Today we had our first snow here in New York! How perfect as we learn about the season. This morning after breakfast, feeding all our bird friends outside and working for a bit in the studio we started our lessons with a good book and an art session. We read Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner (we love this series!) and then Elliot drew some of his favorite animals that we’ve been learning about: a fox, mouse and bat.

This afternoon we had a snack, read Snow is Falling by Franklin M. Branley and had fun creating snowflakes with mini marshmallows and toothpicks. We had some patterns as reference from @magichomeschoolbus and really enjoyed this project. Elliot did great! (the 2nd photo are mine). I was looking forward to playing in the snow today with a certain someone but he didn’t want to wear his snowsuit or boots so maybe next time. Bummer for sure. But I’m thankful we accomplished a few things on my list.

This morning we started our nature study by reading The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice by Wendy Pfeffer and Elliot colored a WINTER SOLSTICE letter sheet with colors that remind him of the season. Then we looked at a winter forest in The Magic & Mystery of Trees by Jen Green and created our own forest with paint, glue, stencils I created and salt for snow.

After lunch we made a super tasty snack plate for our little friends and left the goodies in all our usual spots. Between the Cheerios, apples, carrot sticks and peanuts they surely have a lot of options. I also made some birdseed and peanut butter drops which I know the birds and squirrels love. Hopefully, our treats will fill them up before the storm hits.

Then to continue with all things winter, we got cozy with a snack and read Winter Sleep: A Hibernation Story by Sean Taylor & Alex Morss. A really nice story explaining why certain animals sleep during the colder months and beautifully illustrated as well. Tomorrow we are going to learn a bit more about our sleepy friends, get crafty with a fun project, and draw in our nature journal.

It’s winter solstice week in our nature study! This morning we started learning about the season and did a few fun projects:⠀⠀⠀

• read The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper and the winter section of The Reasons for Seasons by Gail Gibbons
• completed a color by number worksheet from @magichomeschoolbus
• created classic paper snowflakes

We also did a few letter and number worksheets. Looking forward to hanging up our snowflakes later and many more winter themed lessons this week.