Beyond the Book: The Snowy Day

We recently had our very first snowy day! My toddler was so excited to finally put a sticker in the snowy section of our weather chart and even more excited to bundle up and play outside. He has been asking to read Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day again and again since I first brought it out during our Winter Theme. In fact, as you'll see in the picture below, this has been a longtime favorite book of his! He was so eager to take his very own winter walk outside with his Tatty. Sometimes when it snows, we've brought toys, colored water and other accessories outside to play and explore with. This time, we kept it simple. He had an amazing time exploring the snow with an icicle! He loved looking for icicles, holding them, writing in the snow with them...

The next day, my husband took him on another winter walk. He learned how to make a snowball and throw it.
By today, warmer temperatures had begun to melt our snow away. We bundled up in snow gear and got ready for one more Winter Walk. Today I let my son lead the way! He was really curious about what was happening to all of the snow. He could still make snowballs, but as he rolled and shaped them, grass showed through. He wanted to find an icicle, but they were no longer hanging from the rooftops and cars! He led me on a neighborhood walk to look for icicles. Along the way, he learned how to make footprints in the snow. He observed different sized footprints and even footprints of other species. Could he find places where dogs and cats had walked through the neighborhood? We listened to the sound of water running down the gutters and observed puddles forming where ice and slush had been. We saw the sun shining in the sky and talked about how it warmed up the snow and ice, melting it away.

I could tell he was sad to see it go (even though I was rather pleased to have the roads and walkways more commutable)! We got a ziplock bag and labeled it and he helped me collect just one more snowball. My son is always asking to do science activities and during this winter walk, he would get to set up his own experiment. We collected our snowball sample and sealed the bag shut. We talked about how Peter's snowball had melted in his coat pocket in The Snowy Day and came up with some ideas about how we might have different results in bringing a snowball inside to keep. What would happen if we put it in our coat pockets? What if we left it on the table? We concluded those places are too warm and that the snowball would quickly melt. So where was the coldest place in the house? Where do we keep popsicles when we have them? The freezer!

So now my freezer is adequately stocked with one very special little snowball. He loved observing it later that day and seeing that it was, in fact, still there! And with very little time and very few materials, we were able to do a bit of science while simultaneously preserving the whimsy and magic of a snowy day beyond the big melt and beyond the book!

A blast from snowy days' past!