Materials: Big Bowl, a bunch of cotton balls (I used a bag of 100) or box of facial tissues, and your Kindermusik App
Optional: Any book about snow. I recommend "Ten Ways to Hear Snow" by Cathy Camper/Kenard Pak!
Optional: Toy shovels from summer beach and sand play to help "clean up."
The Kindermusik App is available for free in your app store!
Step 1: Assemble your materials and prepare your kids for an indoor snow day! You can begin by inviting them to read a story with you, or ask them to help you find their hat, scarf, or gloves. Wearing one or two of these items will help them make the connection to snow without overheating inside :)
Step 2: Invite them to listen for the sound of the snow! Say, "I'm going to bring the snow into the room and have it flutter down on you. The snow is very quiet so you'll have to listen carefully!" You can rub the outside of their ears or have them rub their own ears to prepare to listen.
Step 3: Play or sing "Snowflakes" available in your Kindermusik App. Open the app, select "Themes" from the menu at the bottom, then select "Weather." You'll see "Snowflakes" in that playlist. As the song is sung or played, walk slowly and quietly around your children, dropping the cotton balls slowly around them on their heads and shoulders. Pay attention to their reactions! Are they sitting quietly in wonder? Have they closed or opened their eyes? Are they reaching out to touch or gather up the snow?
BABIES: Adjust this activity for an infant or crawling baby by making it a tummy time activity! Drop the cotton balls within their field of vision- see if they turn their heads to see you drop it over to the right or left. Do they reach out to touch? Young children will want to taste the snow, which is not safe, so keep a watchful eye on them.
OLDER KIDS: Ask them to help you "make it snow!" Model walking carefully and softly while singing or playing the music.
Step 4: Get ready for a snow ball fight! Time get a bit more active and gather up some snow in fistfulls to toss at each other! (This part is best on hard flooring- the cotton balls tend to leave bits of themselves in the carpet, but vacuum right up). Add music to this activity by listening to "Jingle Bell Symphony" in the Kindermusik App. You can find it by selecting "Library" from the bottom menu, and then "Search" at the top of the next screen. Search for "Jingle Bell Symphony" and play the song.
OLDER KIDS: Point out that the song features loud (forte) and soft (piano) sections. Adjust your playing to have big, gross-motor movements during the loud sections...and smaller, gentler movements (like tip-toes and throwing one cotton ball at a time) during the soft sections.
Step 5: Repeat the "Jingle Bell Symphony" and snowball play as long as the kids want. When they're done, ask them to help you clean up. You can utilize any toy shovels or scoops to have them help shovel the "snow."
While you can toss the cotton balls/tissues away, you can also save them to re-use for snowman or cloud crafts, or to use as a means of painting (instead of a sponge or paintbrush). It's not recommended that you re-use these for hygenic purposes.
I hope you enjoy this fun, indoor snow activity! Let me know how it goes in the comments!
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