Educational Games for Snow Days

Parents dread them, kids celebrate them. I'm talking about those unexpected snow days. I can remember waking up on a snowy winter day at 6am, getting dressed, only to find out that our school was closed. It took us less than 60 seconds to get out of our school clothes and put on our play clothes. After breakfast dad would bundled us up and we would play outside until our clothes were soaked to the bone and our hands and feet went numb. Mom, on the other hand, made sure we didn't spend the entire day playing. She would make us review our previous night's homework. Boring!

As a grandparent helping to raise my granddaughter snow days have become less of a play day and more of a fun learning experience. If you live in the mountains you may experience 8-10 snow days over the course of the winter months. Students can expect to attend Saturday classes or extended school year calendar days to make up for those missed classes. Teachers now email elective snow day assignments to prevent students from falling behind in their studies. In forth grade students are studying US Standard Units and the Metric System. They are also learning to recognize two dimensional polygons and writing out basic mathematical equations. Here are some educational snow games to teach these subjects and have fun at the same time.

Guess the Snow Fall: This game requires colored post-its, healthy snack treats, and 12-inch plastic rulers. Have each child stand them up in a flat snowy area. Have them to write down how many inches of snow they think will fall in an hour and place their guess on a color post-it then stick it on their ruler. The one who comes closest to the total snow fall amount wins a treat! Of course if it snows over 12 inches, postpone the game, go inside and eat the treats!

Metric Snowman Challenge: You will need items to dress and decorate a snowman like old hats, umbrellas, mittens, scarves, buttons, etc and a box to put them in. Building a snowman requires three spheres; one large sphere for his base, a mid-sized sphere for his midsection and small sphere for his head. Give each child the metric measurement for each sphere and see how close they come to the actual measurement. Use a metric measuring tape for accuracy. The child who comes closest to the correct measurement gets first pick from the box of decorations to dress up their snowman. It may be fun to take digital photos for them to show at school and preserve their snow day accomplishment.

Melt Away Snowman: After you've completed your snowman place the three portions in plastic containers or buckets. You will need a measuring cups and/or pint containers. Let Frosty melt then caculate how many pints, quarts of gallons of water it took to make your snowman.

Snowball Frenzy: You will need two 5-gallon buckets and a measuring tape. Two teams of children will fill a bucket with snow. Have a contest to see how many snowballs of a specified dimension can be made in 30-seconds. In example: how many snowballs with an 8-inch circumference can you make from a 5-gallon bucket of snow? The team that finishes first with three or more snowballs that size gets to pummel the other team with the snowballs. Remember never throw snowballs at or toward the area of the face. After your friendly snowball toss the winning team get to help parents make hot chocolate for everyone.

There's No Fun like Snow Fun: After the educational snow fun has ended get out and enjoy family time in the snow. Physical exercise is just as important as intellectual exercise. Take a short walk, go sledding, build a snow fort, etc. An invigorating day in the snow is a good cardiovascular workout. Always check with your doctor first before attempting any type of strenuous outdoor activity. And don't forget the hot cocoa . . . extra marshmallows, please!

Source(s):
http://www.mathsisfun.com/shape.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Have-Fun-on-a-Snow-Day