Toddler Theme: Snow & Mountains

This week we explored snow & mountains.  Luckily for us, we woke up to snow Monday morning.  Lots of it!  We headed straight to our neighborhood sledding hill to take advantage of the fresh powder.  Mia even made a tiny snowman.  Later in the afternoon, I mixed up a couple of squirt bottles of snow paint (water with a few drops of food coloring) and let Mia paint the snow in a big grassy area.  CAUTION: This stuff will stain (you know, coats, mittens, sides of houses) so just be mindful of that.  As an alternative, you could soak some old, dried up washable markers in cups of water overnight and pour that into squirt bottles.

Living in Colorado, I realize we may have a bit of an advantage when it comes to exploring the concept of mountains.  I took the girls on a short hike that led to an overlook point.  All I was trying to impress upon Mia is that mountains are land formations that have risen upwards from the Earth.  You can make this same point on any hill, overlook, or trail that gives them the vantage point of being up higher than the land around them.  Doesn't actually need to be a mountain.  My favorite easy trails close to Denver are the Evergreen Lake Trail & Maxwell Falls Trail in Evergreen, Trading Post Trail at Red Rocks Amphitheater & Park, and Fountain Valley Trail at Roxborough State Park.  Also this week, we tried the Colorado Trail starting at the Waterton Canyon Recreation Area and saw a whole herd of bighorn sheep!  What are your favorite places to go for a hike with a view where you live?  Share the name(s) & location(s) in the comments.  Maybe we can come up with a good list to help each other out.

If your kids are a little older, you could talk about the different mountain climate zones: montane (5,600-9,500 feet), sub-alpine (around 9,000-11,000 feet), and the area above the treeline known as the alpine tundra (starting around 11,000 feet).  Rocky Mountain National Park's page on the National Park Service website has some brief but informative tidbits if you want to learn more together (check it out here).  Another fun angle on the mountain theme is to focus on the animals that make their homes there.  Black bears, mountain lions, moose, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, mule deer, golden eagles, pika, marmots.  Do they have any special features that make them specially suited for mountain life?  Here are some of the animals we've seen on our mountain adventures (clockwise from top left): moose, elk, mountain goats, and bighorn sheep.

 

If your kid is really into Frozen, then they may appreciate a "Build a Snowman" play dough station.  I set up a platter with baby carrots, button, sticks from one of our walks, and a large chunk of white play dough and let Mia make her own snow creations.  Lately, she's been into mimicking the things she sees me do and I frequently catch her pretending to drink "coffees" out of an old sippy cup.  To make her more official, I cut a coffee sleeve out of felt (just a quick hand sew along the edge) and then some miscellaneous felt shapes in different colors.  She glued a few hearts on her sleeve and felt ever so cool sipping her hot cocoa during our afternoon story snuggle time.  I included a link to a tutorial & pattern in the summary below.  And lastly, we made a mountain range collage with an assortment of shapes I pre-cut out of black, brown, and green construction paper.  You could provide cotton ball "snow" as well.

We made a super special theme lunch one day, too -- Snow Mac!  After breakfast, we bundled up and went outside to collect a bucket of snow.  We let it sit on the counter all morning and checked on it periodically.  You'll never believe this, it turned into water!  So then we transferred it to a pot (this is when I did the old mom switcharoo to clean tap water) and waited for it to boil and make steam.  We used the pot lid to catch some of the steam and it turned back to water droplets on the lid.  Neat!  And totally an early science lesson on the states of matter and also precipitation.  Oh, and Mia confirmed that macaroni & cheese tastes waaay better when made with snow.

A summary of all Snow & Mountains week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Built a snowman, Went sledding

ART PROJECTS: Made a mountain range collage with cotton balls and triangle cutouts, Painted the snow with colored water in squirt bottles, Setup up a "Build a Snowman" play dough station, Made a hot cocoa cup sleeve with felt (here are instructions)

OUTINGS: Walked an easy "mountain" trail (i.e. a trail with an overlook view), You could also go on a sleigh ride if there is one available in your area

SNACK: Sipped Hot cocoa with extra marshmallows, Made "snow mac"

BOOKS: This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren

BIBLE STORY: God gave Moses the 10 Commandments up on the mountain

BABY BONUS: Snow sensory play

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).