Preschool Book Club: The Snowy Day

Last week we embarked on a fun new adventure with 3 of our friends who are also planning to homeschool their kids. The 4 of us came together and started a Mommy & Me Book Club! I hosted the first one at our house and chose the book "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats.

We read the book, had a snack, talked about how snow is formed and then did several activities. I was a little nervous about how it'd go with 5 kids (and 5 more under 2 upstairs!), but it was great!

The Snack:
While I read the book, the kids had a Build Your Own Snowman snack. I used:

• Rice cake for the head
• Raisins, peanuts, almonds, craisins for the eyes/mouth
• Carrot nose
• Fruit strip for a scarf

Some of the foods were new for some of the kids, but they all made some tasty-looking snowmen!

We also read about where snow is made:

Here are the activities we did to go along with the book:

(Sadly I don't have pictures of these first two activities, we were too busy playing along!)
Walking like Peter: We got in a line and walked around the living room with our toes pointed out and our toes pointed in, then we dragged our feet and pretended to drag a stick.

Snow Angels: There was snow outside, but it was REALLY cold that day so we stuck to making snow angels inside. All of the kids picked a spot, laid down and made snow angels on the carpet.

After the angels, we moved into the kitchen. Each kiddo had their own cookie sheet/tray to define their space (and if I'm being honest contain messes!) at the table and another mama and I rotated the activities in and out.

Snowman "S" dot sheet from PreKinders: The purpose of this was to dot the items that started with S and they all got the hang of it pretty quickly. Honestly, the only one that stumped them for a minute was seahorse. The rest they were in unanimous agreement about! After they did the items, they dotted a bit more for fun!

Snowman grid from PreKinders: Using the die, each child rolled and then put the corresponding number of cotton balls on the snowmen. We've done this before by ourselves and I have to say I think Sweet P had a lot more fun/interest doing it with other kids.

Snowy Day scene: I saw this on a few different blogs and thought it was a neat project. They really enjoyed tearing the paper, but in hindsight I probably would've given them a smaller piece of white paper because they wanted to cover their entire piece of blue paper! :) The stamps and gluing were a big hit, and I thought it was neat to see how different each of their scenes turned out.

Snow Play dough: I had 5 animals and several Playmobil people to use to make tracks in the playdough - they also used little plastic snowflakes to make snowflake prints.

More ideas for The Snowy Day:

Homeschool Creations
Mama Jenn
Teaching Heart

Winter Wonderland Blog Hop: 10 Winter-Themed Activities

I'm so excited to present the Winter Wonderland Blog Hop. For the next month (Jan. 13th-Feb. 13th), 35+ bloggers will be posting about a winter-themed activity, craft, recipe or printable. You can find a calendar list at the bottom of this post of the dates and bloggers who'll post on those dates. Each day I'll pop in to update the link to show the title of the blogger's winter-themed activity so check back often to beat the winter doldrums with super fun activities from some amazing bloggers! 

To kick-off the Blog Hop, I'm posting about 10 of our favorite winter activities! 

1. Build Your Own Snowman Muffin Tin Meal - Our favorite muffin tin meal of all time! 

2. Snow Glad We're Friends Cards - Send a card to a friend just for fun!

3. Winter-Themed Sensory Bin - Use rice as snow for a fun way to explore!

4. Coffee Filter Snowman - Perhaps the simplest snowman you'll ever make!

5. Bring Snow Inside! - If it's too cold (or dark) to play outside, bring the snow inside!

6. Simple Snow Play Dough - Try our simple snow play dough recipe!

7. Snow Tracks - Find and explore animal tracks in the snow!

8. Tot School: Snow Edition - Fun ways to learn with snow-themed activities!

9. Fingerprint Snowmen - Make a village of snowmen or turn them into a card!

10. Build a Snowman - Last, but certainly not least go the traditional route and build a snowman in the snow. Find fun items around the house for the face, arms and buttons, or use Mr. Potato Head pieces!

