Invite children to create a winter landscape with a fun tactile sticky wall, appropriate for a range of ages. Keep it simple or add multiple pieces, see our tips below.
Set up Time: 5 minutes
Directions
- Pick a window that children can safely reach (like a porch door). Cut contact paper to fit the window.
- Carefully stick your contact paper on the window with the sticky side out, secure with tape at the corners and edges.
- Add ‘snow’ type objects such as cotton balls, cotton rounds and q-tips to a basket.
- Invite children to design a winter landscape!
Consider adding white tissue paper, a small house and trees (cut out paper drawings) to help your child create a landscape out of these. You could also add in some blue tissue paper to be used as lakes or rivers for the landscape.
Materials
- Cotton balls, cotton rounds, q-tips
- Contact paper
- Tape
- Optional: tissue paper, construction paper
Learning Through Play
Cognitive: Connections – Why does snow only fall in certain places? Do they know anyone from a place where it doesn’t snow? Have they ever traveled to a place where it doesn’t snow, or snows more than where they live? What animals live in those places? How do animals prepare for winter where you live? Ask children open-ended questions and see how they respond as it relates to climate, weather, culture, or an understanding of how we play in different environments.
Social-Emotional: Empowerment – If working with toddlers, you might find that they want to stick, remove, stick, and remove over and over again. Toddlers love “removing” things and often engage in these repeated actions which is great! This is the type of activity where they are encouraged to pursue their developmental needs.
School Readiness: Sorting – Prior to doing this activity, invite children to help you find art materials that could represent snow. For example, show them white cotton balls and hot pink pom poms. Which looks more like snow? Talk about why or why not.
See this activity in the Rayz Kidz app along with the other fun activities. Rayz Kidz is your trusted source for play-based activities featuring over 100 themes and 500+ hands-on activities and clear descriptions of the beautiful learning that is happening through play.
