Category Archives: snow

Winter Themed Pre-School Songs

December 29, 2021 rightfromthestart Leave a comment

Winter is a popular theme at this time of the year. There are many things to discover as we explore the weather, temperature, animals, clothing, melting and freezing and many more. Below are a few I have used and adapted for a winter study.

Warm clothes in Winter Time

This one is also useful for a clothes study. It talks about putting on different clothes that we wear in the winter. You can use it to teach body parts, names of clothes, materials that clothes are made of and pairing gloves, shoes and socks.

There’s a Snowflake on my Nose

This song also teaches body parts . You can have the children make a snowflake or give them a picture of a snowflake and they have to put it on the correct body part. For mine I added double sided sticky tape to help it stay. For added fun you could add a picture of a snowflake to a bean bag and have them balance that on different body parts.

It is Snowing

An action song about all of the things you might like to do in the snow. This is a good introduction to different activities you can do in snow. You could also use it as a springboard to create a graph of the children’s favourite activities to do in the snow. Create a grid with 4-6 activities and give each child a snowflake to stick on their favourite one.

Five Little Snowmen

This one is my favourite counting song for a Winter study. As the sun comes out the Snowmen melt and you subtract one. You can do this song with the children playing the snowmen and as the they melt they have to sit down. In this version I have used visuals from Lessonpix.

Bear is Sleeping

This song is about animals that hibernate and animals that migrate. You can insert any animal into the song, I chose a few more unusual ones that the children may not have heard about.

Hot and Cold Song

In this song we learn about things that are hot and things that are cold. Visuals come from Lessonpix.

I hope you find my selection of Winter themed songs useful. Let me know if you need any other songs specific to another aspect of winter learning.

art, art, early education & play, Life in the US, outdoor play, play, Seattle, snow

Had Enough of Snow? These Peanuts Snow Sculptures will Make you Smile.

February 13, 2019 rightfromthestart Leave a comment

After almost a week of snow in the Seattle area, many have had enough of snow and can’t wait to get back to normality. Personally, snow makes me smile. I love having my kids home and playing in the snow, because we can try out some really cool projects. As Peanuts fans, on our first snow day this week, we built a snow sculpture of Snoopy lying on his kennel.

We used a brick mould to build the structure of the kennel and smoothed the sides to make the sloping roof. Then, sculpted snoopy lying down on top.

His nose and ears were painted with watercolour block paint and we painted his name on the entrance to the kennel.

Each day we have added a new Peanuts character.

Day 2 – Charlie Brown and Woodstock

The following night we had a lot of snowfall, so in the morning it was as if a Snoopy cartoon had come to life.

Thankfully the snow was soft and powdery so brushed off with little damage, other than some paint smudging and a slightly less defined Woodstock.

Day 3 – Lucy

Day 4 – Linus

This is my personal favourite. There had been some thawing overnight so there were a lot of pine needles in the snow; perfect for Linus’ hair.

For as long as the snow remains, we’re going to add a different character each day. I’ll be updating this post and my Instagram and Facebook page with pictures of the new additions. Who is your favourite Peanuts character?

active learning, art, early education & play, education, outdoor play, play, snow, water play

A Step by Step Guide to Making Ice Ornaments

February 8, 2019 rightfromthestart Leave a comment

It isn’t often we get a cold spell long enough to make ice ornaments, but with freezing temperatures set to last, we made a few batches to hang on our bushes. They look really beautiful, but also provide lots of opportunity to learn about ice, freezing and melting. A few years ago we made some and shared our learning story, as we watched them melt and freeze.

How to Make an Ice Ornament

You will need

Baking trays
Ribbon or string
Food colouring (optional)

Step 1.

Choose a baking /cup cake tray and fill each hole with cold water.

Step 2

Add a drop of food colouring – mix or leave to mix itself which can leave a marbled effect.

Step 3

Snip pieces of ribbon or string and submerge one end in the water, making sure the other end is free. You could loop the string but I prefer to leave it as it makes it easier to tie to larger branches. I usually do this part outside to avoid spilling when you move them to freeze.

Step 4

Leave outside overnight to freeze (or put the tray in your freezer).

Step 5

Hang on a bush or tree. If there is snow on the ground the food colouring will drip onto the snow as they melt. If there are prolonged freezing temperatures the ornaments will melt slightly and form icicles as they re-freeze.

