Snow Day! Picture Treasure Hunt!

Up for another Snow Day activity? My boys really loved this one... I think we might have to do it again sometime soon!

Picture Treasure Hunt

Treasure hunts are so fun! Following a map to each landmark, searching for treasure. Love it! Here is a little twist on the traditional treasure hunt... Use pictures for the clues! 


Materials

• camera
• printer
• paper
• pencil
• tape
• treasure
• lunch sack

The treasure can be anything you want - a treat, a toy, an activity... just something you have on hand that the kids will enjoy. I have a little prize box I use for those moments when I need something for the kids. We chose our treasures out of that box.

The first step is to give your child a camera, have them choose some locations around the house, and take pictures of those locations. I let my 8-year-old take care of this by himself. With the 4-year-old, I actually took the pictures for him. You can take the pictures any way you want. My son took a picture of a whole location (i.e. He took a picture of the microwave and stove). I took pictures really close up so that you could only see a small portion of the location, making it harder to tell what you were looking at. Both ways worked great, especially since he was taking pictures for the younger brother to decipher and I was taking pictures for him (the older brother) to decipher. He needed a bit of a challenge :) 

Next, print the pictures. They don't have to be printed very big. I dropped 8 pictures per page into Microsoft Word and they were the perfect size.

Once you have the pictures you can cut them out and place them in the order you want the treasure hunt to happen. We wrote down the names of the places in order on a piece of paper just in case we couldn't solve one of the clues. The boys didn't have any trouble figuring out the clues, but it was fantastic writing practice anyway!

Next, choose who is going to go first and have them place their clues around the house while the "treasure hunter" hides somewhere (like their bedroom). This is great for reasoning practice because they have to think about which picture to place in each location so that the "treasure hunter" can be lead to the next clue. The written list comes in handy at this stage! Once all of the clues are placed, hide the treasure in the final location. It is time for the treasure hunt to begin!

Give the "treasure hunter" the first picture clue. This will lead him/her to the next location where they can find the next picture clue. Hunting continues until they find the final location and the treasure! 

 

The boys had so much fun deciphering the pictures and trying to find the hidden clues. The hardest part for them was not giving away the answers to the clues, but they managed to stay *mostly* quiet and not give too many clues :) They were so excited to reach the end and find the treasure! Once we finished the first hunt and one child had his treasure the boys were both super excited to set up the second hunt and do it all over again!

Snow Day! Art Free-For-All!!

Snow day fun continues, since our weather seems determined to provide us with snow days! Next on our list... Art free-for-all!

Art Free-For-All

Materials: (Any art/craft materials you have laying around will work... we raid the dollar store periodically and stock up on stuff like this. I let the kids roam around the store and grab anything they think they can create with!)

• foam sheets
• stickers
• googly eyes
• craft sticks
• dowels
• glue
• glitter glue
• crayons
• markers
• sequins
• beads
• tape
• scissors
• pompoms
• string
• condiment cups
• etc

Gather up any craft materials you can find, place them on the table, and let the kids go wild with creativity. I would use a washable table or cover the surface because this WILL get messy. Boy they have fun though!

I started each boy with a sheet of foam so that they would have a place to begin. 

They both created something on that and then moved on to creating other things with the materials. It is amazing what kids can come up with when left to explore and try things! 

My 8-year-old even broke open some googly eyes so he could make use of the black circles inside. So creative! A perfect project for antsy, snow-bound little boys and girls!

Snow Day! Ping Pong Plop!

The quest to keep the minions entertained on this *now raining* snow day continues. Our next project, ping pong balls.


Ping Pong Plop

Materials: 
*small box
*ping pong balls
*containers of varying sizes
*straws

Ping pong balls can be so fun because they are small, lightweight, and extremely bouncy! I adapted this activity from one I found in the book Unplugged Play by Bobbi Conner. First, cut the box to make a passageway for the ping pong balls to travel through. Place it on a table to serve as a "chute" for the balls. 

Fill the containers with water and place them on the floor. Talk about which containers they think will be easy to land a ball in and which will be difficult. Slide the first container below the chute and line it up to catch the balls.






We started by rolling the balls to get a feel for how to move them through the chute and plop them into the water below. Try rolling them fast and slow. Try standing to the side and at the back. Try letting the balls bounce before plopping. Have the children experiment with the different sizes of containers to see if they can still get the balls to "plop" in the water.

Once they get the hang of rolling the balls, give them straws and have them blow the balls through the chute and into the water below. Is it harder to do it this way? Have them try making different obstacles or changing the shape of the chute. 

With my boys I found that the activity evolved into trying to bounce the balls into the containers and then trying to "golf" the balls into a container they created. There are so many possible variations to this activity. The only limit is their creativity! 

Snow Day! Snow Play Dough!

I love snow days! It usually means we actually got enough snow for the kids to go out and have some fun. Around here we typically have a snow day with several inches of exciting, fun snow and then it melts off by the next day. However, when you randomly get so much snow and ice that you are at a week straight of snow days the kids start getting cabin fever....

Time for some indoor snow day fun. I think we will start with my old fall-back... play dough!


Snow Play Dough

Snow play dough is easy to make, and it adds just enough of a twist that the kids get excited about it. All you do is make your favorite play dough recipe and add glitter. Voila! Snow play dough is born! Here is a recipe to try:

1 cup salt
2 cups flour 
2 T cream of tartar
2 cups water
2 T vegetable oil
Glitter

I like to have the kids help me make the play dough... It gives them something to do, and they love to measure and stir!


First, measure the dry ingredients into a medium saucepan and mix them together. Add the water and oil and heat over medium heat. Continue to stir and heat until it gets thick and starts to form a ball. You will want to keep it moving so it doesn't sit on the bottom of the pan, almost like you are kneading it with your spoon. As soon as it starts to thicken add the glitter and continue to stir. Once you have a ball of dough, remove it from the heat and dump it onto the counter to cool. As soon as it is cool enough to touch you can knead it until it reaches the right consistency. 

There are so many things kids can do with snow play dough! Have them build snowmen or create snow scenes. Get out some cookie cutters and have them roll out the dough and cut out shapes. They can make snakes and practice making alphabet letters or writing words with the snakes. The possibilities are endless!