Adult-led activities
Wintry weather
Our unpredictable weather conditions can provide exciting starting points for children's learning. Planning in advance is essential if we are to seize the moment, so be prepared to respond in the nursery setting to snow and ice.
Key learning intentions
To explore and investigate snow and ice through the senses of touch, hearing and sight
To observe the changes that take place during the process of melting Adult:child ratio 1:up to 6
Resources
Sheets of black paper, pieces of black material, such as velvet, shallow black builders' tray, teaspoons, eggcups, sand timers, magnifying glasses, camera
Preparation
* Gather together resources and store in a 'snow and ice' topic box along with posters, photographs, fiction and non-fiction books.
* Be prepared to put other plans on hold in order to make the most of weather conditions as they occur.
* Make sure that children are appropriately dressed - it is a good idea to keep a small stock of spare Wellington boots and warm waterproof coats, gloves, hats and scarves.
Activity content
* Take children into the outdoor area. Talk with them about the weather and give them a few minutes to explore the area, looking at the snow, ice and frost.
* Encourage them to touch and feel icicles, frost on windows, frozen puddles, and newly fallen or compacted snow.
* Ask them to close their eyes and listen to sounds around them. Place empty tins under melting icicles to emphasise the dripping sounds. Support children in talking about their observations.
* Take photographs of the weather conditions and the investigations with the children.
* Give children sheets of black paper, or pieces of black material, and ask them to catch snowflakes as they fall. Encourage them to look carefully at the flakes using magnifying glasses and to describe the changes they notice as the snow melts.
* Talk about patterns made by ice and frost. Use black paper to take prints of frost patterns from outside windows.
* Show children a 'magic' trick: hold a small snowball in your clenched fist and count to ten; open your fist to reveal dripping water! Invite children to try the 'trick'.
* Use icicles to make marks on a tray or piece of paper. Write names or make patterns.
* Ask children to fill an eggcup with snow or frost using their teaspoon. Take the eggcups inside and watch what happens.
* Encourage children to repeat this activity using a sand timer, then ask them to find a place in the nursery where the snow melts before the sand timer has finished.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Cold, warm, ice, snow, melt, wet
Questions to ask
Why are we putting on our hats, scarves and gloves? How do you think you would feel if you were wearing shorts and T-shirts today? What does the snow/ice feel like when you walk on it? What can you hear? (Dripping? Crunching? Silence?) What happens to snow when you hold it in your hand? Why do you think this happens? What do you think will happen if we take some snow inside? Will it melt faster or slower if we put it near a radiator? What does the ice change into when it melts? How could we make it change back into ice?
Follow-up activities
* Provide additional resources in the outdoor area that will enable children to continue their investigations and develop ideas (see 'Outdoor area' below).
* Make ice lollies (see below).
Alternative introductory activities
* Fill the indoor water tray with snow. Work with the children handling, digging, moulding the snow and observing and talking about changes as it melts.
* Freeze sequins in ice cubes. Place the ice cubes in a shallow tray and urge children to handle them, look at the patterns they leave as they slide around the tray and talk about what is happening as the sequins are 'released'.
* Use a 'story box' to introduce the 'cold weather' theme through a creative focus. Put a furry hat and woolly gloves, or a snowflake/icicle Christmas decoration in the box and ask children to guess who they belong to, why they have been sent to them, where they have come from etc.
On a stick
Explore ice by making ice lollies.
Key learning intention
To understand that water can be frozen, and can melt, in response to temperature changes
Adult:child ratio 1:4
Resources
3Photographs of children's outdoor investigations during the snowy/icy weather 3freezer (or ice compartment in fridge) 3ice lolly moulds 3four small jugs 3water 3fruit juice (to dilute) 3lolly sticks (make sure that these are safe) Preparation
* Plan exploratory and investigative experiences for children looking at the freezing and melting processes.
Activity content
* Gather the children together. Look at the photographs and discuss briefly what they have observed and learned from their investigations in the snow and ice.
* Give each child a jug and ask them to pour some juice and then water into it.
* Have the children pour the diluted juice into their mould and put the lolly stick in the juice.
* Show the children, and talk about, the freezer (see 'questions to ask').
* Ask them to put their lolly moulds in the freezer.
* Look at the lollies at regular intervals with the children and discuss any changes that take place.
* When the juice has frozen, allow children to eat their lollies.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Water, ice, freeze, melt, cold, warm
Questions to ask
What happened to the rainwater in the plant pots when it was very cold outside? Why do you think the water in the puddles sometimes turn to ice? Open the freezer door - what can you feel? What do you think will happen to the fish fingers if we take them out of the freezer? What will happen to water if we put it in the freezer? Is it beginning to freeze? What does it look/feel like? How long do you think it will take to turn into ice? How could we make our lollies a different shape (cube, sphere)? What does the ice feel like on your tongue? What happens to the ice in your mouth?
Child-initiated learning
Encourage children to develop their own interests and ideas across the curriculum by adding topic resources to the basic provision.
Outdoors
Additional resources
Wheelbarrows, snow shovels, car windscreen snow scrapers, diggers (which can be used as snow ploughs), cars, card or corrugated plastic boards, Shallow builder's tray, trowels, spades, buckets, moulds, spoons, ice cream scoops, plastic or cardboard cones, clay modelling tools, Pairs of Wellington boots with different tread patterns on the soles, tyres, biscuit cutters, books and posters about tracking/animal prints, Flour sifters containing different coloured powder paint, plastic squeezy bottles containing coloured water or warm water, Lengths of plastic guttering, funnels, buckets, trays, watering cans Ice cubes
Possible learning experiences/activities * Exploring the properties of snow through digging, moving and moulding activities.
* Imaginative and role play - building igloos or snow castles, scraping 'roadways' for cars, setting up an ice cream van, going on a polar bear hunt.