I wasn’t sure how easily the hearts come out of the tins but they came out without any trouble. If they need a little help, bring them inside for a few minutes or run some warm water on the base of the tin. Alternatively, you could use a silicone mould.

The second batch also included owls and bears. We made half of the owls clear, to see how they would look without colour, but kept the colour in the bears, because my daughter thought they would look like gummy bears.

art, art and crafts, early education & play, snow

Wintery Art Project to Teach Value

December 31, 2018 rightfromthestart Leave a comment

Value in artist’s terms is the darkness or lightness of a colour It gives objects form on the page or in simple terms for young children, it makes a flat shape look 3D.

The goal of this art project for 2nd grade, was to show them how to shade a circle to make it look like a sphere. Since winter is upon us and the class have been reading a lot of books about snow, I chose a snowball.

Introduction

I showed an example drawing and asked them how I had made the circle stand out. They talked about the way I had placed it into the mittens and how I had shaded it. I explained that the darkest shading shoukd be opposite the light source and would gradually get lighter. If they left a spot without shading, it would show how the light was shining on it.

Step 1

Draw around your hand with fingers closed and thumb extended. Decorate using patterns and cut out.

Step 2

Draw the sun using shades of yellow, red and orange chalk pastel. Draw different coloured circles and blend to make a sun. Choose a round sun, a semi-circle or draw it in the corner of the paper.

Step 3

Place the mittens on the centre of the paper and place the snowball under the thumbs. Follow your finger in a diaganol line from the sun to the circle and shade the outer edge where your finger meets in a dark shade of blue. Continue, getting lighter with each layer and stop after four shades have been used.

Step 4

Blend with finger and cut out.

Step 5.

Glue the mittens and snowball onto the paper and add snowflakes.

The example used a chalk pastel background but I used blue paper for the class to make the snowflakes stand out more.

active learning, early education & play, families, outdoor play, parenting, parents, play, pre schoolers, snow, toddlers, wildlife

20 Outdoor Things to Do Before You are 5

May 20, 2017 rightfromthestart 13 Comments

These Ideas were originally written for Parentmap in 2013

When my eldest daughter was working through the National Trust’s list of ’50 things to do before you are 11 3/4′. I was inspired to create a companion list for my younger children. Some of the challenges on the National Trust list, like picking wild blackberries were easily completed by young children but I felt a list of basic foundational outdoor experiences for babies, toddlers and preschoolers could work alongside it.

I realise that we are fortunate to live in a house with a garden and nature all around us but I tried hard to make the experiences accessible to all, in all weather and without an outdoor space at home. There are many amazing things that young children can experience outdoors, these are the ones I believe are essential .

20 things to do before you are 5.

Splash in a puddle: Put on your rain boots and/or waterproof trousers and splash in puddles large, small and muddy.
Blow a dandelion clock : counting out the hours of the day as you blow
child blowing a dandelion clock
Play in sand: In a sand box, at the park or at the beach. Playing with sand needn’t be limited to building sandcastles. Explore wet and dry sand, fill containers, hide things in the sand, draw in it with a stick or make a dinosaur swamp.
Sand play
Walk through crunchy autumn leaves: You could also catch some from the trees as they fall, take them home and print with them or make a crunchy collage.
Catch blossom from a tree.
Play in the snow: If snow is thin on the ground head out to a snow park or if you live in a country where you don’t have snow, set up some icy play in the sunshine.
I just want to lie in it
Grow a flower from a bulb or a seed: Guess the colour of the flower that will grow or grow a tall sunflower and measure it as it grows.
Ride a tricycle, bicycle or scooter.
Make a mud pie: You could even build a mud kitchen using old pans and kitchen utensils.
Walk barefoot on grass, mud or sand: Walking barefoot helps children to balance and strengthens muscles in the foot. It is also a great way to stimulate the senses and talk about different textures.
Collect natural materials from the woods, beach or park: Collect shells, leaves, pinecones or seeds. Put double sided tape on a pair of boots or a hat and help the children collect items to stick on. Use them to make pictures, sculptures or for small world play.
Go on a bug hunt: Dig for worms, look in dark places or watch spider webs wet with dew.
I found a beetle.
Play with a stick: Sticks can be swords, fairy wands or pencils. We have a huge collection outside our front door as our only rule is ‘No sticks in the house’.
Let’s see how many ‘Y’ sticks we can find.
Go for a walk in the woods.
Paddle barefooted in the ocean, lake or stream: If your budget or location doesn’t allow you to get to the seaside, lake or stream, paddle barefooted in a puddle.
Play Pooh sticks.
Throw and kick a ball: Start with large balls and as children get older experiment with different shapes and sizes.
Throw the ball at the trampoline and see if you can bounce it into the tub.
Go fruit picking: At a farm or pick wild berries in the woods or park.
Run in an open space.
Chase and blow bubbles.
small bubbles

