Preschool-age children love wintertime and snow. As a parent, it can mean lots of time stuck indoors and school closings. Luckily the fluffy white stuff, and other winter weather like ice, provides kids with great learning opportunities and endless options for parents to create fun. Plenty of educational activities can be completed outdoors, and when the coldest days force everyone inside, kids can enjoy fun indoor experiments that focus on winter. My young children and I have completed many different wintertime activities and experiments, and our following favorites are both fun and educational!
Snowflake Study
Snowflakes, despite the immeasurable amount that have ever fallen from the sky, are completely unique. Each flake that falls is different from every other one. When they are falling from the sky or blanketed on the ground, it can be difficult to appreciate the differences. Catching a few snowflakes on a piece of black construction paper and looking at them with a magnifying glass can highlight the beauty and intricateness of each flake. Preschool-age children will have a fun time catching the snowflakes and looking at them close up. Be sure to catch more than a few to have plenty to compare!
Frozen Bubbles
To create frozen bubbles, buy or mix a soapy solution and head outdoors when it is below freezing with little to no wind. Using a bubble wand, preschool children can blow bubbles just as they normally would. Then, the bubble needs to be re-caught by the wand. The bubble will freeze! My preschool-age children enjoyed crushing the frozen bubbles just as much as blowing them!
Salt and Ice
When your stuck indoors waiting for the salt trucks to get out and clear the roads, you can show your preschoolers how salt works to clean off snow and ice with some simple experiments. For a quick demonstration, you could help your kids fill two small bowls with snow. Add salt to one of the bowls and watch as it melts quicker than plain snow. Or, fill two containers with water adding salt to one, and place in the freezer. Remove the bottles a few hours later. The one will salt will still be liquid, while the regular water will be frozen!
Snow Ice Cream
What’s almost as fun as playing in the snow? Eating it! When its too cold to play outside, grab some snow, bring it inside and make some homemade ice cream. Many different recipes exist. Paula Dean, popular celebrity chef, has one of the simplest recipes: snow, condensed milk, and vanilla. Whenever snow is used to eat, make sure it is clean. Of all our indoor wintertime science experiments, this is definitely my children’s favorite and they always ask to repeat it. It is super-easy and tasty!
Sources
Food Network, Snow Ice Cream Recipe: Paula Deen
Science with Me, Why I Love Salt,
Science with Mom Blog TLC Family, Winter Experiments, Frozen Bubbles
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