Wintry Science Experiments & Crafts For Kids

Spring is just around the corner yet here in Colorado, March is typically our snowiest month.  We haven't had a whole lot of the white stuff so far this year and yesterday's storm has me excited for more before the first flowers start poking their heads up through the soil and the earliest green buds make an appearance on tree branches. In honor of winter fun I would like to share some of the great snow and ice projects the kids and I have done.  These projects are perfect to do with young children and even have complete lesson plans for those of you working with a group of kids.  Most of the projects have a bit of science thrown in while all of them offer kid-approved fun and creativity!

Crystal Snow Flakes 

Talk about and play with states of matter while conducting a dissolving experiment with kids.  Use all this new-found learning to grow crystals on snow flakes!

Experiments With Ice

Have a race to see how fast ice will melt when exposed to different temperatures and substances.  Create a big block of rainbow ice by using salt and food coloring together to track how fast salt will dissolve ice.  Then paint with ice cubes!

Snow Globes

Create an enchanted world using fairies, dinosaurs, glitter and pretty stones.  The kids really loved this and want to do it again!

Snow Paint

Super simple to make and a great way to get outside a play!!

Do you have any favorite snow or ice projects?  I would love to hear about them and give them a try!

Wishing you lots of wintry fun!

Shared On:  The Kid's Co-Op, It's Playtime!

Snow Paint ~ Snow and Ice Part 4

snowpaint

This activity is not herbal or even scientific, what it is, is just plain fun!  Plus it is a great way to get the kids outside on a snowy, cold day while bringing out the little Picasso inside.

Materials ~ 

• plastic spray bottles
• food coloring
• cold water

How To ~

The set up couldn't be easier.  Simply fill a few spray bottes with cold water and then add food coloring.  Let the kids watch.  The drops of food coloring swirling into the water always insights happy "ooh's and ahh's."

snow paint

Then take the kids outside and let them get creative.  You might want to instruct the kids only to spray the snow especially if you are working with a group of children otherwise you might have art in unwanted places.

We did this activity a few weeks ago at the preschool and started out our day with an Ice Cube Experiment and setting up the Big Block Of Ice Experiment and as usual it was great fun being scientists for the day and watching to see if our predictions came true.

ice experiments

We also read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

which inspired the kids to get outside and explore the snowy landscape.

More Please ~  Check out other fun ice and snow experiments...

• Crystal Snow Flakes at Preschool ~ Snow and Ice Part 1
• Experiments and Icy Painting At Preschool ~ Snow and Ice Part 2
• An Enchanted World, Snowglobes ~ Snow and Ice Part 3

Fall Science Project ~ Erosion

"What are we making today Ms. Angela?"  I am lucky to often answer this question.  Lucky because my job is to play with little kids and create fun things!  The answer this time was "an erosion bundle."

Logically the next question quickly followed the first, "What is erosion?"

I first found this neat idea on Art Club Blog and I thought it looked like a great project for introducing kids to concepts of weather, change and decay, and of course erosion.  

To get the kids engaged in our project we started out talking about weather.

• What kinds of weather are there?
• What happens to things that are outside when it rains?
• When it snows and freezes?

We had a light-hearted chat about this; about how things change and wear away, or erode, when they are exposed to weather.

To give the kiddos a tangible hands on example of erosion and the effects of weather, we made our own "rain puddle".

 I put warm water in a glass bowl in the center of our table.  Then we started adding things to it.  We started with paper. I gave each kid a scrap of paper to rip up and add to the water.  We stirred them around for a bit and then pulled the paper out.  The kids were surprised by the change, it was floppy and really easy to tear!  I asked them if they would be able to write on the paper now.

That was the start of our fun experiment.  Then we added other things like hibiscus flowers which changed the color of the water.  And we added these starchy noodle shaped things that dissolve in water.  I got them long ago at Hobby Lobby and can't remember what they are called, ah well...  The kids did really enjoy watching these dissolve and squeezing the noodle things as they changed shape.  We watched and stirred and exclaimed as our puddle eroded away all the things we had put in it, this experiment was a huge hit with the kids.

Next we went outside and created our erosion bundle.  I spread a cloth spread in the center of our circle and had each child add one unique thing to the center of the cloth.  We added rocks,  paper streamers, paper cards and broken crocs jibits among other things.

Then we wrapped it all up inside a mesh corn bag and buried it in the ground.  We plan to unearth it in the spring to discover what Mother Nature has done to the objects within.

Shared on: Science Sparks, The Kid's Co-op