Snow Days

We have been blessed with beautiful white snow this week....more than I expected and just the right amount to have loads of fun. 

When I first heard of the snow, I ran to my computer and "googled" like crazy 'snow lessons, snow experiments, snow day fun.' If it had the word  snow in it, I probably "googled" it. After the first hour went by, I thought, "this is crazy... I have to just pick some stuff and do it." After the second hour went by, I decided I would just have to choose three things and that was that. 

One of the things  I looked up was some information about Inuit's and how they built igloos to shelter themselves from the snow. I was amazed to learn about the insulating properties of igloos and thought it would be fun to build our own and then test the temperature outside and inside and compare. We did really well the first hour.... we were able to build half the igloo structure. However, hands were getting cold so I thought it would be best to go inside, have some hot cocoa, and dry our snow clothes. When we went back outside to complete our igloo, the consistency of the snow seemed to have changed... our packable snow that made great snow bricks turned into a white powdery snow that just would not form into blocks, so our aspirations of an igloo turned into a really cool fort that became the base during our snowball fights.

One positive aspect about the snow turning all powdery is that it made great-tasting snow cream. We had a lot of fun making and eating our snow cream and I was able to create a couple of free downloads to go along with this activity:

The first download is a snow cream recipe sequencing set. The set allows the child to recreate the recipe in the proper sequence and then check himself/herself with a control card. I also created snow cream ingredient nomenclature cards to practice our vocabulary skills. Both sets are available for free on my Free Download page (scroll to bottom of page) at Montessori For Learning.

This set shows the picture of our snow cream when I limited the food coloring to just two colors. I'm not going to post the pictures of the snow cream which I allowed them to use whatever coloring they wanted.... it didn't quite look like snow, or actually anything I would want to eat, but they had fun and that is what really matters!



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Pink Level Picture Labeling (Two-Three Letter Phonetic Words)

I still cannot believe how amazed I am at how easy my children learn to read using the Montessori materials. It is just like it absorbs naturally in their brain. I love seeing the little lights flash in their eyes as they see the letter sounds they learn form into words they know. It also makes me smile to see how proud they are of being able to read.

My littlest angel is learning 2-3 letter phonetic reading. Her face gleams with pride and confidence as she sounds out the word and then spots the picture of the word. She even does a little "clap dance" after she is done. I have the download of the pictures and labels already created at www.montessoriforlearning.com so you can use them today!