Guest that holiday smell game

Activity instructions: Smelling Bottles

• Cinnamon - ground spice
• Pine tree - cut needles from a pine tree
• Cranberry - crushed dried cranberries
• Clove - whole dried cloves
• Peppermint - essence on cotton pad
• Almond - essence on cotton pad
• Vanilla - essence on cotton pad
• Spice - ground allspice
• Chocolate - sweetened cocoa powder
• Ginger - ground

Winter sensory bin

Use cotton balls and arctic animals

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Magnetic Christmas sensory bottle

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I Spy - winter objects

• Use no more than 8 objects or pictures at a time
• Objects to consider: tree, cookie, wreath, gift, snow, winter, cold, mitten, jacket, coat, hat, gloves, sleigh, ski, snowman, frost, icicle, ice, cinnamon, chocolate, stocking, bell, snowflake, cloves, etc.
• Activity instructions: I Spy Sound Game

Cookie cutters for outlining, making shapes and designs

Similar to Metal Insets, an activity to prepare for or improve handwriting

Matching snowflakes

Make two copies of the snowflake picture, cut out each snowflake, and then have the child match the identical snowflakes

• Activity instructions: Picture to Picture Matching

Make winter words with movable alphabet

• Activity instructions: Movable Alphabet

Matching winter object cards with words

• Activity instructions: Decoding Phonetic Words

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Winter children's book recommendations

Christmas tree math

Cut out a Christmas tree or wreath with construction paper, and then write addition, subtraction, multification, or division on it

Light patterning

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Count and clip cards (with winter objects)

• Activity instructions: Quantity Matching

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Snowman path game

Roll a die and help the snowman get to the tree

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Snowman addition game

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Cards and counters (with winter objects)

• Counting winter objects (eg. polar bear erasers, bells, snowflakes) as a substitute in the Cards and Counters activity
• Activity instructions: Cards and Counters

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Snow melting experiment

• Materials: snow or ice, salt, 2 bowls or plates for each pile of snow, optinoal magnifying glass
• Steps: Put a pile of snow on each plate (relatively the same amount); Sprinkle plenty of salt over one pile of snow, and leave the other pile as-is; Every 5 minutes, check to see how the snow is melting (the snow with salt is melting faster); Talk about the science (salt lowers the freezing point of snow or ice)

Polar bear body parts

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Life cycle of a polar bear

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Penguin body parts

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Life cycle of a penguin

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Different kinds of penguins

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Christmas lava lamp experiment

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Magic milk experiment

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Fizzing candy cane experiment

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Dissolving candy cane experiment

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Beaded candy canes

Make candy canes with beads and pipe cleaners

Paper snowflakes

Pipe cleaner snowflakes

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Ice ornaments

Fill the dishes with water; add a piece of string (make sure it is properly submerged or nice and long); place various decorative items in the water; place in the freezer or outside overnight to freeze. Hang and enjoy!

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Snowman craft

Make a snowman with circles in different sizes, buttons, and sticks

(Clicking the photo will take you to Pinterest; photo credit: Kids Baking Club)

Christmas tree slime

Follow the homemade slime recipe in the video below with green food color; when the slime is mixed, add optional glitter or confetti

Sponge painted polar bear

Tape a pre-cut polar bear stencil to paper, and have the child paint over the paper with a sponge; finally pull off the polar bear stencil

(Clicking the photo will take you to Pinterest; photo credit: Colors and Kindergarten)