WINTER WONDERLAND

Happy New Year's Eve!  Here are some other creative January ideas for art, cooking, and centers.

Snow Dough – You can use any play dough recipe for snow dough.  Simply omit the food coloring and let the children knead in iridescent glitter to make it sparkle.  (My favorite dough is: 2 cups flour, 2 cup salt, 2 TB. cream of tartar, 2 TB. vegetable oil, and 2 cups water.  Mix ingredients together in a pan until smooth.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture forms a ball and sticks to the spoon.  Cool and knead.  Store in airtight containers.)

Note!  Make sure children wash hands before and after playing with dough.

Snow Flakes – Let children fold coffee filters in half, then fourths and eighths.  Cut little “bites” out of the folded edges.  Open.  You can make colorful snowflakes by coloring the coffee filters with water soluble markers before cutting them.

Hint!  Make snowflakes out of newspaper, tissue paper, wrapping paper, and other types of recycled paper.

Snow Prints

Let children draw winter scenes on blue construction paper with crayons.  Give them white paint and a sponge or Q-tip to “make it snow.”

Positive and Negative

Fold a sheet of construction paper in half.  Cut three semi-circles similar to the one shown on the fold.  Open.  Explain the positive and negative shapes.  Use the snowman cutouts for some of the games mentioned yesterday.  Tape wax paper to the the back of the negative design as shown.  Let children decorate and the hang on a window.

Ice Skating – Give each child 2 paper plates.  Demonstrate how to place these on the floor and put one foot on each plate.  Slide your feet as if skating.  Put on some waltz music and let the children skate, twist, and turn.  Play “freeze.”  When you stop the music children must “freeze” in their positions.  When the music begins again they may continue to skate.

Snow People – Instead of drawing snow “men,” encourage children to paint or draw snow ladies, snow children, snow pets, and other characters.

Sock Snowman  - You will need a white tube sock and some fiber fill for this project.  Children stuff 3 large handfuls of fiber fill into the toe of the sock to make the snowman’s body.  Tie off with yarn or string.  Stuff 2 large handfuls to make the middle section.  Tie off.  Stuff 1 large handful for the head and tie off at the top.  Invert the top of the sock and pull over the head for a hat.  Children can decorate with markers, felt scraps, etc.  Encourage them to name their snowman and tell a story about what they would do if it were real.

Icebergs  - Fill plastic containers with water.  Add food coloring and freeze.  Place these in your water table and tell the children they are icebergs.  Add walruses, polar bears, and other plastic arctic animals.

Snowman Soup – Fill a plastic zip bag with a package of instant hot chocolate with miniature marshmallows.  Tie on a candy cane with these directions:  “Here’s a little snowman soup – complete with stirring stick.  Add hot water, sip it slow, and it will warm you up real quick!”