* Exploring solid shape and handling tools - using snow as a modelling material, crafting and patterning with a range of different tools.
* Making and comparing imprints in the snow, matching imprints to objects, following a trail of imprints.
* Exploring pattern and mixing colours in the snow by squirting coloured water, or warm water, and sprinkling powder paint from sifters.
* Developing understanding of freezing and melting - constructing a system for collecting melted snow and ice to use for watering indoor plants.
* Placing ice cubes in different positions (buried underground, on a sunny wall, under a tree, in the sand pit) and monitoring what happens to them.
The practitioner role
* Model use of vocabulary such as pushing, pulling, heavy, light, round, flat, straight, curved, spotty, dotty and colour names.
* Look at books with children talking about animals, track patterns and hibernation.
* Set a trail of footprints in the snow with a 'hibernating' soft toy animal hidden at the end.
* Ask questions that will challenge children's thinking - for example, 'Where do you think these tracks will lead to?' 'Can you find a pattern the same as this one?' 'What will happen to the snow on the tree branches when the weather starts to get warmer?' 'How could we collect and use it?' 'Do you think the buried ice cube will melt before the one on the wall?' Malleable materials
Additional resources
Roll-out white icing (can be bought ready-made), icing sugar, rolling pin, small sieves or tea strainers
Large plastic sheet (to catch crumbs and icing sugar), individual trays or boards
Photographs, posters and reproductions of artists' work showing snowy/wintry landscapes and snow modelling (snow people, animals, igloos, etc)
Small world people, trees, sledges, animals
A range of beads and buttons and objects such as cotton reels, pen tops, lids, toothbrushes
Possible learning experiences/activities
* Exploring texture and properties of materials through the appropriate senses. Comparing icing sugar with the roll-out icing and talking about their similarities and differences.
* Using the icing as a modelling medium for expressing creative ideas about snow - building landscapes, using icing sugar and sieves to create snow falls, recreating their own experiences.
* Exploring flat and solid shape - rolling out sheets of icing and cutting out shapes, rolling 'snow' balls, building snow people, making 'snow' blocks to build igloos.
* Exploring pattern using buttons and beads to decorate snow people and a range of objects to imprint into the roll-out icing.
The practitioner role
* Look at the snowy landscape pictures with children (or take them outside to look at the snow) and talk with them about their own experiences of snow.
* Model use of vocabulary such as: same, different, cold, wet, warm, dry, smooth, soft, round, flat, big, bigger, small, smaller, heavy, light.
* Model skills: rolling malleable material between palms of hands to make spherical shapes, squeezing, rolling with a rolling pin, pressing objects into malleable material to make imprints, using sieves ('snow falls' may need supervising!).
* Ask questions, for example, 'Does the icing feel/look like snow?' 'How is it different?' 'How can we stop the snow ball rolling away?' 'Do you think the snowman's head should be bigger or smaller than his body? Why? What could you use for his eyes?'
Water area
Additional resources
Small-world arctic creatures, for example, walruses, seals, polar bears, puffins, killer whales, blue whales, fish and reindeer; boats; submarines; people; sleds; tents
A transparent or white platform made from acrylic or plastic (cut two or three circular holes to allow access to water). This should fit in the water tray covering about one third of its surface area and standing about 15cm to 20cm high. (The water surface level should just reach the platform, creating the effect of an ice mass floating on top of the water.) Pieces of bubble wrap (to represent floating ice)
3 Fiction and non-fiction books about arctic life
Atlases and globes, laminated maps
Possible learning experiences/activities
* Finding out about what life is like for creatures living in the arctic ocean. Discussing what they eat and how they keep safe and warm.
* Talking about the differences between the climate here and there, what it would be like for us visiting that area, how we would get there, how would we find our way around, appropriate clothing.
* Problem solving, for example building shelters, finding food, keeping warm, travelling across the ice.
The practitioner role
* Look at the books with children and let them talk about the pictures.
* Show children where the arctic region is on the globe in relation to Britain.
* Model use of vocabulary: creature names, hot, cold, under, on, in, down, up.
* Play alongside children developing imaginative ideas.
* Construct a display about appropriate clothes for hot and cold weather.
* Make plans or maps of the small-world arctic environment with children, looking at landmarks, and plot safe routes across the area.
* Take photographs of the small-world arctic environment, scribe children's story ideas and make these into a book. Make a book of 'facts we know about the arctic'.
* Challenge children to solve problems - say, this person needs to catch fish to eat but has no fishing rod, what can he do?
* Extend children's thinking with questions such as: 'What would you need to take with you if you went to the arctic?' 'Why is this boat here? Who is inside it? Why have they come?' 'This person is a scientist - what do you think he wants to find out about the arctic?'
Winter stories
Try these stories for a topic on snow and ice.
* Big Bear, Little Bear by David Bedford and Jane Chapman (Little Tiger Press, 9.99). A young polar bear explores his snowy world with his mother.
* Kipper's Snowy Day by Mick Inkpen (Hodder Children's Books, 4.99). Kipper plays in the snow with his friends making tracks, snow balls and a snow dog.
* Little Mo written by Martin Waddell and illustrated by Jill Barton (Walker Books, 4.50). A young polar bear learns to skate on the ice with the big bears.
* Winnie in Winter by Korky Paul and Valerie Thomas (Oxford University Press, 4.99). Winnie is tired of winter and the snow and ice in her garden but makes a big mistake when she casts a spell to make summer arrive.
* One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth (Picture Lions, 4.99). As snow falls one winter's night, Percy the park keeper opens his home to his animal friends.
* The Winter Hedgehog by Ann and Reg Cartwright (Red Fox, 4.99). A hedgehog sets out to discover the beauty of wintertime.
