Learning with Snow

January started out really dry, but we finally got a good snowstorm so that we could do some snowy winter activities.

Outdoor Play

We had a lot of snow out in the yard, which led to a lot of gross motor activities like shoveling and rolling balls for a "snowman city."

Snow Art and Sensory Play

My favorite thing to do in winter is to bring the snow inside to use as a learning tool. We used it for sensory play, science exploring, and art. 

For our art project, we ripped up pieces of bleeding tissue paper and then scooped snow on top to see what happened as it melted.

  The colors of the tissue paper started to bleed and mix together as the snow liquefied.  

We let them dry over a few days, and the melted snow and paper left behind some beautiful colors and designs.

To finish them off, we added some puffy paint to the designs. 

I was glad we had at least one good storm in January so that we could use real snow during our study of winter!

Creative Kids Summer Class: Dinosaurs STEAM Play

We fit a lot of fun activities into our day of STEAM play with dinosaurs, and I probably could have done a dinosaur theme for all three days of the session. There are a lot of great dinosaur STEM ideas out there!

Dinosaur Fossils

We used salt dough to make dinosaur fossils. The children played around making different prints first, and then picked the one they wanted for a permanent print. 

I cooked them at a low temperature for a few hours, and then the kids painted them the next day. 

Dinosaur Eggs

I made two different kinds of "dinosaur eggs" for the kids to excavate. 

These baking soda eggs were fun to watch fizz and bubble.

We also enjoyed trying to melt these ice eggs. 

Dinosaur Bones

A simple invitation to explore x-rays and dinosaur bones with q-tips and dinosaur heads. 

Dirty Dinosaur Play

We made some mud and let our dinosaurs get nice and dirty, then gave them a bath in the water table. This was inspired by a fun (new-to-me) book, I'm a Dirty Dinosaur.

Melting Colors Dinosaur Art

For this art process we used shavings from old crayons and melted them inside wax paper to create colorful dinosaur art. 

Creative Kids Summer Class: Camping STEAM Play

This week was our last session of Creative Kids Summer Class, centered around STEAM play. 

On the first day we used a camping theme to guide our experiences. 

Mountain Wildlife Sensory Bin

 

Marshmallow Campfire Painting

Fishing Play

This classic fishing game is fun for dramatic play, as well as counting and sorting practice.

Engineering Invitation: Can you build a tent or cabin? 

I helped with the hot glue gun for this activity. :) It was fun to see the different designs and creations the children came up with.

Streams, Rivers, and Boat Sensory Play

Bear Hunt Maps

We made these maps after we sang about going on a bear hunt.

Creative Kids Summer Class: Outside Art Play

I love taking art outside in the summer time, and we had a lot of fun getting out during our art play session of summer classes.

Car Slides

While exploring lines, we sent painted cars down a slide to see what kinds of lines they would make.

This naturally led to some car washing play. :) 

Chalk

Chalk play is kind of an obvious, go-to outside art activity, but there are so many ways to use it! Both my students and children become so much more engaged with chalk when it's paired with water, so we paired it with the water table. We also read this great, imaginative book Chalk.

Squirt Gun Painting

The favorite outdoor art activity this year was definitely squirt gun painting. I just filled dollar store squirt guns with a paint/water mixture. Now, if you are going to do it (and you should- it's so fun!), just be sure to set clear boundaries for how you are going to play with the squirt guns. For us this year, that meant we were squirting the paper (not each other, or the house, etc.), but maybe you are braver than I was this time around. ;) The kids stayed at this for a long time, and got a great fine motor workout in the process!