Winter Wonderland

We haven't done a lot in the way of school and activities lately, but I'm trying to get back in some kind of groove! We had some snow last week, so made Winter W's. I also brought a dishpan of snow inside for the kids to play with in the sink. We made a snowball and put it on a plate to see what happened, then the kids got spoons out and chowed down. Silly me, I thought they'd mush and mash it. We read 'The Snowy Day' by Ezra Jack Keats.

This week we tried salt-water painting. It was supposed to leave crystals on the paper as it dried, but it flopped. I must not have put enough salt in it!
Then we made some snow-dough. (I'll put the recipe at the bottom of the post.) I halved it, and I'm not sure what happened, but it was about like playing with mashed potatoes. Really sticky ones.

So we added flour. Honey ate some and made a face. Who wouldn't? It is cornstarch, salt & water. You can't tell that she already had blue around her mouth from eating a crayon. And she kept licking and eating the dough. We do feed this child, in case you had doubts!
The flour helped, and it was finally something we could work with. I don't think the kids minded the sticky mess at all, and enjoyed kneading their flour in. And silver glitter. I think next time I'd use some of the white/iridescent glitter instead.
He's not called Speedy for nothin'--look at those hands go! :) (I'm still working on getting the photos I want.)
Some of Princess's finished products--she left them out to dry. And after supper Speedy proceeded to poke fingerprints in most of them and mash the snowman down. Grr.
Some of the books we read:
Tracks in the Snow was very cute; Names for Snow was not up my alley. The names were like 'harmonica, when it whistles in the trees,' etc. Hibernation and Migration were very simple, but covered a LOT of different animals that hibernate and migrate!

More books:
Three Snow Bears is a take of Goldilocks; Katy and the Big Snow is a classic the kids love; SNOW is a new favorite, very simple, but they like repeating the words.

We sang a couple songs about what animals do in winter.

Here's the mashed potato, I mean snow-dough recipe:

SNOW DOUGH
calls for melted snow water, but you can substitute tap water. :)

1. Mix 1 1/3 cups snow water with 2 c kosher salt (I just used table salt, same thing??) and bring to a boil. Simmer several minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

2. Mix 1/2 c snow water with 1 c cornstarch (this makes a very interesting, not quite solid, not quite liquid combo) and add to salt water. Stir well, then let cool. Store snow dough in an airtight container.

3. For extra shine, add silver glitter to dough. Pound flat and make cookie-cutter shapes, or sculpt snow creatures. Dough will harden within 36 hours. (but not fast enough to keep little brother's fingers out of it...)