Melting marshmallow snowmen in preschool

Posted on December 23, 2016 by The SEEDS Network

I saw these adorable snowman treats on The Amazing Mess blog – so I made a bunch for myself and bagged them up as small gifts. But then I thought – this was so easy and fun … the kids would LOVE this! And even though making these are fun (and tasty) – there were other ways to extend this activity so that the children learn a little something along the way, too!

Decorate your snowman

So first, here’s how to make the edible melting snowmen. Take a marshmallow and make a snowman face using food coloring markers (these are very easy for adults AND children to work with – and it’s edible). You can find these in a local craft store that sells cake decorating supplies.

Then, place it on top of one striped cookie (you can substitute other types of cookies, like graham crackers or nilla wafers if you do not wish to have any chocolate on the cookie – but for me, it’s ALWAYS about the chocolate! Ok, I digress!).

Extend the activity with a story

As I was making my snowmen I thought … what BOOKS could I use to go with these? Maybe a little backwards in my usually thinking (usually the book comes first, then the activity). But the main concept is the melting of the snowman, and there are lovely children’s books that go with this theme and can lead to further discussion. A few books I liked were The Smiley Snowman, Where do Snowmen go? or Snowmen at Night. You can have a discussion about what happens to snowmen when the weather gets warm (they melt) and talk about why that happens.

Watch him MELT!

Allow children to make their own marshmallow snowman and put it on top of one cookie. Then, ask them what they think will happen to THEIR marshmallow snowman if you put them in the microwave or oven. If their snowmen get hot, what will happen to them? And there you can touch upon the scientific concept of melting (properties of matter) and have them make predictions.

Next, SHOW them what happens by putting their cookie/snowman in the microwave for 10 seconds. When it comes out – it will be like a melted snowman! (They will really get a kick out of this!) . Top off with another striped cookie, and it’s time to enjoy!

Gift idea

These can also be put together as gifts for the children to give (or gifts you can make to give) by putting them in plastic baggies and attaching the melted snowman.

The tags are designed so that you can get 6 tags per sheet, and that when you attach them, the microwave instructions fold over the top of the plastic bag and display on the back.

Find more SNOWY ideas for preschoolers

Check out our Pinterest page!

Painting with snow and other fun snowy activities!

Posted on January 2, 2015 by The SEEDS Network

If you are lucky enough to live somewhere with winter weather – you can bring the outdoor in for a little snow day fun! Painting with (and ON) snow is a fun way to let children explore concepts of color mixing and the scientific properties of snow.

First, we scooped up a small bucket of clean snow and brought it inside (if you scoop your snow before you are ready to use it, then you’ll need to keep it in the freezer until you are ready). We put snow into small bowls for children to use while watercolor painting. Instead of using cups of water — children wet their paint brushes with the snow. We discussed what snow is made from (water) – and how as the snow gets warmer inside it will start to melt (properties of matter). Using the snow instead of water keeps the brushes from getting TOO wet, and makes the watercolor pictures more vibrant, as well.

Inevitably, as the children cleaned and wet their brushes on the snow, the snow started to turn colorful. So we explored some color mixing in the process. In the end, many children enjoyed painting the snow more than their pictures! So we brought out some bowls and scooped some snow for children to paint on individually.

Another way one class did some indoor snow painting was by using liquid watercolors in cups and had the children dip their brushes in the colors and painted on the snow.

If you don’t have SNOW where you live …

We are fans of Insta-Snow / Super Snow, to make your own “snow-like” experience! It has a cool texture to it, and a small amount of powder makes a good portion of snow that lasts quite awhile.

While we were at the NAEYC conference in Atlanta, Discount School Supply had a booth with some Insta-Snow mixed in with opal glitter and coloring (very pretty).

Other SNOWY activities and art projects

If you search on “snow” in our Idea Search Tool … you’ll find a lot of fun snowy activities (many requiring materials OTHER THAN snow!).

You can also check out our Snowy PINTEREST board for more art and educational ideas related to snow!

Stackable Christmas trees

Posted on December 4, 2013 by The SEEDS Network

I love, love, LOVE the story “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree”! It’s a great seasonal story about how one BIG Christmas tree became a gift for many people and animals. The rhymthic flow of the story is fun to read, and when I read it to my kids or in class, they love how the top of the tree gets a “snip”!

Mr. Willowby’s Christmas tree Came by special delivery.
Full and fresh and glistening green—
The biggest tree he’d ever seen.

The Story

In the story “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree“, Mr. Willowby’s tree was so tall, it couldn’t stand up straight in his parlor. Mr. Willowby asked his butler to chop off the top of the tree. And through the rest of the story, we follow the treetop as it gets shared. I searched for a fun activity that preschoolers could do to go with this story. I wanted something special that went with the story – and found this stackable tree idea from Bella Dia.

The Activity

This activity provides children a tangible way to see how you can take ONE part of a tree and break it down into smaller trees. It demonstrates how shapes can be used to build upon each other to make something bigger or smaller – and how shapes can be used to create other shapes. Beforehand, I constructed one stackable tree to use as I read the story. Each time Mr. Willowby’s treetop gets a chop … I took a piece off tree, so the children can see how the one big tree can be broken down into smaller parts. It really got their attention to see me take a piece of my paper tree off each time Mr. Willowby’s treetop got a snip!

