Fun Facts about Snowflakes -- Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Today we are walking in a winter wonderland with Penguin Kids. They asked us to share some winter fun and we chose some fun facts about snowflakes. Plus we are doing a snowflake craft round-up and sharing a winter wonderland book.

Snow, Snowflakes Crafts and Books

Hazel is so fascinated with snow. Last week we got close to two feet, but most of it melted and then it got bitter cold. Today feels warm and it is in the 30's. Unfortunately Hazel has been sick since Christmas and has not gotten to play too much in the snow. She keeps asking me, "What is snow?" My broad answers have not been enough, so I found a book at the library to help us understand it better, The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter's Wonders by Mark Cassino with Jon Nelson, Ph.D.

This book explains the science behind snow and has amazing photographs!! In the end it gives an activity of collecting and looking at snowflakes with hints on catching them.

The One I Made

While shopping I noticed some snowflake tealight holders on the clearance rack for post-Christmas. I bought a couple and went back and bought some more for gifts. Hazel and I decorated them with glitter glue and gem stickers (which I also got on clearance for post-Christmas). 

Supplies

First we put glitter glue on them and left them to dry. Then we added the stickers. Then Hazel had fun with the other four I bought.

Hazel's First Two

The Rest of Hazel's

Both of Hazel's grandmother's birthdays are coming up,so I figured these could make nice gifts for them. Maybe we will give her teachers one each as well. For 50 cents each, not bad gifts. Here is how mine looks with a battery candle.

We also took Snow Sounds: An Onomatopoeic Story by David A. Johnson out of the library. It is a wonderful book just with the sounds you might hear during a snow storm. The plows, the shovels, the school bus coming, etc.

Then some other fun snow books from our bookshelf:

Are you enjoying snow? Or making some snow crafts? For some other snow craft ideas check out:

• Winter Solstice
• The Snowman and the Snowdog
• Let It Snow!
• A Sewing Lesson
• A Snowy Day
• Indoor Snowball Fight
• Winter Onderland Party
• Snowflake Craft
• Quick Snow Craft
• Snow and Winter Fairies
• Winter Pinterest Board

Winter Crafts Round-Up

I had so many incomplete ideas for my post today. Since they were all incomplete, I considered just not posting, but then I remembered I wanted to do a winter round-up since so many of you have not been following since 2011 when we began. So here it is, our past winter activities, crafts and books and a movie. Enjoy!!

Craft Kits and More from Oriental Trading

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Spring is on its way. Yesterday it was in the mid-50's and it felt amazing you. We had to get outside even though Hazel stayed home from school because she has been sick. Of course now we have rain coming that will turn to snow. Ah, New England weather--gotta love it or hate it! Needless to say we have been a bit stir crazy and cannot wait for spring, so we decided to try some of Oriental Trading's spring craft kits.

Craft It Up! Chirstmas Around the World -- Book Review

Disclosure: Ryland, Peters and Small gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Today I am going to share with you a fun Christmas craft book that helps teach a little bit about various countries around the world. In August of 2013, I had the pleasure of reviewing Craft It Up Around the World. Now the same authors, Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong have a second book published, Craft It Up Christmas Around the World. 

Reindeer Fun Facts and Craft Round-Up

Can you believe Christmas is only a week away? To get you in the mood and perhaps to entertain your kids, I am sharing some fun facts about reindeer and a craft and activity round-up.

Let It Snow! Winter Wonderland Tea Party

Ducky and Princess Teddy got seats of honor

So Hazel had her well doctor visit and I wanted to make the whole day special so she would have a positive memory instead of just getting shots. We started today having a Winter Wonderland Tea Party. First we had to do some crafts to decorate and then we had to get all the dolls and animals. Then Hazel had to feed them all and get dressed herself (in costume). Then we had some tea and read lots of snow themed stories. Below are the ones I let her choose from and we have read at least 12 of them in the past two days.

