Snow and Ice Activities for Kids Part II

This is part 2 to my first post about snow and ice activities from yesterday.

 

On one of the days we made these borax crystal snowflakes.

We actually first made these, two Christmases ago. They looked so pretty then, but when I pulled them out this last Christmas they had turned a little chalky and white and not pretty anymore. So...these are great to enjoy right after but not to keep for later.

Here's the how to:

Borax Snowflake Crystals

The instructions below make one snowflake crystal.

Materials

Boiling hot water - enough to fill one pint sized mason jar
1/3 cup borax - you can find this in the laundry aisle. I also like to use Borax to help remove stains and odors in our laundry. It works great on pee laundry...for any of you toilet training your kids right now. ;)

pint mason jar
pencil
pipe cleaners
string/yarn

Directions

1. Form your pipe cleaners into a snowflake shape or whatever shape you desire, while you boil water.
2. Add water to your mason jar.
3. Mix in borax. Stir it but don't worry if it isn't completely dissolved.
4. Attach your pipe cleaner shape to the string and hang it from the pen/pencil while submerging it in your jar.

Like this.

Leave it overnight. The next morning you should have a nice pretty crystal snowflake.

The jar will have crystal formations at the bottom and on the sides. Don't worry. Just stab it with a fork a few times and it will break right off in chunks.

FYI: Please be mindful that some children may see this as candy. Borax can be toxic if ingested. Read the labeling on the borax package and make sure your children don't mistake this for food.

On another day we made the classic paper snowflakes.

I admit a lot of them were mine. It was sooo fun and fast I had to force myself to stop at 8. My two year old just had scissors practice on our scraps while we worked on the snowflakes...and my five year old son made the one just above the bottom left. He was so proud.

Then we hung them in our dining room. I think they look quite pretty there.

I now know that these snowflakes aren't anatomically correct. We learned from one of our snow books, after we made these, that all snowflakes are six sided. Whoops. Eight-sided looks close enough.

Toward the end of the week we took our snowflakes out to decorate our fence ...

 for our hot chocolate party.

The day before we played in the snow and filled up some buckets and boxes from our house to make these ice chairs and little table. We did it in the late afternoon when the sun was out so the snow would melt a little and help the snow compact better when it froze over night. {This is another idea from Parents magazine}.

The next afternoon we unmolded our snow "furniture," made some hot chocolate with snowmen shaped marshmallows and had a little party. My boys loved this. Especially my two year old. When he was done with his hot chocolate he started snacking on our snow table. Ha ha. :)

Then we played in the snow again. The sun came out toward the end of the week and things warmed up a bit so the weather was lovely.

I really wanted to build a snowman but our snow was too powdery. It's what Utah's famous for I guess. So...skiers delight and snowman makers lament.

Owen was a little to heavy for his chair, so it ended up looking like this toward the end. A broken chair and then add the nibbled at table...I eventually gave Owen the okay to do some demolition work on it.

We topped off the week with the snowman pizza I posted about last week.

I hope these posts have inspired you to get out and enjoy the cold weather! I am hoping for more snow so we can:

catch snowflakes and compare them under a magnifying glass
build a snowman
go sledding again - we haven't gone since Thanksgiving
make a snow cave

If you have any other great snowy/icy activities I would love to hear about them.

Have a great day!