Love Calvin and Hobbes 
I started doing Alphabets with Aarya sometime back but I never did “themes” with him. This was before I was a “Pinterest addict”, now I follow a LOT of blogs religiously who have helped me design and given me the courage to do a theme with Aarya
I decided “S” was the best alphabet to do in Winter and “Snow” is a concept that Aarya just absolutely LOVES We have never had snow here, but when I was in Northern states of India I have seen it. But Aarya and his Dad have never seen snow but we see it on TV, videos and BOOKS all the time and Aarya LOVES it.
I started by introducing “S” letter and sound – Aarya could not make the sound at all. He was disappointed and left the scene (so typical of him). I persisted by making him realize all the words he knows by saying “Oh! This is Sauce… s s sauce”; then another day “This is s s spider” or”This is s s s seal”.. “look s s sea” and finally ” s s s snow!” … there I had his attention there 
. He tried it and it came out as “No”.. and I now here it all the time “No Mama NO! Look!” (so cute! but we still did not have the “s” sound)! After some days he magically said “ss sauce” He still goes “No” instead of Snow but that is ok! he is got the sound.
After we got the sound right I put out a small sensory bin. I put the thermocol that comes in packing (this thermocol was broken by Aarya earlier one day and I had saved the “snow” balls) He added the animals that were kept nearby to it (which reminded me we needed to do animals in winter later because Cow should not be in this bin) -
Next we did Pattern Block “S” which I downloaded from Confessions of a Homeschooling Mom. Download it here.
The same day night I filled a container with water and put a Doraemon toy in a plastic cover and asked Aarya to fill it with water, then we put it in the freezer. (I added the eyes and nose with sketch pen which got wiped off when we took it out. I found this idea on Teach Preschool blog, who did Snowman in a bottle and Snowman in a bag activity with her preschool kids. There she used real snow, here I just froze some water. Next time I would take some ice and crush it and use it to do this activity – it will look more realistic.
Next up we made snowman from a cornflour/ flour dough. I did not have enough cornflour to make this sensory activity so I added some flour and salt and warm water to make a mouldable snow dough. This was fun too.
Snowman also needs excercise lol!
Our next activity was Snow Sifting which is a very simple activity – here i have used Salt and “hid some tiny letters. Montessori Moments added “snowflakes” in it. Anyhow this was the 2nd favorite activity after the snow-bin above. Before, during and after the activities and all through the day we checked on our snowman which I kept outside so that it melts.
Colored Construction Paper, White paint and some lids.
Next up some ART, no activity is complete without ART and BOOKS. So we made snowflakes from some white paint and some bottle caps and knick-knacks I found in the kitchen. Aarya decided to cover himself in snow too lol!
We did more activities; and this has been he most successful theme yet.
We read A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats on We Give Books site( a great site where you can read a lot of Children Books – I am thankful to them a LOT) , because I could not get it here and it was too costly to buy online. Activities on that in the next post.
<<Aarya is 33 months old>>
Linking to -
Link&Learn – Weekly Kids Craft Linky
This was a wonderful exploration of the letter S and Snow! I am so impressed by your patience and creativity! What a wonderful learning environment and opportunities you are providing!
Thank You, Deborah!
Great activities! Our yard is covered in snow right now and my boys love it. I may have to do some of these activities with them.
Thank you! I wish we had snow too
This is such a cute unit! I love the pattern block letters!
Thank you! Thanks to Confessions of a Homeschooler for those, she has some of the best resources
I love how you used the packaging material broken up as the snow balls. What a fabulous idea!!
Thank you, Rachel. He started breaking the material and told me – “Mam nook, nnooo”. It took m ea while to understand that he was saying – “Mama look, Snow
”. I saved it for him then.
Such a wonderful way to learn the letter S and Snow! Love the pattern block alphabets. Goodluck to you and aarya
You really out-did yourself. It’s fantastic! I love the voices of 2 and 3 year-olds. They are just too cute. Make sure you video or record his voice now, because you will forget how he sounds and how adorable it is. A lot of younger children have a hard time saying the “sn” sound so a lot of them say “no” for snow. He’ll grow out of it, but before he does tape him saying it!
Thank you, Lori! I think this is the best letter activity week, we have done so far. I am so proud of him, he can say his “ssss” properly. Thank you, for letting me know about the “sn” sound too because I am always worried that he cannot make so many letter sounds and is so behind in “talking”.
Thank You, Roopa.
Pingback: Winter fun continued – Snow sifting. | Our Ordinary Life
Wow! You two kept busy. I got tired just reading it all
I need to start doing themes with Gage too. Thanks for the kick in the pants, friend.
Thanks Stacy =) I am not regular, but somedays are better than the rest =)