Snow Day Activity

This morning as I was bringing the dog back inside, I realized that it was a comfortable temperature. Cold, yes. But not the extreme cold that we've been experiencing. Just the right kind of cold to bundle up and build a snowman. I thought that I should bring Jonah out to play in the snow for a few minutes, and the realization hit me that Jonah has no snowsuit, or really any good clothes for playing in the snow. It had just been overlooked. No snowsuit, no boots... no snow play.

So instead of going outside to play in the snow, I brought a bit of the snow inside! I wasn't sure what Jonah's reaction would be to the snow, so for this first time I used just a small baking pan. In the future, I will probably use a larger sensory tub.

I filled the baking pan with snow from our back yard and placed it on the tile floor, with a towel underneath. For further mess management, I had a towel nearby ready for action.

At first, I just presented Jonah with the snow in the container, and encouraged him to put his hands into it and explore it. He enthusiastically reached into the container, and then waited a moment, and soon recoiled. I encouraged him to try again. I showed him how to "tickle" it with his fingers, and how to pick it up and crumble it. At each attempt, he would turn and crawl away as quickly as possible. It was clear that he did not enjoy the snow!In an attempt to save the activity that I had planned for the day, I gathered a few small toys to put into the snow, as well as some orange juice lids and a spoon that he could use to dig and scoop the snow. I sat down and started playing with the toys in the snow, and eventually he came to see what I was doing. He decided to give the snow a second chance, and he actually seemed to enjoy it with his figures.
One of the things he did that I thought was interesting, is he used his figures to poke holes into the snow. He's been really interested in poking holes into things. When we play with playdough, he uses the "tools" to poke holes as well.I showed him how to use the spoon to scoop the snow into the lids. He tried, but his coordination is still off. He enjoyed digging through the snow with the spoon, as well as scooping it onto his pants!Jonah played with the snow for about a half an hour- until the snow turned to slush! This will definitely be an activity that we revisit during the days that are too cold to go outside!