Snow, Snow, No Snow

Oh how I'm waiting for it to snow outside. But in the meantime we've had fun with snow activities indoors.We built a snow scene today. One thing that I've noticed is that children like to play with miniatures. I've been stocking up as I Thrift store shop.

First I put a sheet of sytrofoam in a cardboard box tray. Added a dome shaped styrofoam on top at one end of the box, then covered it all with white cotton batting. It looked like a snow hill.

Available to add were mini styrfoam balls, people, animals, sleds and trees (really tree ornaments).
The play began as soon as the first child arrived. Oh there were also little troll dolls (the ones with lots of hair) and little rabbits that had skiis on their feet.

I enjoyed listening to the stories that were being created as they played.

At the craft table we made snowstorms using white paint,. bubble wrap and sparkles.


Still waiting for it to snow outside, the forecast is for late tomorrow. I hope so!

Sign of the Week - Bed

This week's sign is "bed".

How to sign?
Put both hands together.
Place on side of head and rest your head on your hands.

Here's a fingerplay we'll be learning this week.

Bedtime

Time for bed, time for bed
Fluff up the pillow,
Lay down your head.
Pull up the blanket,
Tuck it in tight.
Close your eyes
And sleep all night.

Story - The Mitten

This week we've learned the story "The Mitten".
We've read it, we acted it out and we used stuffies to retell the story.
We read other versions of the same story, one was called "The Old Man's Mitten"
Here is my version.

Mitten Prints

Mittens has been the focus for us this week.

Today we did another form of print making.

Mittens that were cut from felt, lace, bubble wrap or non-slip shelf liner were stuck to the table.
The children could use paint rollers to cover their mittens,

or they could use a paint brush to make patterns on the mittens.

Lay paper on top of the mittens and and smooth it down with your hands.

Ready, set, peek at your art work.

Here are some results.
Non-slip shelf liner,bubble wrap,

felt mittens with a snowflake sticky attached,lacesnowflakes.
We don't mind getting dirty.

I had set out this craft on a disposable tablecloth that had been used many times.
So clean up was a snap.
Wrap it all up and out it went.

Sparkly Snowflakes

I'm still wishing for snow. Big, dry snowflakes would be wonderful to see falling from the sky. But it's not happening, only rain here. So we have to make our own snowflakes.
Materials provided are sparkly pipecleaners, q-tips, string, glue and samples of snow flakes and how snowflakes form.

It was interesting to watch the progression from piling the pipecleaners in a jumble to learning how to criss-cross them.
We also realized we could make them 3D like snowballs versus being flat snowflakes.

We weren't limited to only snowflakes. The opportunity to squeeze out glue is too much to resist for some children. Here's wishing for snow.

Painted Mitten Snack

Today we got to paint our food before eating it.

It's easy to do.

1. Cut your bread. We used a mitten cookie cutter.














2. Use milk mixed with food colouring and paint the bread.



















3. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.















4. Put it in the toaster oven.









5. Eat and enjoy.

Turntable Fun

During the holidays I went Thrift store shopping and finally found an old turntable. For set up I placed a paper plate on the centre and poked it on to the spinning post. But when I turned it on the paper plate didn't spin with it. A little tape underneath the plate fixed that.
It really attracted a few of the boys that don't normally go to the art area on their own. Here is dad showing his little one how to turn it on.
I filled squeeze bottles with different coloured paints. The little one held the bottle above the turntable and watched it drip on to the paper plate.
Then we were thinking of what else we could use and tried a paint brush. What a great way to mix the colours.
Then we tried a long coffee stir stick and discovered that it would make marks in the paint.
So using both the paint brush and the stick we could keep starting new pictures.
We learned a couple of things about the turntable. If you pressed down hard with your brush then the table stops spinning or if you used your brush and pushed the turntable you could make it spin in the other direction.
The only thing I wish is that it was an older turntable that included the 78 speed setting. The need for speed.