water to make colored ice cubes for outdoor play. Once the colored ice cubes are ready, we go outside to play with them.

Ready to take outside! © Everything Family Guide

Colored Ice cubes in the Snow © Everything Family Guide

Frosty Candles - Caution: this activity is done under adult supervision at all times.

Fill an empty container and pack it with snow to the top. Be sure to pack the snow with your hand; snow has air bubbles. Once it is filled bring it inside and turn it over to remove the container. Now place a tea candle in the center of the snow pack. Light the candle to make an awesome winter display. Dress up for winter and take the frosty candle outside late in the evening, to enjoy the spectacular display!

Making Frosty Candles © Everything Family Guide

Snowman Activities

Paper Snowman: Make a snowman by folding a paper in half vertically and then cutting 1 small, 1 medium and 1 large half circle around the edges. Once you are done cutting, open the paper to add details like facial features (such as eyes, a nose, and a smile) and draw the winter gear to your snowman, with markers or crayons.

Making a paper Snowman © Everything Family Guide

Paper Snowman © Everything Family Guide

Snow Sensory Bin: Make a snow sensory bin by placing ice in a bucket and provide your child with toys or tools they can use to carve shapes or make a snowman.

Snow Play Bin © Everything Family Guide

Snowman made by a Toddler © Everything Family Guide

Cotton Snowman: Make a cotton ball snowman by gluing cotton balls on blue colored construction paper. You may add details by gluing on googly eyes.

Snowman Paper chain - this activity requires a little help from the parent. You need to trace the shape outline of a snowman on a paper that is folded a few times (the more fold it in and out the more snowman shapes you will have). I know our outline is missing arms on the side, as my little guy cut them off (hahaha!).

Snowman Crayon Resist Painting: you will need a white pencil pre-cut snowman stencil on recyclable cardboard, crayon, paint brushes, blue paint and a white piece of paper. You will provide your child with a recycled cardboard snowman template. Let your child color inside the hand-made stencil with a white crayon (shaped like a snowman). Now let your child paint over the paper with blue paint. Let dry to reveal a snowman on a blue background. You can also make little snowflakes with the white crayon before painting. Other ways to add snowflakes is by making paper snowflakes or glitter ones.

Egg Carton Snowman - Make a snowman with a recyclable cardboard egg carton. All you need is a pair of scissors, googly eyes, markers, a pipe cleaner with two pom-poms. Then you get set preparing your snowman! I personally love this project the best from all the Snowman projects!

Story Book with a Movie & Craft

Read the winter classic “Frosty the Snowman” (it is published by numerous authors; Disney, Jack Rollins & Steve Nelson). Then watch the movie “Frosty the Snowman” (1969 film) or “The Legend of Frosty the Snowman (2005 film). To make it more fun, you can go outside and make a snowman like “Frosty”; add details red button nose and a hat similar to a men’s Top hat. For the craft, we got a ready-to-assemble kit from Target for a couple of dollars. Its a 3-D Igloo kit with a Snowman family. It came with pre-cut shapes for assembling the Igloo and the felt Snowman standup figures.

Snowflake Activities

Make a snowflake by folding a paper in half vertically and then horizontally and then cutting on the folded edges to and the outer edges to make a snowflake. You can either make large cuts or small ones (like my preschooler did). Keep in mind that all snowflakes are unique so there is no exact design. :)

Study the snowflakes as they fall on your hands, the ground or on a surface. For this activity you need to be outdoors for a few minutes. Watch out for unique shapes and patterns. Then come inside and sketch a snowflake from memory and/or make one by using your own designs/ideas. Hint: some snowflakes have sides or may be shaped like hexagons.

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/class/class.htm

Check out a detailed and visual Guide to Snowflakes on this website

Make a snowflake imprint painting. Cut out a felt-shaped snowflake pattern. You can also use tape to make snowflake shapes on the paper. Then you will paint over and around the shapes. Upon completion, leave the felt shape/tape on and let the paper dry as is. When dried, remove the shapes to reveal a beautiful pattern on the inside.

Tape Print-making © Everything Family Guide

Winter Dress-up

Cut out a people’s outline on paper. Give your child a pair or scissors and several current department store flyers to look for winter gear pictures (i.e. gloves, hats, jackets, snow pants, boots, scarves, etc). Once they are done collecting the pictures, talk to them about each item (i.e. hats are to keep your head and ears warm, gloves are to keep your fingers warm, etc.). Now, dress up your paper person in winter gear by gluing on the winter gear to the appropriate body part. Finally, you can add facial details like a smile, eyes, or nose.

Winter Word Wall

Brainstorm winter words on a bulletin board or large paper for your child to see. Let them tell you the words, while you write them down. Then write your words on small cards and glue to a display area. Every time you come across a word in a book, at home, on TV or during play, add to your word wall. Once in a while, you can read the “winter” words out loud to help your child remember and learn. Some sample winter words are as follows: snow, snowflake, winter, mittens, gloves, jackets, cold, arctic air, wind chill, warm, frozen, icicles, sleet, white, chilly, frosty, blizzard, snow storm, temperature, drop, below zero, frostbite, hail, snowy, etc.

