Brrrrrr!

I don't think we could have any more unpredictable weather right now. It was 34 degrees last wednesday and yesterday it was 74! Crazy.

But with all of this cold random weather, we've been talking a lot about snow around here. Which led us to a few activities we've been doing. The focus? The arctic/antarctic/polar regions of course!

And if Addie doesn't ask me once, she asks me at least a dozen times a day...what can we do?

We made animal tracks with white paint and miniature animals and talked about predators and prey. The little girls had fun, but Addie loved it; and hers actually looked like animal prints! ;)

 

We made polar bears with torn paper.

A little more challenging across the board than I imagined. Addie wanted to tear the paper into itsy bitsy teeny weeny pieces and the little girls wanted to glue stick e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g! But we managed quite well.

And after the little girls went down for naps, Addie and I did a little experiment. We filled our deep sink up with cold water, ice and some salt. The temperature? Cold. (like my scientific estimation there?). Then we talked about what we knew: the water was cold. polar bears have to find food in cold water. therefore they must have something to keep them warm. What we wanted to find out? What keeps them warm and how!

What would that be? Why crisco blubber of course! It was a bit hard to explain, the whole concept of fat and all, but i think she grasped it to some degree.

So we stuck our bare hands in the cold water. Cold! Freezing!

Then we stuck our bare hands in a single plastic bag. Just as cold (freezing!)!

And then we used the blubber bag (crisco in between two ziplock bags taped together at the top).

Surprisingly not cold!

In fact, it was a bit toasty in there initially! I had some serious doubts about this experiment; but it worked, and Addie loved it!

Since we probably won't be seeing snow around here anytime soon, i'm going to order some of this Snow! Addie's most recent request was to learn about clouds. Snow. Clouds. Perfect segue to weather! Love learning with this girl!