Brrrrr!  It has been cold this week, hasn’t it?  While we haven’t been able to play outside, it hasn’t stopped us from learning a little bit more about wintertime: specifically snow and ice!

An important part of our snow investigation involved a discussion on the states of matter.  We talked about words such as solid, liquid and gas, ice, water, and steam.  This led us in to talking the water cycle, and how temperatures in winter can affect it (Life Cycle of a Snowflake).  We’ve talked about the temperature water freezes at and what affects it.  The children experimented with adding sugar and salt to cups of snow to see if adding substances to snow would have any effect on how rapidly it melts.  They were very excited to see how much more quickly salt made the snow melt. This led to a discussion of how we might use this information to keep our roads and driveways safer.

Then, since it was too cold to play outside, we brought winter inside!  After examining the snow and looking for snow flakes and ice crystals with magnifying glasses, the students made snowballs and tried to make miniature snowmen. Little hands got cold quickly as they played with the snow, and we talked about how much warmer the temperature of our bodies is compared to the temperature of the snow.

At first the snow was very powdery.  Although It took a little while, the snow finally warmed up enough to stick together!

After playing with it for a bit, we decided to have some artistic fun with it.
​Did you know that you can paint snow?

What happens when we hold it under running water?

So much fun to watch it disappear! Everyone wanted a chance to try it!

We also extended our winter theme into other areas of our classroom.  Winter play dough with glitter and snowflake cookie cutters was a big hit.  Snowflake shape puzzles were also an interesting way to reinforce shapes and notice how we can find different shapes in everyday objects. Both acitivites were excellent fine motor practice!

Learning together about the wonderful world we live in is so much fun!