Ice/Snow Letters
Ice/snow letters Time: 15-20 minutes + freeze time Materials: Magnetic letters, hot water (optional) Activity: Freeze an assortment of magnetic letters into ice cubes or blocks or pack them in snowballs. Challenge the kids to get the letters out with hot water or by throwing them at a hard surface. Once letters are out, you can […]
Ice Melt Experiments
Ice melt experiments Time: 20-30 minutes Materials: Ice cubes, experiment materials (varies) Activity: Water is special on our planet because it exists as gas (in the air or steam), liquid, and solid (ice). When a solid turns into a liquid, we call that melting. Tell kids you will be doing an experiment on melting ice. […]
Snow Box
Snow box Time: 5-30 minutes Materials: sandbox toys Activity: Like a sandbox, but with snow. Set aside a designated area for sandbox toy snow play. Categories: Sensory, Imaginative Play Back to Library
Frozen Breakouts
Frozen breakouts Time: 10-15 minutes + freeze time Materials: small plastic toys Activity: Freeze small plastic toys into blocks of ice, 1 per kid. Tell kids that their toys have been taken prisoner and they have to break them out! Present kids with a variety of breakout devices (rocks, spray bottles of warm water, toy […]
Snowflake Observations
Snowflake Observations Time: 5-10 minutes Materials: magnifying glasses (optional) Activity: During a snowfall or in an undisturbed area after a fresh snow, catch or pick up snowflakes. Examine the snowflakes up close. Look at the different flake shapes and how they are all different. Discuss how the water vapor in the air freezes to little […]
Ice Ornaments
Ice Ornaments Time: 10-15 minutes + freeze time Materials: flat-bottomed containers (about 6″ x 6″ or equivalent circle works well), string or yarn Activity: Let kids know that you are going to use ice to make art. Since ice is clear, you can see through it and see anything inside. Have kids collect natural items […]
Water-Snow Comparison
Water-Snow Comparison Time: 5-10 minutes + melt time Materials: clear cups, sharpie or tape, measuring cup(s) (optional) Activity: Gather a clear cup (bonus if it’s a measuring cup) of snow and mark the top of the snow with a sharpie or piece of tape. Pour the same amount of water into another cup and mark […]
Evergreen Exploration
Evergreen exploration Time: 10-20 minutes Materials: clippers or scissors, magnifying glasses (optional) Activity: Many parks or houses have different kinds of evergreen trees and bushes planted. Take a field trip and collect small samples from different trees. Take them back to the classroom and examine them. Are the needles or scales short or long, flat […]
Build a Snow Fort
Build a snow fort Time: 5-minutes – 2 hours Materials: smallish boxes or tubs (optional) Activity: Examine a brick wall and how the bricks line up to make the wall. Lay out a circle or rectangle on the ground and mark a doorway. Show kids how to pack snow into a box or tub and […]
Making Tracks
Making tracks Time: 5-20 minutes Materials: Sponges etc (optional) Activity: Notice that when animals cross the snow, they leave tracks. Different animals leave different tracks.On fresh light snow, have kids walk across an area. What do they notice about how the tracks match how they walk? Can we tell how big everyone is from the […]
Blubber Mitten
Blubber mitten Time: 5-15 minutes Materials: quart size ziploc baggies, vegetable shortening Activity: Pre-work. Put about a cup of shortening in a ziploc baggie. Put another baggie into the first baggie and distribute the shortening so that it is a layer between the bags. Ask kids if they have noticed that animals get fat before […]
Abundance through effort: Investing in Future Harvests
Abundance through effort: Investing in Future Harvests The fall colors are fading, summer gardens have been gathered and stored, and hunting season is in full swing. Autumn always reminds me that abundance comes through effort – a lesson the season never fails to teach. This September was my first-ever archery season, and I had my sights set […]
Colored Water Spray Bottle
Colored water spray bottle Time: 5-15 minutes Materials: spray bottles, food coloring Activity: Fill the bottles with water and color the water in each with food coloring. Turn kids loose with the bottles on some clean snow to make winter art. Literacy or match bonus: Use your spray bottles to write numbers or letters. Categories: […]
Make a Trail
Make a trail Time: 15-20 minutes Materials: birdseed, breadcrumbs, or something else to mark a trail, treats (optional) Activity: Have an instructor lay down a trail for kids to follow in an outdoor play area or have one kid set the trail for the rest to follow. Talk about the kinds of trail markers that […]
Pass and Sing
Pass and sing Time: 10-15 minutes Materials: something to pass, bonus if it’s seasonal Activity: Sit outside in a circle. Sing a song or chant a nursery rhyme as a group and use the passing object to mark the beat by tapping it on the ground. You can vary the rhythms, but the simplest is […]
Make a stick maze
Make a stick maze Time: 15-30 minutes 15 minutes prep (optional) Materials: none Activity: Locate a bunch of sticks. Either pre-set a maze for the kids or help them set a maze, using sticks to define the maze lines. Let kids navigate the maze. Reset with a different pattern for a different day or, if […]
Go “Fishing”
Go “fishing” Time: 15-30 minutes Materials: string (optional) Activity: Locate sticks for each kid. Tie long pieces of grass or string to the end of the sticks. Find some water. It could be a stream, lake, ditch, or mud puddle. Let kids “fish” in the water for as long as the imaginative play session lasts. […]
Root Exploration
Root exploration Time: 15-20 minutes Materials: shovels or spades, hose or water Activity: Locate some plants (weedy areas are usually good to get a variety) and dig them up with a spade or shovel, digging deep enough to get most of the roots. Let kids rinse the soil off of the roots gently. Examine the […]
Mud Pies
Mud pies Time: 10-30 minutes Materials: containers, changes of clothes (optional) Activity: Demonstrate making a mud pie. Ask what flavor they think it is. Reinforce that mud is not to be eaten and let kids make mud pies. allowing further development into a broader imaginative play period if that is the natural progression. Categories: Imaginative […]
Leaf Stamping
Leaf Stamping Time: 10-15 minutes Materials: paint, paper plates/tray, paper Activity: Spread a thin layer of paint on a few paper plates in your outdoor area. Have kids collect a variety of leaves. Leaves that still have enough moisture to be flexible work best. Help kids dip one side of the leaf into the paint […]
Nature Mobiles
Nature mobiles Time: 10-15 minutes Materials: string or yarn, hot glue (optional) Activity: Find two sticks (6 inches to 1 foot) in your outdoor area and tie them in an X pattern. Have kids collect objects that they might want to add to their mobile. As you select four items, help kids work through how […]
Bernoulli’s Principle
Bernoulli’s principle Time: 10-15 minutes Materials: bendy straws, ping pong balls Activity: Ask how birds fly. They use their wings and the shape of their wings helps them fly. It is the same thing that helps make airplanes fly. When air moves faster around one side of something than the other, it creates a force […]
Will it Float?
Will it float? Time: 10-15 minutes Materials: large container with water Activity: Ask kids what makes something float. Tell them they will observe what floats and doesn’t and try to find patterns. Have kids collect items that they think will and won’t float. Test each item in the container of water. You can add some […]
Make a migration
Make a migration Time: 15-20 minutes Materials: None Activity: Observe visible groups of migrating birds (ducks, geese) if possible. Use this as a jumping off point to ask why they are moving. Talk about migration, which is animals moving from place to place to avoid the cold and snow of winter and coming back in […]
Help Protect Our Way of Life
We need everyone who values the wild spaces of Wyoming to get involved. Are you ready?