I promised at yesterday's Sharing Saturday (which is still open!), that I would feature some snow-themed crafts today. I knew we did this, so I knew it would be a perfect fit here. Plus we used some of the ideas for our crafts. Here are those features:

1) From Life with Moore Babies: Colored Snowballs and More Ice and Snow Fun
2) From Making Boys Men: Frost Writing (For those without snow around but cold weather!)
3) From Gift of Curiosity: Snowman Craft for Preschoolers (see ours below)
4) From ArtClubBlog: Paper Snowflakes Tutorial (see ours below)
5) From Little Wonders' Days: Glittered Peppermint Winter Play Dough

And here are a few from past Sharing Saturdays:

1) From Gift of Curiosity: Winter Printable Pack
2) From Organic Aspirations: Sensory Play with Snow Indoors
3) From Like Mama ~ Like Daughter: Winter Themed Week in Preschool

Also check out the features from past Sharing Saturdays here and here. Some of these would have been great snacks for our tea party!

3-D Snowflake

So we decorated for our big winter wonderland.  I made a simple 3-d snowflake using some foam snowflakes I bought. I was inspired by Paper Source and just cut a slit in each and fit them together. Then punched a hole in one and put a string through it to hang.

Paper Snowflakes = Placemats

We made some paper snowflakes using the tutorial from ArtClubBlog (see feature above). We decided to use them as placemats. I also tried to make some out of felt using the same tutorial but my scissors were not quite sharp enough to make it beautiful. I am going to make them into pillows.

Felt Snowflake

We made several snow angel chains. Hazel had a go at cutting some but cut their heads off, so she used her smiley face stickers for heads and then added smiley faces to all of them. For hers we used the template at First Palette. For the ones I did I drew my own template to make them look more like snow angels. Here is my template.

I folded one of her large pieces of construction paper in half the long way and then folded into eighths in accordion style and cut this out. This is how they came out pre-smiley face.

Source

I wish we had the book The Snow Angel by Glenn Beck, but the library did not have it in, so we will have to read it another time. We loved it last year.

Hazel also made a cotton ball snowman similar to the one shared by Gift of Curiosity (see feature above). We used a pipe cleaner for a carrot nose and stick arms.

Then we laid out some fake snow that I had bought last year for my friend's Winter Onderland party but it wasn't used. And I had bought a package of snowballs post Christmas for this and we pulled out the wool ones I needle felted for her last year.

Then she gathered all of her dolls and animals. After getting them all around, she needed to feed them all. Ducky and Princess Teddy got seats of honor on the table. (See top picture) And of course Hazel needed to dress-up. She wanted to do the tea party before she took her bath and got dressed, so we are still in our pajamas, but she added on her tutu, ballerina top, wings, and crown and was carrying her wand part of the time.

Finally we were ready for our party. We sat on the snow covered floor and read books while we drank tea and Hazel finished her raisin bread toast from breakfast. Then we had a snowball fight.

Gathering all the snowballs and making a snowball pyramid

Then she wanted to play with her white balloon, but since we only had one white balloon, she gave it to me and used a red one. 

Now it was time to take her bath and for us to get dressed so we could have a special lunch out before her appointment. We had such a fun day. We still have our winter wonderland set up, but will have to pick it up tonight or tomorrow since the cleaning people come Monday morning.

My Love for You Is Like a Garden with Free Printable Match Game and Flower Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Flying Cardinal Press for this blog tour post. I will receive a small stipend for posting my review.

Spring is in the air! I see the tips of our daffodils, tulips and irises poking out of the soil between the mounds of snow. Spring is my favorite season. I love watching the world come back to life. I saw my first robin last week, so I know the warmer weather will be here soon. That means it is time to think about my garden. Today I am sharing a beautiful book comparing love to a garden. I made a match game with the beautiful illustrations and have a round-up of flower and garden crafts as well as a giveaway!! It is fun post! The book is called My Love for You Is Like a Garden by Laura Smetana. 

Quick Craft

Today we headed to my doctor's for routine blood work and to see someone about my feeling yucky since Saturday afternoon. Then we came home and did some crafts. Well, started some crafts. We painted some objects for crafts for tomorrow and we did one complete craft.

