5 Fun Things to do in the Snow

Here in New England we just had a lot of snow and I know we are not alone - lots of other places in the country have plenty of the white stuff on the ground! While it is too cold to spend a ton of time outside, there are plenty of fun things to do. Here are some older posts with ideas:

1. Blow bubbles! The weather is cold enough now to try blowing bubbles in the cold. Blow the bubble and catch it on your wand. What might happen?

~I posted a challenge last January here.

~Check out my results here.

2. Grab some snow and melt it in a coffee filter. Take two snow samples, one clean and one dirty. Melt them in separate containers. How long do you think it will take? Once melted, pour the water through a white coffee filter. Was the "clean" snow really clean?

3. Paint the snow. Grab some water colors and a big brush. You can paint the snow. The snow will seem to absorb the painting. What is really going on?

4. Track. Check out the animal tracks in the snow. At my house, there are tons of tracks under my bird feeders. There are small birds, big birds, and two kinds of squirrels. The other tracks are my mom's from when she fills the feeders every day!

5. Have fun with Ice. Where does ice melt better? There are some really fun ideas here.

January Dates!

All our programs are at the Millbury Public Library at 10:30 and are geared for preschoolers aged 3-5 and their parents.

We are going to do BEARS on Jan 4 and Simple Machines on Jan 18.

Check out Bears from 2008.

Go Science!

Sense Safari

We went on safari with our five senses - playing with sound and smell matching, color hunts, and making a texture collage. If you want to play along here are some fun ideas:

Touch – Go on a texture hunt at home. Try and find matching textures or try dressing in as many textures as you can .


Sight – Use blocks or cut out shapes from paper in geometric shapes like squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, or rhombuses. Go on a shape hunt around your house.


Taste – Try eating foods while holding your nose. Does that change the way food tastes? Most, as much as 80% of the “taste” of food is the smell. What happens when you have a cold – does food taste as good?


Smell – Try making play dough with different smells.
• 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 (4 g) packages unsweetened Kool-Aid powdered drink mix
• 2 cups boiling water
• 3 tablespoons oil
1. Mix flour, salt, Kool-Aid until blended.
2. Add oil to boiling water, mix with spoon until cool enough to knead.
3. Continue kneading until color is blended.
4. Store in air tight bag or container in the refrigerator.


Sound – Stand with your eyes closed and have someone else ring a bell. Point to it with your finger. Move the bell around and see how easy or hard it is to find. After a few tries, cup your hands around your ears and try again. Is it easier to find the sound now?

Bad Blogger

Yikes - I have been such a bad blogger. For those who don't know me well, I participated in a special writing project in November and perhaps Thirty Days and Nights of Literary Abandon were just too much for me! I haven 't been writing quite as prolifically since December 1. I think I am coming out of my writing fog and am ready to rejoin the blogging on a regular basis.

With great apologies!

Thanksgiving Fun

While I was going to post about some experiments with air and tossing things off stairs, a lovely friend of mine reminded me that not everyone will be home for the holiday and not every one's in laws are open to traditional Messy Fingers activities! So I am listening to my wise friend and going to post a few fun experiments that have a low mess factor - even for mothers-in-law!



Dancing Raisins - you will need raisins, obviously and a clear carbonated beverage (ginger ale, club soda, champagne, etc.) of your choice and a clear uncarbonated beverage (like water). Make a prediction (guess) about what might happen and what might be different. Try dropping some raisins into each beverage. What happened? Were your guesses right?



Colored Celery - if you are visiting for a few days, snag a stalk of celery with leaves and place it in jar with colored water - try red or blue food coloring and make the water really dark. What is going to happen to the celery?



Friction - you will need straws, cotton balls, crumpled foil, marbles, etc. and an open space (like the table after it has been cleared). Start at one end of your space and try to blow the cotton ball across it. Was it hard or easy? Will a marble (or ping pong ball) be easier or harder? Try it! Generally smoother things have less friction and are easier to move, but a marble is a lot heavier than cotton.
This is a great activity when kids are getting a bit wild as it helps them breath deeply and calm themselves.


Water tension - in a glass or pie plate filled with water, sprinkle some pepper. Then drip a drop of dish soap in to the pepper. What happens? Soap breaks up the water tension on the top of the water.



Regardless of where you are and whose table you are at, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

December Dates

We are going to be doing some fun things in December. Take a science break from all the holiday mayhem and frolicking and join us!

December 5 - Sense Safari

December 21 - Birds in Winter

Call the library to sign up: 508 865 1181.

Hope to see you there!!

Liquids and solids

Last week we explored Liquids at the library. It was a great time to discuss what are some of the characterists of liquids and solids.

One of the easiest to understand differences between solids and liquids is that solids retain their shape and liquids will take on the shape of the container they are in. If you put a liquid in a round container, they will be round; in a square container they are square.

You can check out what did in this blog here. I would HIGHLY recommend everyone taking the time to make Oobleck with your kids. It is a messy project - one of the messiest (and consider the source!). It is a great way to talk about solids and liquids.

I will post later on what the science plans are in our house on Wednesday. Many schools have a half day of school and for others like us who are not traveling, it is a gift of some extra science time!