FIELD TRIP: Ice Skating at Loring Park

Loring Park was a lovely place to celebrate our winter weather during the Holidazzle festivities. We were there at the tail end, but the ice was still good and the crisp air made us feel alive. We brought our own skates, but they had free rentals, courtesy of Wells Fargo, and a nice warming house -- important if you have kiddos!

FIAR: Tracking animals while reading 'Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening'

The fun of snow is seeing the tracks animals leave behind - and making our own! One winter day we headed up north to traipse through the woods and look for whatever animal tracks we could find. We also kept our eyes peeled when we walked through our own city lot, and when we took a field trip to the children's area at the UofM Arboretum in Chanhassen.

What a packed down deer trail!

In addition to tracks, we found some deer scat!

WE READ:
- Best Foot Forward: Exploring Feet, Flippers and Claws by Ingo Arndt
- Big Tracks, Little Tracks: Following Animal Prints by Millicent E. Selsam
- Crinkleroot’s Guide to Animal Tracking by Jim Arnosky
- Wild Tracks by Jim Arnosky
- Crinkleroot's Guide to Giving Back to Nature by Jim Arnosky
- Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac by Jim Arnosky

I found a few resources to help guide our discovery.

• Animal Tracks Match-Up Game
• Whose Footprints are These?
• Montessori for Everyone: Animal Tracks flashcards

We also loved reading the many Field Guides on topics such as Winter Birds, Surviving the Winter, Snowshoes and Snow put together by the Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre in Canada.

FIAR: Paper snowflake activity

We weren't getting enough snow here this winter, so we settled for paper snowflakes. Then most of them ended up on our Valentine's Day cards!

This activity was part of our rowing of "Katy and the Big Snow" and "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening."

Our inspiration was "Snip, Snip, Snow" by Nancy Poydar.

FIAR: Snow experiments to go with Katy & The Big Snow, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

Inspired by Snowflake Bentley, we took a microscope and observed the intricacies of a snowflake. Wow. Simply amazing!

We made pipe cleaner snowflakes covered with Borax crystals. Learn how here: http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/boraxsnowflake.htm

Why can I see my breath when it is cold? We did an experiment to answer this question.

BALLOON EXPERIMENT

We conducted an experiment with balloons. First, we blew them up and measured them inside. Then we tied them to the deck outside and measured them again once they had cooled out there for one-half hour. We measured them again in the morning. The balloons decreased by one inch in circumference when we placed them outside, and there was no change from the first time we measured outside to the second time.

MELTING AND FREEZING

We filled up a mason jar with snow and then let it melt. There was so much less water than there was snow! Next we placed a jar of water in the freezer, marking the height. (The weather didn't cooperate with us to just place it outside.) When we took it out later the height was higher! The ice took up more space than the water did.

WHAT ARE THE STATES OF MATTER?
And, what's study of winter without Olaf?  He helped us learn more about different types of matter in a little flip book.

WHAT MELTS FASTER?

We also investigated what substances ice will melt faster in. We filled bowls with sugar, salt, dirt and pepper. The dirt and pepper insulated the ice, so it stayed cold longer. And the ice in the salt melted faster. Why? "Because it lowered the freezing temperature!" explains The Girl. And that's why we use salt and sand on our roads in the winter.

 

The Boy just wanted to mix up dirt and water! And everything else!

And our perpetual favorite experiment: Volcano in the Snow!

We made a weather wheel, and also a paper compass.

I often write something out on the chalkboard and The Girl copies it in her workbook.

FIAR: Katy and the Big Snow

What better way to appreciate the cold winter weather than to delve into "Katy and the Big Snow" by Virginia Burton?!

We have spent a good chunk of the deep winter months here in Minnesota rowing "Katy," along with "Stopping by the Woods on A Snowy Evening" illustrated by Susan Jeffers.

WE READ:
- Snow Crazy by Tracy Gallop
- The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
- Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams
- Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
- Snow by Uri Shulevitz
- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
- Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
- Snow (Weather Watch) by Alice Flanigan
- Whatever the Weather: Snow by Lauren Taylor
- Snow (Science of the Skies) by Bill McAuliffe
- The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder by Mark Cassino
- Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
- The Missing Mitten Mystery by Steven Kellogg
- Snip Snip Snow by Nancy Poydar
- All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Shertle
- The Snow Globe Family by Jane O’Connor
- Ice Bear: In the Steps of a Polar Bear by Nicola Davies
- Snow is My Favorite and My Best by Lauren Child
- My Grandma Loves Hockey by Lori Weber
- Pond Hockey by Andrew Sherburne
- Twelve Owls by Laura Erickson
- Great Wolf and the Woodsman by Helen Hoover (illustrations by Betsy Bowen - Minnesota artist whom we love!)
Other related books: See post on rowing Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening

WE LISTENED TO:
- Music Time Songs for all four seasons: 58 children's classics for all four seasons (2007)

WE DID:
As always, we based our activities off the Katy and the Big Snow lapbook over at Homeschool Share.

First, we mined our memories and wrote what we know about Katy. Then we used our imaginations to create our own characters!

The depth of the snow is a big deal in Katy, so we cut pieces of string that were as long as the snow was deep. Then we measured a bunch of various things in the house.

We used Scrabble tiles to create words.

Our gluten-free, corn-free, snow-like sand was the perfect complement to our study!

Storytime at the U of M Arboretum in Chanhassen introduced us to few lovely winter tales.

WE WATCHED:

 


Related blog posts:
- FIAR: Learning about our neighborhood