Snow is not a common occurrence here in the Willamette Valley so when it does happen it's a lot of fun...for a little while. We have actually gotten snow twice this week, but since almost everyone in my house is a little under the weather we haven't spent too much time out in the snow and freezing temps. Being inside a lot forces me to either get creative or turn the TV on (which happens too). Yesterday I made a fun pairing of some winter themed books and snow-inspired science activities. We had so much fun I thought I'd share!
First up, the books. I collected all the snow/winter themed books I could find, including:
The Snowy Day
Winter
Why Do The Seasons Change
The Snow Bear
Let's Go Home, Little Bear
The Snowy Day (from the Usborne weather collection)
I planned to read and then do the science activities, but O had other ideas so we did science first. Our first experiment was to make a snow storm in a jar.
You'll need:
Water
Baby oil
White paint
Glitter
A jar
Alka-Seltzer
You can find full instructions here. It was really fun!
We added Alka-Seltzer tabs one at a time and once that one died down we would add another - we did about 6 tabs total until it finally over-flowed.
Once the fun of that fizzled out (ha ha! pun intended) we moved on to one of O's all time favorite experiments, microwaved ivory soap! I love this one too and it's so easy. Put a bar of ivory soap (it HAS to be plain old ivory soap or it doesn't work) in a microwave safe bowl. We usually start the microwave for 2 minutes and just keep an eye on it. Once it's all done expanding we take the bowl out (careful, it will be HOT) and let it cool a little.
Let's pause for a minute to explain why it does this, shall we? Before Ivory is formed into bars it's whipped so there's a lot of extra air in it. When it's heated the air expands and voila...crazy soap!
Ok, back to the fun. I dump the soap on a cookie sheet and give O a small bowl of water and some fun little tools (we LOVE these). While he played with the soap I read some of the winter themed books. It was a great mellow, but engaging activity for a cold afternoon with my two little ones.
Clean-up with the soap activity is pretty easy - I just rinsed everything off in the shower!
I hope you enjoy this book & activity pairing and that it helps you pass the time until spring!
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