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Where I live we hardly ever have snow, but today we do! So much, that school is closed for the day. Children love being outside so when the heavens give you a beautiful layer of sparkling white snow to explore you’ve got to seize the day, wrap up warm and get out and play.  Here are ten top tips for enjoying the snow  (outside and inside) – and getting some learning in at the same time.

1. Build a snowman, of course. My daughter drew out her design before she started (what a planner!), gathered her materials and directed her team of sculpters to bring her design to life. Great chance for team work and to use problem solving skills (trying to figure out how to make a carrot nose that didn’t keep falling off).

2. Small world play construction site. We raided our sandpit for trucks and lorries and used them to transport snow over to our snowman site, imagining we were builders.

3. Experiment with the science of snow. Put some snow in a few bowls and conduct your own melting test. Where does it melt the fastest – on a radiator, in the fridge, under the bed? How long does it take to melt in each location? Once it’s melted, what happens if your put it back outside or in the freezer? Maths and science in action.

4. Get creative and make some snowmen pictures. You know how much my kids love cottonwool to make snowmen like this and this, but what about a white chalk picture on a blackboard or piece of black card?

5. Get some target practice. Draw a chalk target on an outside wall, line up some snowballs and shoot to score. Award different points for hitting different areas and keep tally with a score chart. Lots of adding up practice.

6. Get baking. Make gingerbread into snowflake shapes and ice them with some white writing icing like the decorated cookie,.

7. Paper snowflakes are easy to make using only white paper and scissors. Cutting helps develop fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination. The Crafty Crow has a guide to folding your paper to make snowflakes.

8. Make some virtual snowflakes at snowdays. Using the computer mouse develops IT and hand – eye co-ordinations skills.

9. Ever had snow ice cream? A Modern Mother has the recipe.

10. Enjoy some snow dough using the recipe at Praying for Parker. This is wonderful sensory play using touch and smell, and nurtures nimble fingers.

The snow looks like it’s here to stay for a while so have you got any more ideas for snow filled learning for me?

Do you send out Thank You cards for the presents your children receive at Christmas? It’s something I like to encourage mine to do. Today we’ve had a snowman production line on the go using our favourite material of the moment – cotton wool. You might have seen the earlier Snowman Pictures we made, or the shepherd’s nativity scene, but this time we went for a flat cotton pad rather than balls.

We used: white card, 2 cotton wool pads per snowman, black and orange felt tips, PVA glue and some silver sequins as snowflakes (left over from the Dove of Peace decorations).

I think the pictures are pretty much self-explanatory but I would say drawing on the cotton wool is a little tricky  but easily solved if you stick with a ‘dot’ design.

My 3 year old managed hers all by herself so it’s a nice craft for preschoolers as well as older children.

Don’t you think they look jolly?

Today, December 21st, is the Winter Solstice an ancient festival celebrating the return of the sun after the long Winter.

I think it’s important for children to be aware of traditions from lots of cultures and religions as it opens their eyes to diversity around the world and encourages tolerance. We have been marking the Solstice today by making a Yule Log.

We used: a chocolate Swiss roll cake, some chocolate butter icing*, a fork, a knife, a candle (from a birthday cake) and some holly to decorate

* Butter icing: 2oz soft butter, 3oz icing sugar, 1oz cocoa and a little water – all combined together

1. It’s much better for children to ‘do’ rather than ‘watch’ so we sliced the Swiss roll into individual portions so each child could make their own Yule log. Each child had a small portion of the butter icing which they spread all over the top and sides of the Swiss roll.

2. We then used a fork to make long marks all over the log to make it look like bark.

3. To represent the sun we put a a candle on the top, and a holly decoration too. We held hands around the Yule log and all thought of something from the past year for which we were grateful. We also made a wish for the coming year.

If you’re in the mood for singing what about ‘The Holly and The Ivy‘ as they are traditional  decorations of the festival too.

Today’s advent activity for us has been to make bird feeders for the birds in the garden. This is part of our theme of thinking of others – animals included – over the Christmas period. My 3 year old managed to do all the tasks here herself (except the craft knife cutting of course) and was really pleased with what she’d made. We chatted about why we’re putting extra feed out for the birds in winter, what they like to eat and where the seeds come from.

Here’s how we made our Milk Carton Cafe.

1. You will need: a 1 pint milk carton with a lid, a craft knife, bird seed, lard (at room temperature so it’s squashable), raisins, a twig (about 15cm long), a dessert spoon and a teaspoon

2. Cut two holes for the twig to go through about 2cm up from the base of the milk carton. I used a craft knife to do this and made a triangular shaped hole – it’s clearly not something the children should do by themselves. You want the twig to fit through snuggly so it stays in place so just make a small hole. Make two larger holes above so the birds will be able to sit on the twig and get at the cafe through these larger holes.

3. Poke the twig through the two smaller holes to make your bird seat.

4. Next mix up your feast. We used lard, a mixed wild bird seed and some raisins. We found using the larger spoon worked best as we could squish and squash the ingredients together.

5. Use the smaller spoon to put the food into the milk carton and squash it down with the back of the spoon as you go.

6. Put the lid on the carton to keep any rain out and your cafe is ready to go outside. You can place it on a bird table, wall or window ledge or use the handle (perhaps with some string threaded through) to hang it from a tree, hook or nail. Then keep watch and see if you can name all the birds who come to eat.

December 1st and it’s all frosty here – which got us thinking about the possibility of  snow! The children loved making these snowmen. Cotton wool is a lovely texture to work with and this is easy for even the youngest children to create.