sNOw more

The snow finally melted and sunny days are upon us. Sean savored every inch of snow down to the last drop. On the last day of the snow I brought in 2 pans full from the top of our patio table to setup an invitation to play. An invitation is something that I stumbled upon when I first started reading blogs about play and parenting. They are simply ways to encourage free exploration of a skill or topic. Typically you would place a tray with the items for the invitation out for your child to explore on their own when they choose to. Since Sean recently finished a unit on colors at his Gymboree art class I decided to setup a color invitation with the snow. Olivia got to participate with exploring just the snow without colors.

Setup:

Tray- Dollar Store from a previous party

Snow in 2 cake pans (you could sub the snow for blended/crushed ice, GrowSnow, or clear Jello)

Food coloring- I used primary colors so Sean could further explore making secondary colors. I mixed a few drops of each color in water

Dropper

Spoons/scoopers

Process:

While Olivia scooped and ate snow, Sean immediately began dropping various colors onto his pile of snow. While he mixed and played he noted the change of colors and we tried to create as many combinations and discovered that when you mix all the colors you get brown. Next I gave him some salt to pour on top and talked about the effects it has on the snow. To end he scooped piles of snow into the food coloring containers and this was fine. When I first started doing invitations and sensory play with Sean my Type A nature would kick in and I had to learn to fight the urge to help him or clean up…it is EXPLORATION after all-wink! Over time he learned how to explore and have fun within his given space and help clean up when finished.



 

Invitations are a great way to encourage children to think, question, and try new things.

After playing in the snow we created The Snowy Day inspired art work. First Sean and I shared our favorite snow activity and then we drew a picture of it using crayons. Next we used water color paints to paint over the crayon. The wax repels/resists the water colors so the drawing stands out from the beautiful soft watercolors. This technique looks amazing with any drawing.

 
 

Hopefully we are done with our winter weather mix  here in Atlanta. It was certainly fun while it lasted but something I only need to experience once a year!