Afterwards, the children got to make their own stackable tree. First, I cut 4-6 half circles of various sizes out of green construction paper. Each child got 1 set of the half circles to decorate as they wished with stickers and markers (you should use only flat embellishments, so that the tree will stack properly).

Once the children have decorated their tree, I showed them how the 2-dimensional half circle can be curled/folded to create a 3-dimensional cone shape and taped it to secure. After doing this for each of the half circles – the children had fun stacking and unstacking their own Christmas tree! And it was a great way for them to remember the story!

I’m sharing this post with two great blog hops:

Read.Explore.Learn at JDaniels4’s Mom – visit to see great book choices and activities to go with them!

AND

Visit Debbie Clement’s Happy Birthday Blog Hop (Rainbows Within Reach)! Stop by and wish Debbie a “Happy Birthday” and visit all the fun ideas that are linked up below!!

Snowman pancakes

Posted on January 21, 2012 by The SEEDS Network

First … here’s my disclaimer – I can take absolutely NO credit for this idea. Outside our window this morning is the first significant snow of the winter (unusual for here in Connecticut). So, my 6 year old bounces down the stairs with big plans of what she’ll do outside later today. And then, it hits her … “Hey, maybe Daddy can make me a snowman pancake with chocolate chips. He can make one big circle and then a smaller one and smaller one!”. (Notice how she said “Daddy” would make the pancakes … that is his usual Saturday morning job. What a good girl!).

So after Daddy braves the snow to go out and buy pancake mix (“what a good Daddy”) – he sets out to make these. Putting the chocolate chips on before he flips them … it looks like this:

After it flips, it didn’t look quite as snowman-ish (hence, he wouldn’t let me take a picture). So now, I try to get into the act and suggest we put on chips afterwards … so here’s my attempt at a snowman face:

I used some red food coloring gel for the nose – it was all we had available. Other alternatives to decorate the snowman would be to use M&Ms, raisins, blueberries and maybe cut a strawberry or small orange slice for the nose!

Any other suggestions on what could be used instead that would taste good with the pancake?

No matter … before we could come up with other topping choices, the pancakes were gone!!

Make a hibernation book in preschool

Posted on January 10, 2012 by The SEEDS Network

During the winter months, you can teach young children about hibernation and where/how/which animals hibernate. This activity focuses on concepts of science (nature, animals) and literacy(knowledge of books and print, reading and writing, story comprehension). This also provides children with an experience to practice fine motor skills(drawing/writing).

A great way to start of an activity like this is with a book! There are many great children’s books about hibernation, such as “Don’t Wake the Bear” by Marjorie Dennis Murray, “Hibernation Station” or “Bear Snores On“. You can start by reading one of those books with your child/children – and then make your own book about hibernation. Not only will they learn something about the animals and how they hibernate – but this early literacy activity can provide an experience for children in making their own book.

Start off by determining which animals you want to discuss or that the children want to learn about. In our class, we talked about bears, frogs and chipmunks. You can start by printing some of the page templates we created – or you can print/write your own.

Next, find some animal clipart to print or cut from a magazine. Our book focused more onWHERE the animal was hibernating, so the children drew/illustrated the location, rather than the animal itself. Depending on what you want to focus on, you can change that accordingly.

Children/teachers would read each page, then the child would illustrate the hibernation location and then glue on the animal. For additional writing practice, children can then trace/write the WORD that represents the hibernation location (ie. “cave”, “pond”, “ground”).

Our last page was more open-ended, and allowed the child to think about where he/she would hibernate if they were an animal! Children can draw/dictate/write what they feel. You can have children glue on a picture of themselves to finish off the book!

Open-ended winter art in preschool

Posted on December 7, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

Today we brought in some seasonal items from nature along with some play dough … and just let the children have at it! We used winter nature items from our area, such as pinecones and pine branches. Since I still had some extra scented pinecones – we used those. Some of the pine branches also had a good pine scent – so this was definitely a sensory experience for the hands, eyes AND nose!

Each child had a ball of play dough, a pinecone and a couple of small pieces from a pine branch to start off. We have various types of pine trees in our area, so we used a variety. I didn’t tell the children what to do with them. Most realized very quickly that they can make the pinecone and pine branches stand upright by using the play dough as a base. Other children noticed how they can make imprints of the pinecone in the play dough. And still others tried covering their pinecone entirely with the play dough.

Then, I added a few other sensory items … some cotton balls and seasonal colored macaroni and white glitter beads. Of course, I was thinking that they could make a snowy scene with the materials. But, instead they made their own creations – some used the cotton balls to look like snow – others realized that the cotton would “stick” to the play dough. Some used the colored macaroni to decorate the pinecone. Others simply smashed the macaroni into the play dough.

One child realized the pine needles looked like quills and made a porcupine! It really didn’t matter what they did – they very much enjoyed the process and creating their own masterpiece!

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Category Archives: Winter