CALENDAR LIST OF POSTS:
January 13th: The Iowa Farmer's Wife - Introduction Post
January 14th: B-Inspired Mama - Snowflake Drop DIY Baby Toy
                    Kid World Citizen - Ice Sun Catchers
January 15th: Love Play Learn - Snowman Felt Story Board & Song
January 16th: KC Edventures - Fun with Kids Books and Winter Activities
                    Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails - Winter Bath for Kids
January 17th: Milk and Cuddles - How to Make Snow
January 18th: Putti's World - Craft Foam Snowman
January 19th: Nurture Store - Bake a Snowman - Cake Recipe for Kids
January 20th: Creative Playhouse - Homemade Cold Snow
January 21st: Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Packing Peanut Snowflakes
January 22nd: Teach Preschool - Snowman in a Bag
                     This Reading Mama - Snowflake Window Wonderland
January 23rd: Housing A Forest - Creating Colorful Icicles
January 24th: Royal Baloo - How is Snow Formed?
                    Home Learning Journey - Potato Print Penguin
January 25th: Two Big Two Little - Comparing Different Types of Fake Snow
January 26th: Ready Set Read - Winter Word Work
January 27th: CraftoArt
January 28th: The Outlaw Mom Blog - Easy Sticker Snow Globe
January 29th: JDaniel4s Mom - Snowflake Mobile
January 30th: Creative Family Fun - Polar Bear Masks
January 31st: Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Snowy Day Felt Board
February 1st: Caution! Twins at Play
February 2nd: Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Groundhog Day Round Up
February 3rd: Blog Me Mom - Cotton Rounds Snowman Craft
February 4th: Mama Miss - Snowflake Stained Glass Mobile
February 5th: Living Montessori Now - 25+ Snow-Themed Sensory Tubs
                    Ingles 360 - Playing with Ice
February 6th: Glittering Muffins - Peanut Snowman Magnets
February 7th: The Pleasantest Thing - Winter Song: Today is Monday
February 8th: Here Come the Girls - Create an Inside Winter Wonderland
February 9th: 3 Dinosaurs - Paper Roll Snowman
February 10th: Train Up a Child - Penguin Sensory Bin
February 11th: Little Artists - The New Year of China
February 12th: The Chirping Moms - Snow Inspired Crafts
February 13th: My Nearest and Dearest - Winter Picnic

What's your favorite Winter-themed post? Share your post with us in the comment section!

Summer Bucket List 2012

Eating A Rainbow and a Blog Hop

Today we are excited to be part of a Weather Blog Hop! Please link up your own weather-related posts and be sure to visit other posts and other bloggers who are hosting this Blog Hop!

Yesterday we ate a rainbow! Well, Sweet P did, anyway! I've been thinking about this lunch for a month now and was so excited to create it for her! 

Here's what I used:

Cloud: Greek yogurt
Red: Fresh Strawberries

Orange: Fresh Mandarin oranges and carrots

Yellow: Frozen (thawed) pineapple

Green: Fresh kiwi and spinach leaves

Blue/Indigo/Violet: Fresh blueberries

Pot of Gold: Chopped cheese stick

While she ate we talked about rainbows and how they are made with the help of my handy dandy weather book I found at Goodwill. Did you know a rainbow is what you see when sunlight has been bent and spread apart by millions of falling raindrops? Isn't that cool?

Link up your weather-related post and don't forget to visit a few other posts while you're here! 

I'm hosting this Blog Hop with these other fabulous bloggers! 

NurtureStore :: The Golden Gleam :: Rainy Day Mum :: Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas :: Putti Prapancha :: Sun Hats & Wellie Boots :: Montessori Tidbits :: Kitchen Counter Chronicles :: Reading Confetti :: Dilly-Dali Art :: Growing A Jeweled Rose :: The Iowa Farmer's Wife :: AngeliqueFelix.com :: Kindergarten Basics :: Mommy With A Selective Memory :: Glittering Muffins :: Creative Family Fun :: Living Montessori Now :: Toddler Approved :: Living at the Whitehead's Zoo :: Sense of Wonder :: Make, Do & Friend :: Creative Connections for Kids The Educators' Spin On It :: RainbowsWithinReach :: A Mom With A Lesson Plan :: Creativity my Passion :: Mama Smiles :: Teach Preschool :: JDaniel4's Mom :: The Outlaw Mom Blog :: Mama Mia's Heart2Heart

5 Days of Outdoor Play: Sledding!

We did some sledding in our backyard last year with Sweet P, haven't had enough snow to really go sledding with Sweet P this year. That didn't stop the Farmer from making a sledding slide in the backyard after a great snowfall last week!