My little ones are over 5 now but still their favourite thing to do is climb the tree in our front garden, make a mud pie or potion (my 8-year-old carried a pot of gooey mud home from school yesterday) or collect and create with sticks, petals and stones.

What would be on your list?

early education & play, Life in the US, outdoor play, parenting, Seattle, snow

Playing Outdoors in Winter

January 17, 2017 rightfromthestart 3 Comments

Rolling a snowball Children always look forward to snow days but when it is cold but there isn’t any snow or only a smattering it isn’t always as enticing.

My children love playing with ice – so we often leave water in their water table or allow rain water to collect in containers. They are always keen to go outside on icy day to investigate how solid the ice is and I often find strange deposits of ice in my freezer.

On New Years Eve, it snowed. In the morning there was a smattering of snow left on the ground and the girls headed out to make tiny snow men. They took carrots from the fridge and borrowed our dogs Santa hat.

In the haze of a tired New Years Day afternoon, my youngest asked if we could go for a walk. We headed along the trail. She started to make a snowball, it was quite big and heavy .

We continued along the trail and found a stick. The snowball was the perfect place to store it.

The stick was perfect for knocking snow from the branches of trees that were just out of reach.

We started to roll the snowball.

“Maybe we could roll it back to the house and use it to make a snowman” my daughter suggested.

It seemed a good idea at the time but rolling an ice impacted snowball uphill and sometimes through patches without snow was the best new year’s exercise I’ve had in a long time.

We had a base for a very dirty snowman.

We added a middle.

and a head.

The finished result.

Proof that you don’t need a lot of snow to have fun.

It has stayed cold all week, so the snow hasn’t melted and even the little snowmen are still there. Last winter we visited the storm pond when it was icy. the children tried to break the ice with sticks but it wasn’t thick enough to stand on.

This week for the first time it has been frozen enough to stand on and even get the sledges out. Every day after school, the girls would meet their friends at the pond. Convinced that it was solid, I allowed my daughter to use her ice-skates on the pond. This was a first for all of us and very exciting.

My youngest found a flat round piece of ice that looked like a puck – if the weather stays cold it would be fun to find sticks and play ice hockey or grab a broom and a big piece of ice for curling. Much better than when we tried a Winter Olympics without any snow!

Christmas, days out, expat, holidays, Life in the US, outdoor play, Seattle, snow

Leavenworth in Winter

November 18, 2016 rightfromthestart 1 Comment

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Last year was our first trip to Leavenworth during the Winter. We have visited a number of times in the summer and had heard great things about the Christmas lights, so decided to take a trip. The Christmas lighting festival takes place during the first three weeks of December. There are plenty of activities at the festival and the girls loved seeing Santa and Mrs Christmas.

santa 2015

It gets very busy, so parking can be difficult. If you prefer to go when it is quieter,the lights remain lit until February. We took another trip with guests after Christmas, which personally I preferred as it wasn’t so crowded.

Leavenworth is the perfect place to find snow. Take your sledges with you and go down the hill in the town centre. It is pretty bumpy so your sledge may not survive evidenced by the pile of broken plastic sledges at the bottom of the hill at the end of the evening. Surprisingly, the sledges we brought over from the UK survived, but the ones we bought here cracked. sledging in leavenworth

On our first visit we weren’t quite prepared for how cold it would be. We took our dog , who shivered the whole time and since we arrived in the evening for the lights, we really needed an extra layer of clothing. On our next visit we came fully prepared with our ski gear and left the dog at home.

Ski hill was the perfect place for my eldest to try out her snow board for the first time. Our guest skied on the larger slope and the younger ones tried out tubing.

The view was spectacular too. When we had all had too much cold, we had hot drinks at the lodge on the hill and warmed ourselves by the fire.

