Free Winter Maze Printable and 3 ways to use it

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Cozy up this winter with a fun winter maze! Be sure to check out Education.com for more fun educational activities.  I've had so much fun looking around their website.  My kids love the online games and I'm excited about the lesson plan section.  There are so many useful and educational ideas and downloads on this site for preschool through 5th grade.  

Education.com has kindly offered my readers this fun winter maze that you can download free at the end of this post.  My kids love mazes and I love that it goes perfect with our winter theme and one of our favorite books "The Mitten." 

I like to place my worksheets in to these dry erase pockets (sheet protector or laminate works well too) so we can use them over and over.

I love to make things work for more then one activity so here are a couple another ways we used our maze

add stickers and write letters on each one.  Follow the alphabet to reach the end of the maze.  You can use also use numbers, or any skill you are working on.  

I placed the stickers on top of the dry erase pocket.

We used a little toy figure to hop to each correct letter.  You can also drive a car through the maze.

Use dot markers to find the way through the maze-not reusable but fun!  Want to make it more challenging have your child create a pattern with the dot markers.

You can download a copy of the winter maze here.

Frozen Water Bead Science

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We've been learning about snow and ice this week.  For this experiment we explored how different temperatures of water melt ice.

You'll need:

Water Beads

Water -hot, cold, warm

turkey baster, eye dropper, or something similar

We also used a toy shovel (optional)

 If you have never tried water beads before you should!  My daughter came home with some a couple weeks ago and they are so fun.  Super weird to touch but you can't help but play with them.  They come super tiny and you let them sit in water and they grow!  Then I like to add them to sensory bins or just let your little one play (scoop, shovel, etc).  I took a couple handfuls of beads (full sized from being in water) and froze them in a bowl. I should tell you once they are frozen they will break and can not be used again.  Good thing they are inexpensive :)

 Once they were completely frozen we used our turkey baster to squeeze different temperatures of water on the beads and observed how fast the ice seemed to melt.  Our goal was to find the best and fasted way to separate the beads.  We made observation and tested different theories.  During experiments like this I like to let her take take the lead.  I ask some questions to expand her thinking but let her work on it and figure things out. The shovel was her idea-she used it to gently tap the bead apart once the ice started melting.  If was a fun experiment and fun to see her little mind work.

Hot Cocoa Fun (preschool activities)

What's better in the winter then a cup of hot chocolate?!?!  One of the great things about teaching preschool at home is we are not on a schedule and learning can happen any time!  The little ones wanted hot cocoa and it reminded me of a fun experiment I saw here.  Our quiet night quickly turned into a fun experience and with a couple ingredients you can do this too!

Magic Hot Cocoa Science Experiment

Fist up we made some magic hot cocoa!  While they were at the table I added some baking soda to the mug and then covered it with layer of cocoa mix.  They suspected nothing :)  I then gave them a cup of magic water (vinegar) and we said some magic words.  I let the little ones help with the words and I think it went something like "bibbity bobbity boo make this cocoa boil and brew."  Haha  let me know if you come up with some something :)

 Carefully pour in your magic water water and watch the magic happen

 His face haha! He was not sure about this magic cocoa

 This little girl was delighted and loved every second of it.

 We experimented a little more by using some of our 5 senses: seeing, smelling, touching, and I think at one point she tasted one of the bubbles.  We forgot hearing.  We talked about our observations

 We tried adding more magic water at different speeds...fast was pretty exciting!

 We even stirred it with a straw to see if anything would happen.

I think it was a successful experiment

Marshmallow Name Activity

We used mini marshmallows for some fine motor and name practice.

 Write their name on a piece of construction paper.  Using a glue bottle go over a letter or 2.  Have your little one follow the line of glue with marshmallows.

 Let them dry over night.

Hot Chocolate and Marshmallow Counting Mat 

Finally we pulled out or hot chocolate and marshmallow counting mat.  I love making a counting mat for each theme.  This is my favorite style of mat of counting mat because it is low prep, easily adjust to their skill level by adding or take away numbers and you are only printing one page in color instead of individual cards for each number.

 To create print the pages in the download below.  Laminate. Cut number cards apart.  If you have used any of our other number mats you already have the numbers and don't worry about printing them again.

Place your number cards in the box-order doesn't matter.  Use tongs, fine motor tools (like this one), or fingers to add the correct number of marshmallows to the board.  Then clear the board and remove the card.  Continue through the stack of cards.  You can also do some simple addition or subtraction using two cards.  Place two numbers on top.  Add or take away the correct number of marshmallows.  count how many marshmallows are in the cup.

Download the Counting Mat Here

I love how a  few simple, low prep activities are packed with learning.  The best part is they are having so much fun they don't even realize its happening.

Winter Number Bingo

My kids LOVE Bingo and what better way to practice number recognition then with a fun game.
We worked on the numbers 1-20.

Download the free bingo cards below (there are 10 different boards). There is also a set of calling cards. I printed mine 2 to a page but you can print them as a full sheet.  Laminate and cut bingo boards apart if needed and calling cards.

Place the calling cards in a bowl or bag.  We used colored "ice blocks" aka mini foam blocks from the dollar store as markers.

First person to get 4 in a row wins!

 Download Here

*dance costume optional :)

Bring the snow inside!

This is one of my favorite parenting ideas.  We've done this several times over the years and my kids love it and ask to do it.  I think that's a good sign :)  It seem like every year it snows and for some reason or another it doesn't work to go outside and play...some ones sick, its dark, its 5 degrees, etc.   So we just bring it inside!  The best part is we stay warm, we don't have to add layers of clothes, and even my little ones can play.

Just scoop some snow onto a cookie sheet bring it inside.  I like to use a plastic table cloth and we still use gloves.  

 My little guy loved it.  (his hat was made using this pattern)

So next time it snows bring it inside!