When it’s a bit too cold for little ones to be outside learning about snow, bring the snow inside!  A simple box of snow is a great form of indoor snow study – and it’s LOTS of fun!  (Oh, and it keeps preschoolers busy for a REALLY long time.  WooHoo!)

This is just one of many ideas found in our Snow and Ice NaturExplorers unit!  We’re expecting more snow in KY this weekend and Eli’s already asking if we can bring “thome thnow in to pway wiff.”  :)

The large black dot in the button above is actually a sun, for some reason it’s not showing up. But it downloads fine!

Ice covered plants are one of my most favorite things to observe in the winter. There's just something so magical about ice encapsulating the world. These were found along the side of a building covering a clump of dead grass.

Ice covered ponds make me think back to all the frogs and fish from the summer. Wondering where the frogs are buried for their winter's rest below the ice and whether or not the fish are still swimming about is fun to think about.

This ice-covered creek is still barreling on below, but it looks so still and serene you'd never know it.

I love to see icicles clinging to rocky cliffs as if they appeared there magically. In actuality, they're typically formed from spring water flowing from the rocky crevices.

Another of my most favorite finds in winter is a thin layer of ice on a stream where you can watch the water running underneath. Beautiful!

And how cool is God to create such a glorious icy wonderland on top of a pile of straw rubbish?

Here's another view of the frost. Awesome, huh?

Our Snow and Ice NaturExplorers unit encourages you to get to know ice, as well as snow and frost this winter.  Have you made any awesome winter discoveries?

Ferns were popping through the snow all over a wooded hill.

Lichen glimmered on fallen logs all over the woods.

Snow melted around seemingly dead plants and trees, reminding us that they're still alive enough to produce heat.

And left-over berries from autumn still cling to their bushes giving us hope that life will burst forth again soon!

Visit Our Journey Westward to see a post about signs of animal life we found on another recent nature walk.

Activities concerning winter life, melting snow, animal tracks, animal adaptations – plus SO MUCH MORE – can be found in the Snow & Ice and Coping with the Cold NaturExplorers units.  I hope your winter studies include lots of nature!

Making measurement notes.

Last week, we were blessed with a dry snow that led to lots of snow drifts.  I sent the kids on their merry way with a clipboard and measuring tools in hand.  Their job was to find and measure as many snow drifts and icicles as possible, noting measurements on a scrap piece of paper.

Measuring icicles on the van.

Measuring icicles on the watering trough.

Measuring a small snow drift near the house so mom could get a picture from her cozy perch inside.

Preschoolers and dogs enjoy helping, too!

After a warm cup of hot chocolate, I pulled out these two notebooking pages from the Snow and Ice NaturExplorers unit.  (For the record, the pages within the unit are in color.  I was out of color ink, so copied them in gray scale.)

On The Measure of Snow, they took their snow drift measurements and created a graph to display the information. My daughter began with a line graph, then changed her mind to watercolor a bar graph. Thus the eraser marks!

On Interesting Icicles, I had them order their measurements from shortest to longest and draw a picture of an icicle up-close. My oldest had to create her own graph from the icicle information, too.

They LOVE this kind of math – hands-on, active, meaningful, real.  And, I didn’t have one complaint as they joyfully learned about and practiced accurate measuring, ordering mixed/decimal numbers, and completing/creating graphs.  Ah, a fun time of math and nature study, indeed.  (And I didn’t have to get out in the cold to boot!)

It’s made for a prime opportunity to observe and study all about Snow and Ice. I’m going to feature just a few of the fun things we’ve been doing.

We have been busy doing science experiments such as measuring the space that water takes up versus ice.

We have been learning about blizzards and creating a Blizzard Safety Checklist to give to friends and family.

We have been finding all sorts of animal tracks in the snow and spending lots of time observing our bird feeders.

We have been writing in our nature journals about our experiences and findings.

And catching, observing and photographing snowflakes! (For more of our snowflake photos you can visit my blog)

Dendrite Snowflake

For these activities and LOTS, lots more, check out our Snow and Ice unit study and create some of your own winter nature studies and adventures.