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Activities & Printables

12 Ideas for Outdoor Winter Fun
12 Ideas for Outdoor Winter Fun Dr Levesque 2019 Winter Games Week 1

12 Ideas for Outdoor Winter Fun

Studies show that getting outside helps children to be more positive, creative, and adaptable, and more importantly, has a strong potential to improve mental health in areas of general wellbeing, resilience, restoration, and cognition. We believe that the shorter, darker, winter days make getting outside more important than any other time of year. So what are you waiting for? If it’s cold where you are, bundle your children up, and give some of these ideas for outdoor winter fun a try!

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Ice Orbs: An Outdoor Learning Activity
Ash Point Ice Orbs 06

Ice Orbs: An Outdoor Learning Activity

This activity was designed for students in early elementary. After learning about the Properties of Matter, students use balloons and colorful water to create ice orbs for an outdoor winter garden display. Thank you to the team of educators at Ash Point Community School in Owls Head, Maine who shared this activity with us during the 2020 WinterKids Winter Games!

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Snowflake Study: An Outdoor Science Activity
Studying Snow Crystals WinterKids Teachers Sharing Series5

Snowflake Study: An Outdoor Science Activity

This activity was designed for students in 2nd grade. After researching and learning about snowflakes in the classroom, students head outside to catch snowflakes and study them with magnifying glasses. Created and shared by the amazing teachers at Ames Elementary School in Searsmont, Maine!

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The Sugar is Right Game Show
Sugar is Right Game HB Emery 01 Teachers Sharing WinterKids

The Sugar is Right Game Show

Here is a fun, nutrition themed spin of the game The Price is Right, created and shared by the amazing teachers at HB Emery Jr. Memorial School in Limington, Maine!

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Hockey Hockey Hippo: A Movement Based Game
Hockey Hockey Hippo Edna Libby

Hockey Hockey Hippo: A Movement Based Game

This fun movement activity brings the classic board game Hungry Hungry Hippos to life! Thank you to the wonderful team of teachers at Edna Libby Elementary School in Standish, Maine for designing, implementing, and sharing this activity! We’ve also included a list of some of our favorite children’s literature books about hockey!

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Go, Slow, Whoa Foods
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The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Go, Slow, Whoa Foods

This is a fun, movement-based extension activity for the Creating A Better Plate lesson from the WinterKids Guide to Active Outdoor Learning. Thank you to the wonderful team of teachers at Harrison Elementary School in Harrison, Maine who designed, implemented, and shared this activity!

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Smoothie Challenge
Smoothie Challenge Dr Levesque Elementary5

Smoothie Challenge

This is a great activity for connecting a nutrition/healthy foods study to Common Core ELA Standards. Thank you to the wonderful team of teachers at Dr. Levesque Elementary in Frenchville, Maine who designed, implemented, and shared this activity during the 2020 WinterKids Winter Games!

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11 Outdoor Learning Activities that Celebrate Fall
Outdoor Learning Activities that Celebrate Fall WinterKids2

11 Outdoor Learning Activities that Celebrate Fall

The changing of the seasons each fall means incredible foliage, the return of snuggly sweaters, pumpkin-spiced everything, and best of all, an opportunity for children to spend time outside learning about all things Autumn! We’ve rounded up some fun ways you and your family can get outside this season to celebrate fall.

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Summer Fun Puzzles for Preschoolers
x Summer Fun Puzzles WinterKids IMG 9775

Summer Fun Puzzles for Preschoolers

Print, laminate, and cut these 11 customizable summer recreation picture puzzles for preschoolers. In addition to the benefits of working on a puzzle, these can be great for vocabulary development and may spark an interest in a new outdoor sport!

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Stories & Sensory Tables: Swimming Animals
Swimming Animals Activity WinterKids IMG 7565

Stories & Sensory Tables: Swimming Animals

This swimming animals themed sensory play provides an opportunity for children to work on their fine motor skills, creativity, social skills and literacy skills, as children retell a story and bring it to life using items at the table!

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15 Ways to Incorporate Water & Ice into Active Outdoor Play & Stay Cool This Summer
Water Ice Games to Stay Cool

15 Ways to Incorporate Water & Ice into Active Outdoor Play & Stay Cool This Summer

The heat is on this summer, but that doesn't mean everyone needs to stay cooped up near the air conditioner! We've pulled together 15 ways you can incorporate water and…

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11 Nature Play Ideas to Inspire Active Outdoor Learning this Summer
Nature Play Active Outdoor Learning

11 Nature Play Ideas to Inspire Active Outdoor Learning this Summer

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…

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Move, Learn & Explore with WinterKids: The Water Cycle + Ice Cube Painting
Water Science and Ice Cube Painting WinterKids 2934

Move, Learn & Explore with WinterKids: The Water Cycle + Ice Cube Painting

It’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.

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Stories & Sensory Tables: Exploring Sand + Sandcastles
Stories Sensory Tables Exploring Sand Sandcastles WinterKids

Stories & Sensory Tables: Exploring Sand + Sandcastles

Studies 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!

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Dramatic Play: Bike Shop
Dramatic Play Bike Shop WinterKids 08

Dramatic Play: Bike Shop

Step 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!

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Bring Summer Camp to Your Own Back Yard With Back40 and The Trail Van!
Backyard Summer Camp with Back40 Campfire

Bring Summer Camp to Your Own Back Yard With Back40 and The Trail Van!

If 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.

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Moving Mathematics for Grades 6-8
Moving Mathematics Lesson Plan

Moving Mathematics for Grades 6-8

This 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!

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How to Create Fun Nature Treasure Hunts Using Egg Cartons
Object Hunt Example

How to Create Fun Nature Treasure Hunts Using Egg Cartons

Exploring 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.

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MOVE. LEARN. EXPLORE. with WinterKids: Spring Yoga Stories, for Preschoolers
Spring Yoga for Kids WinterKids Blog featured image

MOVE. LEARN. EXPLORE. with WinterKids: Spring Yoga Stories, for Preschoolers

With 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.

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MOVE. LEARN. EXPLORE. with WinterKids: BIRDS
BIRDS for Preschool and Early Elementary WinterKids Blog1

MOVE. LEARN. EXPLORE. with WinterKids: BIRDS

LEARN, 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!

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DIY Wind Streamers
DIY Wind Streamers WinterKids Blog

DIY Wind Streamers

Let’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.

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Stick Seriation (aka: Arranging Sticks)
Stick Derivation WinterKids03

Stick Seriation (aka: Arranging Sticks)

Take 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.

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DIY Stick Rafts For Rainy Day Water Play
DIY Stick Rafts WinterKids4

DIY Stick Rafts For Rainy Day Water Play

We 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!

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DIY Seed Mosaic Bird Feeders
DIY Seed Mosaic Bird Feeders WinterKids1

DIY Seed Mosaic Bird Feeders

Looking 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.

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