Learning Resources

Suggestions for Outdoor Play in the Winter

Getting outadie for at least 20 minutes a day, ideally more, is a very important way to stay healthy and learn lots of skills through play.

Here are some great ideas to try outside in the snow;

• Write your name in the snow

• Build a snowman

• Make animal snow sculptures and use twigs, berries, leaves or other nature bits to decorate

• Build a snow fort

• Make a snow maze https://www.cbc.ca/parents/play/view/change-up-winter-play-with-a-snow-maze 

• Go sledding (You could even try to make your own DIY Duct tape sled! https://www.cbc.ca/parents/play/view/diy-duct-tape-sleds)

• Make snow angels

• Blow bubbles and watch them freeze

• Take household items and tools out to play, like cake pans and muffin tins to use as snow molds, or spoons to use as small shovels.

• Play games in the snow, like tic tac toe, soccer, or go snow bowling with snowballs

• Measure your body with snowballs - how many snowballs long are you?

• Snow coloring

  • a few drops of food coloring (careful, it stains when concentrated!) in a squirt bottle full of water can provide loads of entertainment! Practice writing your letters, your name, draw pictures, and even experiment with mixing colors!

    • What color do you get if you mix red and blue food coloring?

    • What color does blue and yellow make?

    • When I mix red and yellow what happens?

• If you have balloons and food coloring laying around you can make colorful ice orb sculptures! (again be careful the food coloring can stain!) This is also a great way to learn about colors and what colors mix to make a new color! See questions above! https://www.cbc.ca/parents/play/view/rainbow-ice-totems-and-sculptures

• Go on a Nature Scavenger hunt! Pages found on my Google Site can be printed off or you can make a list on plain paper to check off.

10 Ways to Promote Phonological Awareness at Home

Phonological awareness refers to a child’s understanding that words are made of sounds.

Phonological awareness is a key predictor of reading and writing success.

1.  Draw your child’s attention to sounds that represent objects and animals

2.  Play listening games such as “I Spy” and “Simon Says”

3.  Emphasize rhyming and beginning sounds

4.  Sing songs and teach nursery rhymes

5.  Clap out the syllables of songs and chants

6.  Read aloud poems and books that promote rhymes

7.  Make sound shakers with empty containers filled with rice, dried macaroni etc.

8.  Read, sing and chant the same rhymes over and over again

9.  Model how to find words that rhyme and encourage children to play along

10. Encourage children to invent their own poems and silly

words that rhyme

Other ideas and suggestions for Skill Building at home

• Board and card games to encourage turn taking and fair play, speaking and listening skills, and letter and number recognition

• Adding counting games to daily routine

  • How many steps does it take to get to the car

  • How many chiken nuggets do I have

  • How many days until_____

  • How many toys are in this group

  • How many seconds does it take to____

• Practice cutting with scissors

  • draw lines or shapes on a sheet of paper for your child to cut along

• Learn self help skills

  • Practice toileting, personal hygiene skills and hand washing

  • Practice getting dressed and undressed in clothing and winter outerwear

  • Practice eating a packed lunch in a certain amount of time, opening and closing packages and containers, disposing of waste and packing things up

  • Teach your child how to help around the house. They can help with laundry, dishes, sweeping, vacuuming, tidying up, and caring for pets

• Bake with your child! It teaches patience, following directions, turn taking, measurement, and it's super fun and delicious! 

• Playing with playdough is a great fine motor activity that helps develop strong hand muscles. Children can roll and shape dough into letters they know, and spell their names

  • • Here is a great recipe for homemade playdough;

      • 1 cup of white flour

      • 1/2 cup of salt

      • 2 tablespoon cream of tartar (find it in the spice section)

      • 1 tablespoon of oil

      • 1 cup of water

      • food coloring

    • Mix first four ingredients in a pan. Add water and mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 - 5 minutes. Dough will become difficult to stir and form a "clump." Remove from stove and knead for 5 minutes - add food coloring during kneading process. Playdough will keep for a long time stored in a covered plastic container or sealed ziplock bag. 

**I always alter this recipe and add a package of Kool Aid to the first four ingredients before adding the water instead of adding food coloring because it makes the dough smell lovely! :) But you don't need food coloring or Kool Aid to make it work. 

There are also lots of other playdough, cloud dough, and slime recipes to be found online if you're ambitious enough to try them!