I think if I were to go again, I would book early for an overnight stay. A day trip is fine in the Summer but I think a warm fire, hot drink and comfortable bed nearby would top off the day perfectly.

active learning, children, early education & play, outdoor play, play, sensory play, snow, wildlife, woods

A Natural Playground

April 24, 2015 rightfromthestart 9 Comments

Young children have an immense curiosity about the natural world – the challenge is to stop them from losing it! Nurture that precious sense of wonder …….. A little empathy and enthusiasm is all you need to encourage children to appreciate wild places.

( Nature’s Playground)

There is even frost on the leaf

Natural environments offer opportunities for adventure, which build confidence and instill bravery.

Take time to stop and explore. Rushing children along to the next thing, denies children the opportunity to make their own discoveries.

Using natural materials creatively helps us to appreciate them in new ways.

Wild places provide opportunities for quiet reflection.

Finding creatures in their natural environment encourages respect and reduces fear.

holding a frog Explore all types of weather. Rain, snow, wind and sunshine offer many different experiences.

Allow children time to be immersed in their experiences and they will adapt natural materials, weaving them into their own imaginative worlds.

Sometimes nature is cruel but when children come across these things in the wild, it promotes discussion and allows them to navigate difficult concepts in a meaningful way.

We found a dead birs in the garden. How did it get there? What shuld we do with it? We buried it under a tree. — We found a dead bird in the garden. How did it get there? What should we do with it? We buried it under a tree.

Being in a natural environment offers children opportunities to develop physical skills, through climbing , negotiating space, moving on different surfaces, reaching, touching and many more.

Explore with all of your senses.

I'm going to have a shower. I'm getting very wet, now the rain is staying on me. — I’m going to have a shower. I’m getting very wet, now the rain is staying on me.

If I need a little encouragement to go outside I only need to look at the joy, concentration and contemplation on my children’s faces.

If you need further inspiration I recommend reading Nature’s Playground.

This is not a sponsored post the book mentioned is a personal recommendation only.

early education & play, olympics, outdoor play, play, pre schoolers, snow, Uncategorized

Winter Olympic Themed Play

February 9, 2014 rightfromthestart 4 Comments

My regular readers may remember that during the London 2012 Olympics we staged our own Olympics in the garden. Record low temperatures have arrived at the perfect time for us to stage our own Winter Olympics.

We built skis and bobsleigh for the Lego men and took them out onto the frozen water table. I also put a small layer of water in the paddling pool to make an ice rink ( a difficult task since the hose was frozen).

And to add to the fun, today we had a snow day.

Even if you don’t have snow or ice many of our events have been staged on grass or indoors. Mirrors are great for creating ice rinks for Lego men or small figures, car tracks make good ski slopes and hard wood floor and socks are perfect for ice skating events.

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To find out more about our Winter Olympic Events check out Staging a Backyard Winter Olympics for Kids.

art and crafts, early education & play, Life in the US, outdoor play, play, pre schoolers, Seattle, sensory play, snow

Snow Day: Ideas for Playing in the Snow

December 21, 2013 rightfromthestart 10 Comments

A snow day is always a treat but after a few days off school, enthusiasm wanes. Try some of these snow day play activities to keep your kids entertained.

Sledging

Sledging is always great fun, it was always my favourite snow activity as a kid. You could shake it up a bit with some Winter Olympic themed bobsledding. Lie on your front while being pushed down the hill shouting oy, oy, oy. You could race one another too.

Snowmen

See if you can roll a really big ball to make a body. Sometimes kids find this difficult but if you I start it off and everyone joins in to help, it is lots of fun.

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Make a baby snowman and pull it along on a sledge.

Add accessories such as buttons, hats and scarves or Mr Potato Head features.

Even without much snow you can make miniature snowmen and add an origami hat.

Snow Painting

Fill glitter sprinklers or herb containers with powder paint. Little ones enjoy sprinkling it around while older children draw pictures in the snow. You could use fingers or sticks to draw and colour them in.

Make a snow angel and colour it with paint.

Paint a snow sculpture

Build a snow sculpture and add colour with block water colours painted on with brushes. You could also paint pictures on the snow.

Winter Olympic Fun

It can be great fun to stage events from the Winter Olympics. Ice hockey, curling, skating and skiing are fun events to try even without snow but with snow on the ground they are even more fun.