Sample Winter Words © Everything Family Guide

Rhyming words: Make a list of words that rhyme and are winter related.

Winter Rhyming Words © Everything Family Guide

Bird Feeder

Make a bird feeder by recycling your plastic milk jug. Make a large hole in the front of the bottle and fill with bird seeds. Make another hole to insert/string a piece of yarn at the top. Now hang it on a tree branch for the birds to enjoy. It is important to help your child with the cutting as the milk jug plastic can be very sharp. Let your child help you tape the edges of the bird feeder with paper/masking tape.

Read Fairy tales

The fun of fairy tales is somehow intensified when read or experienced in the winter. Read classical Grimm fairy tales like the Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Peter Pan, Puss in Boots, Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, The Wolf and The Fox, and Rumpelstiltskin. Most of these stories can be enjoyed near a fire-place with steaming mugs of hot cocoa or during a S'mores party.

Read Winter-themed Books

Stay in touch with the seasons and celebrations/traditions associated with the different days of the year, months or week. This builds understanding about what your child is learning and develops a sense of belonging to their community (family, culture or country). You can also read books that are based on a winter themes such as the snow, snowflakes, snowman, Igloo, Christmas, New Years, winter animals, winter traditions, winter games (both indoors and outdoors), or winter recipes. This will not only make each activity fun and awe-inspiring, but at the same time educate your child about things around our world.

Make a Snow Globe

3D Snow Globe: You will need an old glass jar, white recycled paper, whole punch, a plastic toy, marker, glitter and glue. Now use a whole punch to make as many little white pieces of paper circles as possible. Next, thoroughly clean and dry the glass or plastic jar. Glue the toy to the inside of the lid and add white whole punch circles and glitter. Screw the glass bottle on the lid and you have made yourself a snow globe. You can also make a wet one by adding water 2/3 through the jar and adding oil in the rest of the space. For the wet snow globe, only add glitter and not any paper whole punch circles, as they will turn into white mush.
2D Snow Globe: Make a construction paper snow globe where you cut a red rectangle (base), 1 large blue ball (snow globe dome), 2 medium sized white balls (that fit inside the dome; one for the lower body and the other for the middle), and one small white ball(for the head). Glue the pictures on paper to put together your snow globe. Now add details like face, arms, and buttons using a pen. Paint a clear glitter wash on the top with a wet brush to give it a magical look.

Winter Math

Daily Calendar Fun: Turn down the temperature in your calendar learning area by adding winter-themed pictures. Use little snowflakes or a snowman as calendar number cutouts.

Make a graph on a large piece of paper (makes a great visual) and laminate it to accompany your calendar routine. The graph will have a column each for sunny, partly sunny, snowy, windy, cloudy, rainy, etc. Then each day, look out the window to record/check mark the weather of the day. At the end of each week or month, look for/discuss occurring patterns, similarities or differences in the weather graph.

Outdoor Snow Activities

Here are some outdoor fun ideas:

Go tobogganing or sledding (sleds cost around $5 at Walmart or look for really thick cardboard boxes at the recycling depot)
Go skiing with your family
Make an igloo using disposable plastics containers to fill with snow and sprinkle with water to make firm. Then after a few hours or until the snow doesn't fall apart, start stacking your ice blocks to make an igloo.
Go snow-trekking in your sturdy winter boots.
Play ice hockey using a hockey stick, a puck, 2 goals, friends and lots of energy!
Go ice skating at your local/community ice skating rink (it's usually free and you can even rent skates in your size for a low price).
Make a snow angel by lying on the snow on your back. Then rub your hands and feet in the snow in the upwards and downwards motion to make a snow angel.
Fill a squeeze bottle with food color eater and do snow art outside or write messages in the snow using food color squeeze bottles or a twig to imprint messages.
Do a good deed by shoveling your neighbors snow pathway or sidewalk to reduce the chances of someone getting hurt or saving them time/energy to do it themselves.Shovel the snow from your pathway or sidewalk to help your parents out! Go ice fishing with an adult.Make a snow-fort using huge snow blocks or balls and then have a snow-fight with your friends or family.
Winter Olympics: Research the types of games they play during the winter Olympics. Get ready to watch the winter Olympics, which will be hosted in Sochi, Russia from February 6^th to the 23^rd. Make your own gym station in and around the house with indoors and outdoor games to do a copy-cat Olympic event.
Make a Brochure of Cold Things or Animals (in our Environment): You will need a blank piece of paper, scissors, glue, and old national geographic magazines from a used book store. Pick and choose things that can survive a cold winter (i.e. rocks, frozen water, wolves, fish, squirrels, skunks, rabbits, polar bears, penguins, dogs, etc). You can glue this on a paper folded like a book.
Animal Tracks: Dress up in your winter gear to go for a trek through the snow in your local park or backyard. Look for animal tracks. Come back inside and draw the animal tracks on a piece of paper. Try to infer the name of the animal using the information you have (paw size, fingers, distance of the prints, etc). Watch through your window for winter animals like rabbits, mice, raccoons, ground hogs, squirrels, owls, coyotes, wolves, deer, moose, or beavers. Or look for animal tracks in the snow. Use your prediction skills to infer the name of the animal using the characteristics of the animal track.

