Week 20-21 The Snowy Day

   So, this post has been a long time coming.  We've been busy around here planning birthday parties (will post on this later!), getting our home ready to sell and fighting the winter crud!  So, needless to say, Mommy School has taken a back seat.  Hopefully, we will be up and running again soon.  A warning in advance, this is going to be a long post, so I apologize!

   The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is a book about a little boy who awakens to freshly fallen snow.  He puts on his snowsuit and goes out for a day of fun!  We rowed this book for 2 weeks, as our first week we didn't have much snow.  Thankfully, the second week was full of snow!  All of the books that we used to go along with our study are below:

   To start our week, I thought we would do a simple science experiment.  In the story, Peter (the little boy) has a dream that the sun will melt all the snow.  So, we decided to melt some ice cubes!  I gave them four different surfaces to melt the ice cubes on and told them to predict which cube would melt first.

 Their predictions:

Our "time lapse" photo's below:

   I couldn't believe that "C" got his predictions right!  I thought for sure the ice cube on the salt would melt first.  It was a fun (but long) experiment.  It was good to have something to do in between the ice melting!  We worked on this printable activity (from Homeschool Creations).  Cutting/sorting/pasting clothing into the appropriate category:

 
Next, we decided to reproduce one of the pages in the story.  After reading a few of our go along books (on snow), we used puffy paint, a 50/50 mixture of white glue & shaving cream, to recreate puffy snow.  Getting their paint on and the final product with Peter:

The book talks about making tracks with your feet.  I put some flour in a container for the boys to play in and use different animals/toys to make tracks (Thor & Spiderman made some great tracks!):

   There were several pictures in the book with individual falling snowflakes.  We read a couple of our books on snowflakes and how they are formed.  Then we grew our own!  Our 2nd science experiment for the week:  growing borax crystals.  We made our snow flakes out of pipe cleaners, then mixed the borax/water solution in a mason jar, added our snowflake, and waited/watched.  Overnight, we had grown lots of crystals!

    We also made snowflakes, old school style...with paper & scissors:

"B's" snowflake

"C's" snowflake

   Then, enjoyed a snowflake lunch complete with hot chocolate to wash it down:

   For another art project, we talked about what a collage was and how the author uses a collage style to illustrate his books.  We read Peter's Chair to look at the illustration's as well.  I gave them a whole bunch of tissue paper scraps and told them that they could use the scraps to make whatever they want.

"B's" picture.  He said it was of Peter sitting in the bathtub holding a snowball.  I can see it!

"C's" picture.  He told me it was of him and me having a snowball fight.

OUTDOOR FUN!!

    Our first snowy day had nice big flakes, but we never had any accumulation:

"C" catching snowflakes & "B" hitting a not so snow-covered tree.

   

   Thankfully, we were provided another snowy day and boy did we have snow!!

It was a great day for making snow angels, tracks going "this way and that", and a snowball fight!

Daddy and Baby "J" also got in on the fun by helping build a snowman.  Baby "J" mostly just ate the snow!

    Finally, we wrapped up our Snowy Day activities with one last science-type experiment.  We talked a little about light and how it is reflected off the snow because the snow is white (vs. a darker color).   I told them that some people who live in places with lots of snow, have to wear special glasses.  We made special snow goggles out of egg cartons (found this idea in the Winter Handbook for Kids) to see if that helped with the glare of the light on the snow:

"C" trying them on (pre-holes)

Looking through the goggles at "B" outside

Not so happy participants...they did NOT find the value of snow goggles!

   We had a really great time with this book!  Link up here with your Five In a Row Fun!!