ALL ABOARD: WE’RE GATHERING STEAM

This week’s topic is MATH. Make math fun (and tasty) with this marshmallow counting activity.

You’ll need the following:

  • Pictures of mugs (or actual mugs)
  • A marker
  • Marshmallows

Instructions

  1. Lay out pictures of hot chocolate mugs
  2. Write numbers on them with your marker
  3. Ask your child to match the same number of marshmallows to the number on the mug
  4. If they answer correctly, they can eat them as a bonus treat!

Learning how to count can be difficult for children. This homemade counting activity can make it fun! Children will learn how to match numbers and count out the correct number. Motivating them with a game is a good way to start learning about math.

ALL ABOARD: WE’RE GATHERING STEAM

Snow, snow, snow. Let’s turn this snow into something fun and make ice marbles! These are not only fun to make, but also a pretty lawn decoration.

You’ll need the following:

  • Balloons
  • Food colouring
  • Water
  • A freezer
  • Scissors

Instructions

  1. Place a few droplets of food colouring into your balloon
  2. Fill balloon with water and tie the end
  3. Place outside (if cold enough), or in the freezer for 24 hours
  4. Use scissors to cut the end off the balloon and peel away
  5. Place outside for pretty lawn décor

Ice marbles are a simple activity for children but create an interesting display for your yard. Children can make them into a pattern or build a mini structure out of them too.

ALL ABOARD: WE’RE GATHERING STEAM

This week’s area of focus is ENGINEERING. Snowflakes are magical, beautiful, and complicated mini structures of ice. Let’s build our own from q-tips!

You’ll need the following:

  • Q tips
  • Glue
  • Felt or paper
  • Sparkles or glitter (optional)

Instructions

    1. Cut your q-tips up in different sizes
    2. Start assembling them to make a snowflake pattern

Once you like your pattern, add glue onto the back of the q-tip and place them onto your felt/paper to form a snowflake pattern.

Snowflakes are nature’s own engineering phenomenon. They are all unique and made from water droplets freezing in the sky. Some data engineers even study snowflakes to find trends in certain regions. 

ALL ABOARD: WE’RE GATHERING STEAM

It’s time to learn about winter weather and make a homemade thermometer with this week’s focus on TECHNOLOGY.

You’ll need the following:

  • A clear plastic bottle/container
  • A straw that you can see through
  • Clay or playdoh
  • Red food colouring
  • Water
  • Rubbing alcohol
  • Cooking oil

Instructions

  1. Add red food colouring, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup alcohol and a tablespoon of oil into a container and mix.
  2. Place your straw inside the container, leaving about ½ inch at the bottom and cover the container mouth with your clay.
  3. Place your DIY thermometer outside in the cold and look at the difference in how high the liquid rises in the straw at various temperatures.

Most thermometers contain alcohol due to its low freezing point. As the temperature of the alcohol increases, it will cause the liquid inside the homemade thermometer to rise! Let’s hope we have a warm winter.

Source: Little Bins For Little Hands

LOVE LOCAL: SPARK CREATIVE LEARNING IN MANITOBA


Source: gimliicefestival.com

Take in the Gimli Ice Festival this weekend (March 5-6, 2022) and discover activities like the 5K (or 10K!) ice walk (or run, skate, snowshoe, bike, or ski) competition, frozen t-shirt contest, kids’ colouring competition, frozen fish toss, snow or ice creation contest, viking life re-enactors, and much more! Learn more.

LOVE LOCAL: SPARK CREATIVE LEARNING IN WINNIPEG


Source: publiccityarchitecture.com

Check out Manitoboggan at St. Vital Park, Winnipeg’s first barrier-free and universally accessible toboggan slide. The project was initiated by the City of Winnipeg to replace the previous 1980s-era toboggan slides and warming shelter, which burned down in 2013, and was seen as an opportunity to provide the community with a better, more inclusive winter experience. The complex includes two new toboggan chutes at differing heights, a four-season warming shelter, a treetop ramp walkway through the forest, and a viewing deck facing the slides. Learn more.

CREATION STATION: PAPER + POPSICLE STICK SKATES


Source: capturingparenthood.com

If it’s too cold to go skating, bring a fun skating activity indoors with this cute, wintery craft!

Materials

  • White paper
  • Markers, bingo dabbers, or other decorating tool of your choice
  • Scissors
  • Two popsicle sticks
  • Glue
  • Hole punch
  • Yarn

Directions

  • Fold a piece of paper in two and cut out a simple boot shape, leaving the two bottom components of each skate attached. (This provides a resting spot for the popsicle stick blades when the paper is folded back together.)
  • Stamp or colour the skate boots however you like! (If your kids are heavy-handed on the dot marker stamping, your paper skates might start rolling up as they dry. Nothing that laying them flat underneath a couple of heavy books can’t fix.)
  • Once the paper is dry, attach the popsicle sticks with a small dab of glue, then proceed by gluing the two interior sides of each paper skate together. Set aside for the glue to dry completely.
  • The final step is to add the laces by simply weaving yarn through a handful of holes created using a single-hole punch. Then you can use the tops of the laces to tie the skates together!

explore more:

LOVE LOCAL: SPARK CREATIVE LEARNING IN MANITOBA


Source: Falcon Beach Ranch

Make your way through the snow-covered trails of Whiteshell Provincial Park via horse-drawn sleigh or on horseback with winter activities from Falcon Beach Ranch. The hour-long trek by horseback is available for those 12 years old and up, sleigh rides are available for families with younger kids, and both run throughout the winter. Learn more and reserve your spot.

CREATION STATION: CATCHING SNOWFLAKES ON YOUR TONGUE SELF-PORTRAIT


Source: artisandesarts.blogspot.com

This is an incredibly cute idea for a wintery self-portrait with a few different ways to approach it – you could do oil pastel drawings, as pictured above, or use coloured construction paper to cut out and glue all the different parts of each child’s features and winter gear. The square teeth look especially fun from this angle!

Materials

  • Construction paper
  • Oil pastels

Directions

  • Ask kids to think about what they would look like with their heads tilted back and tongues out, catching snowflakes as they fall. What does their hair look like? What direction does their nose point in? How would they draw their scarf or coat?
  • Ask kids to draw themselves from this angle, using a reference like the example above. Don’t forget the snowflake that landed on their tongue!

LOVE LOCAL: SPARK CREATIVE LEARNING IN WINNIPEG


Source: wag.ca

Be transported to the North at the Winnipeg Art Gallery with outdoor projections of contemporary Inuit artwork and imagery, highlighting Qaumajuq, the Inuit art centre. This 20-minute show loops on the exterior of the Qaumajuq building on St. Mary Avenue and runs nightly from sundown until 10:00PM.

Enjoy beautiful northern lights projections alongside artwork by Inuk artist Glenn Gear (featured in INUA). Plus, you’ll experience artist Geronimo Inutiq’s short film Riders, using National Film Board of Canada archival material to honour the ancestors and family members of artists and community members.