Toddler Theme: Weather

Transition seasons like spring and fall usually usher in all kinds of wacky weather (or at least a little weather variety) and make it a perfect time to explore Weather further.  I recently learned that the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is located here in Boulder, Colorado.  A perfect field trip for us this week!  If you aren't local, don't despair; their website is chock-full of wonderful resources like videos, simulations, games & activity ideas (check out their Learning Zone here).  We spent a whole morning exploring their public exhibits.  Mia created her own microburst storms in a special tank, made lightening, watched tornadoes form, and even touched clouds.  If you diffuse essential oils at home with an ultrasonic diffuser, then you already have access to a cloud machine.  Open it up while it's running and check it out!  You can also look to see if your local science or children's museum has a weather exhibit.

We decided to do a bunch of weather science experiments at home this week.  One day, we placed a cup out on our balcony to measure rainfall.  Nada, dry as a bone here in Denver.  Another day, I pulled out a prism and we made rainbows on the walls.  And do you remember the old tornado in a soda bottle trick?  Yup, we did that, too.  Hobby Lobby sells both the prism and the tornado tube in the science aisle.  

As a special data collection & recording activity, we called up some of our family around the country and asked them what their weather was like that day.  I also reached out to my Instagram friends so we could get more data points.  Then we recorded it all on a blank map (find one here) and created our own weather map thanks to all of our friendly weather spotters around the world.  We also took a walk around a local pond one afternoon and I was able to show Mia the wind.  Back when I was learning how to sail, I realized that you can see the wind on the water before you can actually feel it, and I was excited to teach Mia the same thing.  Can you see the wind coming across the pond towards us?

After reading the book Windblown by Edouard Manceau, we did a little windblown collage creating of our own.  I cut out shapes just like the ones in the book and Mia created animals with them.  Here's the one from last year that I've kept all this time...makes me giggle.  Or maybe you could make a wind chime with found items as well.

I'm starting to get little sister Millie involved in these theme weeks a little more so I planned a very tactile weather art project.  The goal was to create skyscapes with finger paints but not just any old paints -- weather paints.  To prep, I stuck a tray of blue & purple glitter paints in the refrigerator and then a few tubes of red, yellow & orange paints in a pot of warm water.  I set out the cold, snowy paints with the warm, sunny paints and also some watercolors & straws and let the girls paint away.  You can use the straws to blow drops of watercolor paint on the paper almost like rain drops.  Last year, Mia did a very similar painting project and then while she was napping, I doodled all over her works of art and cut them up to create a weather station.  We still use this station to this day as we check out the weather each morning.  In fact, we did another little data gathering project this week.  As Mia updated the "today" arrow each day, we also recorded it in her notepad.  At the end of the week, we made a little bar graph to summarize the data.  A nice little counting activity and it's never to early to start learning how to make sense of lots of data!  

A summary of all Weather week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Created our own weather station, Did several simple weather science experiments, Watched The Wizard of Oz

ART PROJECTS: Created our own Windblown inspired animals with assorted paper shapes, Created sky paintings with various weather-inspired paints (warm red, yellow & orange finger paints and cold blue and purple glitter finger paints and watercolor "rain" droplets)

OUTINGS: Visited the Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder

SNACK: Made cloud sandwiches (fluffer nutters) for lunch

BOOKS: Windblown by Edouard Manceau, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, The Cloud Book by Tomie de Paolo

BIBLE STORY: Rainbows, a sign of God's promise

BABY BONUS: (see weather art projects above)

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).

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).