Sweet P was unsure about it at first and then wanted to do it again and again! A few days later we played in the backyard snow again and she wanted to slide on her tummy down the sledding slide. It was too funny watching her army crawl down the slide. That girl LOVES the snow!

Have you been sledding this year?

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Outdoor Play: Her First Snowman!

Yep. This is Sweet P's 3rd Iowa winter and she made her very first snowman last Saturday. It snowed aaaallll day long (big huge flakes) and finally stopped shortly before she woke up from her nap. 

The Farmer created an awesome sled slide for her and then they built these awesome snowmen! Her mittens make it hard to do much molding in the snow (Note to self: buy new gloves for Sweet P) so the Farmer did most the work. 

The face of the bigger snowman is geo pegs for eyes, a carrot nose and poker chips for a mouth! 

Give Hugs!

After they made the first one (a girl, of course), they needed to make babies to go along with the mama. We used pumpkin faces to make the faces on the little ones and they look hilarious! 

Did you get snow this week?

Snow Tracks

Know what this is?

Yeah, I didn't either. Until I found more in the yard while Sweet P and I were out playing in the snow. It's a rabbit track! I didn't have my camera while were playing, so by the time I went back out the majority of the tracks had disappeared with the snow so this is the only track left.

This track was hanging out right below our bird feeder we made last week (so far we've seen ZERO birds feeding from it). Think it's the wrong time of year for a bird feeder? Anyway, we found it while checking on our bird feeder. I think this little rabbit smelled the peanut butter on our bird feeder, but couldn't figure out how to reach it!

We followed the tracks around the yard until we got to the fence line and saw the track disappear into the neighbors yard. I was SO excited that we'd found an animal track in the snow! Sweet P wasn't quite as impressed as I was (she wanted to go back to the pile of snow the Farmer shoveled into a flower bed). We also saw paw prints from the neighbor's dog in the yard behind us.

We made some of our own tracks with our boots and Sweet P liked the polka dot print her boots made. I'm actually excited for it to snow again so we can have some deeper snow to play in!

Have you seen any animal tracks in your snow?

Note: We don't live on the farm (yet), we live in town so this was a special treat. These are a regular occurrence at the farm!

Snow Play

We had our first snow fall last Wednesday and my girl was all about playing in it! The first thing she said after she saw it was "Want to go outside?" I piled on her layers and the sweet Farmer took her out to play in the snow while I stayed inside with Baby Brother (I'd say I stayed in where it was warm, but we lost power that day until 2:30pm).

Isn't she the cutest?!

Summer Bucket List

1. Swim at the Y.

2. Play in the fountains.

3. Visit splash parks.

4. Go to the Omaha Zoo.

5. Go to the Omaha Children's Museum.

6. Go to our zoo to see the dinosaur exhibit.

7. Stargaze.

8. Look at fireflies.

9. Visit Saylorville Lake.

10. Make a new friend.

11. Walk to Kate's house.

12. Go to a soccer game.

13. Buy lemonade from a kid stand.

14. Play with our water table at least twice a week.

15. Walk to the library (when it opens back up).

16. Go to the farm.

17. Make popsicles.

18. Go to the Valley Junction Farmer's Market.

19. Go to the Balloon Glow.

20. Have a picnic at least once a week.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for SPRING! It's been a long time in coming and I'm so excited to see here. Of course, today is a bit chilly and rainy, but I'll take it after the the beautiful days we've had. Sweet P and I have loved getting to walk outside and explore nature after being cooped up all winter.

