Connecting to nature can restore our sense of wellbeing. For children, this connection is best made through play – whether outdoors in nature or indoors with natural elements. That's why…
READ MOREIt’s the perfect time of year to learn about the water cycle and explore ice! This fun and refreshing activity is great for a warm summer day. In this activity, children will develop an understanding of the water cycle as they sing and move along to a song, read stories, and observe water changing from a liquid to a solid, and from a solid back to a liquid. These ideas can be adapted and used in a home setting or classroom setting.
READ MOREThe 2019/2020 winter season was incredible here at WinterKids! Check out our season wrap up to learn more about our impact on families, schools, and our local communities.
READ MOREStudies show that sensory table play can be calming, and provide an opportunity for children to work on their fine motor skills, creativity, and social skills- if they are playing at the sensory table with another child. In addition to these, sensory tables can also help develop literacy skills as children retell a story and bring it to life using items at the table! They are great for both home and classroom learning environments!
READ MOREStep aside, lemonade stand! Enter: bike shop! This activity can provide hours of creative and imaginative fun, while also fostering a love for bikes! Here you will find fantastic children’s books about bikes, steps and resources for creating your own dramatic play bike shop, and our favorite children’s songs about biking. Move, learn and explore!
READ MOREIf your kids were looking forward to summer camp, but are, instead, staying home this summer, we’ve got great news: Our friends at Back40 and The Trail Van have partnered up to deliver summer camp to your back yard! Best of all, they’re offering a 20% discount, just for you, as part of our WinterKids community, and will be donating 10% of proceeds from your rentals using the discount code below to WinterKids.
READ MOREThis learning activity is a fun way for students to reinforce math skills and be active during summer break. Please be sure to follow social distancing guidelines while working on this outdoor activity. Stay safe, stay active! Move, learn and explore!
READ MOREExploring the outdoors is a fun learning experience for kids of all ages. This activity will encourage children to observe the world around them by looking for natural items and collecting them in a unique and reusable container. Enjoy getting outdoors in every season, while enhancing your child’s powers of observation with this Spring Scavenger Hunt activity, straight from the pages of the WinterKids Guide to Active Outdoor Learning.
READ MOREWith playgrounds, gymnastics, swimming pools, sports teams, and more currently closed for our safety, we’re having to find other ways to keep our children moving and active. Yoga can be a great option for all ages and levels! No gear is needed, it can be practiced in a small space, or outdoors, solo, or together.
READ MOREIf you're concerned that your kids are too young to talk about race, you're not alone. It can feel daunting to talk about race, gender, and class with children, but…
READ MOREAs parks, trails, and beaches begin to reopen, it can be confusing to navigate this “new normal” in terms of how to #RecreateResponsibly. These guidelines give advice on how to get outdoors right now.
READ MORELEARN, EXPLORE, and MOVE with us! These ideas can be adapted and used in a home setting or classroom setting. Follow along for our book recommendations, fantastic resources for learning more about birds, a simple binoculars craft for backyard bird watching, bird-themed Simon Says, songs about birds, and even bird-themed yoga!
READ MORELet’s Dance! These DIY Wind Streamers are a fun art project, and they’ll help inspire curiosity and movement while they learn basic earth science lessons.
READ MORETake the kids outside-your yard or a park or other outdoor space where trees may have dropped branches. Time to play “pick up sticks!” Seriation is arranging objects in order by size, location or position. Sorting and ordering are the building blocks of mathematics.
READ MOREWe were inspired by “I LOVE the Rain” (one of our books of the month) to make little stick rafts for bugs and fairies! We anxiously waited for a rainy day to bring enough puddles and streams, so that we could give this a try. Next time it’s raining where you are, gather your supplies, slip on those rain boots and raincoats, and head outside to create your own stick rafts!
READ MORELooking for an indoor project? Try this art project with your children Seed Mosaics from the WinterKids Guide to Outdoor Active Learning, Preschool Edition. Kids (and adults) can get creative and make attractive, edible (for our bird friends) art to hang outside for the birds.
READ MORERemember when you asked that small business to support your fundraiser? Now is the time to support them. Here are 5 ways you can help, and a list of businesses who have contributed to WinterKids programs.
READ MOREVolunteer Week 2020 is upon us, and we are celebrating a great winter 2019/2020 season that would not have been possible without our dedicated WinterKids volunteers! We wanted to learn more about why WinterKids volunteers are so passionate and dedicated, so we reached out to a few of our long-standing volunteers. Here’s what they had to say…
READ MORESpring is in the air, it’s a fun time of year to teach the kids about all the new things they can see and do outside whether rain or shine!
READ MOREAn epic WinterKids Downhill 24 at Sugarloaf Mountain is now on the books, shattering all previous fundraising records for this, our 8th year of the event, and 5th year at Sugarloaf Mountain!
READ MORESkiers and snowboarders raised $562,000 at the WinterKids Downhill 24 and the organization chose to support the local kids in Franklin and Somerset counties by giving $25,000 to the Sugarloaf Ski Club’s King’s Kids Fund.
READ MOREWe wanted to learn more about the impact the WinterKids Winter Games made this season, so we reached out to our top three winning schools, Prescott Memorial, Jonesport Elementary, and Dr. Levesque Elementary to share their experiences. Here’s what they had to say…
READ MOREOur March books of the month will keep your kids busy and curious as we transition out of winter and into…spring!
READ MOREThe WinterKids Winter Games 2020 got 32 Maine schools (2 in every county in Maine), including 7,332 kids and 1087 teachers and support staff to take their classrooms outside this winter, learning, playing, and taking advantage of the magic that is Winter in Maine! Here’s a play by play rundown of what happened during this year’s Winter Games!
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