Tot School: Winter

I love the holidays, but I am EXHAUSTED! I’m so over traveling, partying and never ending holiday to do lists and ready to get back into a bit of a routine around here. We had lots of snowy fun this week that I can’t wait to share with you!

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    Here were our plans for Winter Week:

  And here are the details of each activity:

Our favorite winter books for the week were: The Mitten by Jan Brett Under My Hood I Have a Hat by Karla Kuskin The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Nietzel The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats Snowmen at Night by Carayn Buehner

Build a Snowman:

  We used this little snowman last year as one of our very first tot school fine motor activities and it was a big hit so I pulled it back out this year.  The goal is to fill the water bottle with mini marshmallows. Last year we just used fingers, but now that Madelynn is a whole year older I added the tongs for her to grab marshmallows. She used them for a while and then started using her hands. Either way great fine motor practice!

 Snowball Counting Tray:

  Since mini marshmallows make the perfect little “snowballs” we used them for our counting tray as well. We used a mini ice cube tray and tongs then practiced counting and placing marshmallows in each hole.

Snowball Name:

  This was such an easy low prep activity.  I taped 2 sheets of paper together since Madelynn’s name is nice and long. Then I wrote her name with large letters and gave her some white circle labels and hole reinforcements.  She then used the stickers to trace the shape of each letter.

Puffy Paint Snowman:

In order to paint these snowmen, I used a simple DIY recipe to mix up a batch of puffy paint.

Puffy Paint Recipe:
Equal parts shaving cream and white glue
Pinch of glitter
A few drops of vanilla for scent

After painting, I gave Madelynn small paper cutouts to use to decorate her snowman.

 Marshmallow Paint Snowman:

I like to switch up our painting tools from time to time, and since we had all kinds of marshmallows laying around from our other activities, I thought it would be fun to use them to stamp a snowman.  Madelynn started out stamping, then used them more as a paintbrush to create her snowman. After painting we added a few felt snowflake stickers to finish our artwork.

Snowball Fight:

We brought the snowball fight action indoors with this easy gross motor activity. I crumpled up lots and lots of white scrap paper and spread it around the room. Then I yelled “snowball fight” and it was game on!  The best part about using crumpled paper is that it is really hard to throw hard so no one gets hurt!

Snowball Toss:

I couldn’t throw away all those scrap paper snowballs just yet, so I came up with another way to play. For our snowball toss I set out a few metal tubs for Madelynn to toss them into.  Throwing is not her favorite gross motor activity so after she got bored with that I had her hold the tub and try to catch the snowballs as I threw them.

Snow Shoveling:

  Time to get this girl trained young that here in Wisconsin shoveling snow is a family affair.  Without snow on the ground outside, we practiced shoveling indoors with out paper snowballs again.  Madelynn scooped them up in the shovel and tried to fill the metal tub.

Build a Snowman:

  Of course we could build a snowman outside when we have the snow, but I mean how cute is this indoor snowman? I have an Amazon Prime addiction so we always have a million boxes laying around.  To prep this activity, I took 3 different sized boxes and wrapped then with the white side of a roll of wrapping paper facing out. Next, I wrapped a small box in black construction paper for a hat. Then, I cut out red and black circles and a carrot shape for the face  and buttons.  Finally we added a scarf for a finishing touch. Madelynn stacked the boxes largest to smallest to build the snowman, then used all of the decorations to bring her snowman to life. I even cut holes in the sides of the middle box to use wrapping paper tubes for arms!

Snowball Number Hunt:

If you have been following along with our past tot school themes, you know I love a good letter/number hunt.  This week we hunted for number snowballs and recorded them on our clipboard page as we found them.

Snow Theme Snacks:

Snowman Popcorn Cups – Draw a snowman face on a clear plastic cup.  Fill the cup with popcorn.
Snowman Quesadilla– Use circle cookie cutters to create the 3 parts of the snowman body. Add peppers, black olives, and pretzels for the decorations.
Donut Snowman – Lay 3 powdered sugar donuts on the plate.  Add chocolate chips, licorice, Oreo, and a Reese’s cup for the decorations.
Veggie Snowman – Use 3 cucumber slices to make a snowman body. Add carrots, peppers, and black olives for decorations.
Marshmallow Snowflakes – Push 4 pretzel rods into big marshmallows. Press 4 pretzel sticks into mini marshmallows. Push all 8 sticks into a large center marshmallow.

Winter Sensory Bin:

  In this bin: Cotton Balls, Bells, Foam Snowflakes, Star Lights, Bowls, Scoops and Tongs

Build a Snowman Bin:

  In this bin: “Snow,”  pipe cleaners, buttons, googly eyes, black pom poms, sticks

  To make the pretend snow mix together 2 cups baking soda, 1/2 cup water, and glitter in a small bowl. Pop the bowl in the freezer for a bit so it has a chilly feel to it. Don’t make the same mistake I did and forget about it though! I left the bowl in the freezer too long and the water completely froze so we had to wait a good 30 minutes for it to thaw before it was no longer a hard brick of ice.

Pretend Snow Play:

  In this bin: Instant Fake Snow, clear snowman cup, scoops, and snowman cookie cutters

Build a Snow Globe:

  In this bin: Artificial Snow, plastic tubes, small trees, penguin and snowmen mini erasers, and scoops

Snow Shape Pasta Sensory Bin:

  In this bin: Snow Shape Pasta, sorting tray, tongs, measuring cups and spoons

Want all of this week’s Winter activities for tot school?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Winter Plans & Printables On TpT: Winter Plans & Printables

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Tot School Bundle On TpT here: Tot School Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Tot School Curriculum Main Page.