We can't wait to head out to the farm and see what the Farmer's been up to out there. Our trees aren't blooming, yet, but I can't wait to see all those greens, pinks and purples!

What are you thankful for today?

Snow Day

Not that we got a snow day, it was just finally warm enough for us to actually play in the snow. It'd been in the single digits or teens for a week or so until this week hit. And hurray for 30 degree weather!

Really?! Who says that?! Oh right, people who live in Iowa.

So we piled on our snow gear and played out in the backyard. There was a tiny hill where the Farmer has piled all of the snow from our drive so we all took turns going down on our disc sled. It was little, but oh so fun!

Her snow boots are too big so any time she bent over in the snow she'd get stuck and we'd have to help her out a bit.

The Farmer and I couldn't resist joining in the fun.

Tot School: Week 9

Sweet P is 20.5 months old

We tried to get back into the swing of things this week. But things get a little crazy when daddy's still home from work (the joys of working at a college!).

I tried to set out just a few things for her to work with this week since she'd been overwhelmed with toys and such during our vacation. We'd play with those things first and then move on to something else if she still wanted to play downstairs. We also worked on putting something away before we got something else out. She seems to understand this pretty well, but needs to be reminded each time. Her defaults in the basement are 2 books she got for Christmas. They'll be listed at the bottom (because we read them several times this week!).

I bought cookie sheets at Dollar Tree awhile back to use at tot trays. Here's what I put on them this week:

Dry-erase markers and magnets for her easel, My Little Word Book and fruit flashcards I made out of scrapbook paper and fruit from File Folder Fun.

She loves her new easel and had a lot of fun coloring with the dry erase markers. We played several color games with them.

I set out the magnets and let her put them all over the board. Later in the week (no picture), I'd hand her one magnet at a time and tell her the letter or number and she'd put it on the board. When I started doubling them up, she'd find the letter or number like it on the board and put it next to it!

Gammie got Sweet P this cute Bear Dress Up Puzzle for Christmas. The faces have different emotions on them (sad, happy, angry, surprised, sleepy and sick). She really likes this puzzle and the Happy face. I tried setting them in front of her and asking her which one was "happy?" "surprised?" "sick?", but so far she only does happy and sleepy (because anything/one with their eyes closed is "night night").

Fruit Flashcards: She really liked this game. When she first started she went really fast and just put them anywhere so I told her to look at the picture on the card and she got the hang of it. We tried a few variations, but she liked the matching best.

$2 tunnel from Ikea!

Auntie K got Sweet P the coolest book called Round and Round the Jungle (the book we have has a different cover, she got it at Barnes and Noble in the Bargain Books section). It has puzzle pieces that you pull out to make a track for a little toy tiger. It is SO neat. I think I like it just as much as she does! It teaches her so many things at once and she loves that little tiger. When she's ready to put him away she says "night night."

Nana got her a book called Whose Back is Bumpy? with pieces you can pull out that have textured bodies. This book can also go in the bathtub! She really likes the rhino and snake.

We finally played with her felt car mat! She's not quite sure what to do with it, yet. She played with her cars for a few seconds, then wrapped herself up in it like a blanket!

Auntie Kannon also got Sweet P the Melissa & Doug band set. We left the cymbals in Dallas and Gammie just mailed them to us this week so Sweet P went to town. It gets cold in the basement (hence the hat and blanket!).

Snowflake Matching: I printed this from 1+1+1=1's Winter Tot Book. I printed 2 sheets, laminated both, left 1 whole and cut the other into snowflakes. This one was tough for her at first, but after a few tries she got going. After we finished, we made it snow with the snowflake pieces (she now wants it to "noooo!" with all sorts of toys).

Vegetable flashcards: Later in the week I cut/laminated vegetable flashcards like the fruit flashcards from File Folder Fun. This was a great activity to introduce her to other veggies that we don't eat much of like artichokes and radishes. I think these and the fruit will be great for teaching her about healthy foods (the Farmer said we need to make pictures of junk food to teach her the difference, ha).

That was our week last week. This week we are working on the Letter A. See what other tot moms are doing at 1+1+1=1.