I was trying to figure out what crafts to do for January. Christmas is over, Valentine's Day seems so far away, what is a crafty mom to do...then it hit me...snow. Since we haven't really had snow except that storm in October, I'm not sick of it yet and Hazel keeps wanting to make a snowman, snow fort, etc. So today we made a snow picture. I got the idea from Pinterest with the original idea coming from Playing House. There are some great snow crafts there. Luckily Hazel didn't figure out she could eat the marshmallows so we used them on the craft. She did figure out she could mush them though as you can see in the lower left corner.  Oh, well glitter glue and marshmallows, what more could she want.

Hope you are having a great day!

Fairy Day Games -- Book Review & Giveaway with Fairy Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Expound Publicity to bring you this post and giveaway.

Our house has loved fairies for a long time. One of our favorite photos of Hazel when she was younger was with her fairy wings on. 

Hazel loved fairies when she was younger. We read just about every book with fairies in them. Today I get to share a new one that has a young girl dreaming of going to the fairy party that welcomes everyone in the forest and belonging. The book is Fairy Day Games by Mari Sherkin and illustrated by David Gnass. With this review there is a giveaway as well as a fairy craft round-up. 

Sharing Saturday 16-4

What an amazing party last week!! Thank you to everyone who shared with us!! Our features are just a sampling of the wonderful things shared, so if you haven't checked out the rest you should!! The features for this week include Snow Features, Valentine's Day & Family Features, Educational Features, and few art and interesting ideas. I have also host a craft link party (the crafts just have to be family appropriate and not necessarily kid related) and it is a place to share crafts, reviews of patterns, craft books, etc. and patterns. I hope you will come check it out Sunday.  This month's Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop is continuing for all your posts that are culture (multicultural) related!

Advent, Christmas and a Tea Party Crafts & More! -- a Crafty Weekend Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

We are getting ready for our busy December which includes Advent (which starts next Sunday), Christmas and Hazel's birthday. Hazel decided she wants a fairy tea party this year for her birthday party. We recently received a few products from Oriental Trading to help get ready for all three things. We will go in order starting with Advent.

Today was...

Hazel's craft today

Today we had a rather busy day. Our morning was full of play and crafts. Oh, and we put together a slow cooker dinner for tonight. We made the heart crafts I featured yesterday. Then we went out to run errands. One stop was Target. We bought a lot of new clothes for Hazel from the clearance items including four pairs of shoes in her next size! Another stop was Joann Fabrics for a few supplies for a craft for tomorrow. Then we went to the library to return books and we picked out several new ones.

My Heart Craft

While running errands we realized it was a gorgeous day and we wanted to get outside to play. It was in the 50's today here and sunny. So we hurried our errands and then came home for a late lunch and  got outside. Then it was off to the hairdressers for hair cuts. We met Daddy there and he took Hazel home while Mommy got her hair cut. I always take Hazel in with me to get her bangs cut. She loves it!! She also likes to play hairdresser to Ducky when we get home. Then after a quick dinner I had to run a stewardship meeting at church. Now I'm tired, but wanted to share these crafts with you and some pictures of our outside play.

With the rain last night and the warmer temperatures, most of the snow melted. One of our first activities was moving the snow from the few snow piles left from the plow and our snowmen to the yard. Hazel did this with her shovel and then she wanted to use her hands. She touched it and said, "Cold!" So after a few tries she decided she needed some mittens.

Her Shovel

Her First Snowball

I suggested using the toy truck she brought out. She tried that for a bit, but it was small.

She ran into the garage and came out with her bigger truck to use.

She is always thinking!

Then she wanted to play basketball, catch, tag/gingerbread man and finally blow bubbles. She had a great time blowing bubbles.

She is finally getting how to blow things--bubbles, horns, etc.

Oh, she also had to bring out her chair to sit on for two seconds. Then it was time to bring out the sidewalk chalk. She tried to draw squares but they came out more like circles. We worked on straight lines a bit and then she wanted me to make her a hopscotch game.

Unfortunately, the time we had flew by and it was time to get to our appointment. Hopefully we will get another nice day outside again soon. Though I did have to promise her it would snow again. (I just added that it might not be this year.)

That was our day. How was yours?

Oh, and one more thing to share--check out this article on children and playing from  The Christian Science Monitor. It makes me so happy we are not pushing Hazel to learn to read, etc. and have made the choice to send her to a Waldorf school where they are not taught to read until they are 7.

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