Indoor Fun Activities

Enjoy indoor family fun time or movie time with a bowl of homemade popcorn. You need to heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pot, and drop a kernel in the pot. When the kernel pops, you know the oil is hot enough. You may let the kids pour the kernels in the measuring cup and then the adult can pour the kernels in the hot pot and cover the lid. Ask your kids to hear the "popping" sounds of popcorn. When you hear that the popping is spaced between 3-5 seconds, then you know the popcorn is done. Turn off the heat and take the pot off the stove. Wait for popcorn to cool off slightly before serving with butter or flavored seasoning (optional). Here are some fun indoor time ideas:

Make it a movie day by doing activities from the movie and then watching the movie at the end of the day. For example, to watch "The Polar Express", we will setup chairs/pillows in a train and pretend we are sitting in a train or board a train by pretending to exchange tickets. Drinking hot chocolate, drawing our own trains or designing a ticket, are some activities we may do before watching the movie.
Play card games like old maid, go fish, crazy eights, or concentration/memory.
Play board games like scrabble junior, connect 4, color/shape matching, snakes and ladder, etc.
Play movement/sports games like throw/catch ball, musical chairs, freeze, sly fox, hide and seek, etc.
Help your parents or an adult set up the fireplace. Then watch the beauty of fire in your home. You may even convince your parents to have an indoor S'mores party (there's nothing yummier than toasted marshmallows tucked in between chocolate wafers; Yum!)
Share and Tell family stories/songs around the fireplace or in the living room, while getting cozy with a blanket.

In the Kitchen with Chef Junior

Make a Menu of Cold Things (To eat): You will need a blank piece of paper, scissors, glue, and grocery store flyers. Now pick out items that you would normally find in a grocery store frozen section. This activity can be done on a booklet.
Baking: Bake a cake or muffins with a homemade recipe or use a cake mix. Ice a cake or muffins with homemade icing (whip butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence in an electric mixer to make delicious homemade icing).
Homemade Ice Cream: Make your own homemade ice-cream by adding 1 cup of whipping cream, 4 tbsp of sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and flavor (optional) to a medium-sized Ziploc bag and seal it. Then take ice from the freezer or snow from outside plus 1 tsp of salt and pour in a larger Ziploc bag. Now place the food bag inside the ice/snow bag and seal it. The fun part begins by allowing your children to shake the bag vigorously for 10-15 minutes. Viola! Enjoy some yummy homemade ice cream, sans the preservatives!
Make hot chocolate: Make a hot chocolate with cocoa powder, milk/cream, sugar and hot water. Make it delicious by sprinkling a little bit of cocoa powder on top or by having it with a candy cane (YUM!)
Make a Gingerbread house and decorate with candies and frosting. Sorry about the untidiness, as my little guys helped me with this. :)

Science Experiments

3 Forms of Water: Bring a bucket of snow inside and let it stay at room temperature to see what happens; it will melt and become water. Afterwards, put that same bucket in the freezer to see the water solidify into ice. Finally, leave the frozen bucket outside in the sun and watch what happens the next day when it disparate in the air. This will teach the concept of solid, liquid and gas.
Today’s Weather Report: Make a weather report by taking a white paper sized at 8 ½ by 11 inches. Now decorate your cover page with the title “Weather Report”. Next, dress up in your winter gear to go out for recording the temperature, using an outdoor thermometer. You can buy one at Wal-Mart or the dollar store for a few bucks. Place the thermometer on the floor and then wait for the mercury to rise up. The parents will announce the temperature and show their child. Once inside, you can record the temperature in your book and draw a picture of the thermometer. You can also draw pictures of a sun with clouds, snowflakes falling from the sky, cloudy sky, windy with snow flakes, etc. You can observe and record for a week.

© Everything Family Guide

(Day 30) Grow a Garden

Start an indoor planting project by placing your plant in front of the window that catches the sun the most. This year we planted the stalks of fresh leftover coriander, green onions, and Italian parsley. We placed the stalks in a glass jar 2/3's full of room temperature water. The best plants to grow would be green onions or herbs like coriander. Save the stalks when you are done using the herb or vegetable and then place it in a container with water. Watch it progress everyday as it grows. Cut off the tops and enjoy in your salad. Watch them grown again from the stalks. Make sure to keep your plants well hydrated and with sufficient air/light.
Start a seedling project by buying inexpensive seeds from the local grocery store. Plant them in a pot with good quality potting soil. Place the pot by a sunny window patch and water the pot daily. Watch and journal the plant progress to observe changes or growth. You can also germinate chick peas in a clear plastic cup with a little water and watch the chick peas sprout to observe changes or growth.

Overall, this winter season has been coming along well. I apologize if some of these projects are not 'PERFECT' looking as they are made and designed by my little guy. That's what makes them original! I hope you enjoyed our post as we took a month to compile all our activities. We would love to hear some feedback from our readers.

Many thanks,
Annie

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

Winter Fun Activities to keep your kids busy!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Registered & Protected

InstaText and Line Camera Apps