Snowball Painting and Train Play: Winter Book Activities {All Things Kids}

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I am so excited to announce the launch of a new initiative, building on collaboration with some really wonderful bloggers: Jaime of Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, Mary Catherine of Fun-A-Day!, Blayne of House of Burke, Heather of Crayon Box Chronicles, Tina of Mamas Like Me, and Colleen of Sugar Aunts.  Every day this week a different blogger will be sharing a book-inspired winter craft – see the end of this post for a full schedule and a place to link up your great winter posts!

For more winter fun ideas, be sure to follow our group All Things Kids board and my Winter Wonderland for Kids board on Pinterest!

For my part in this series, I was inspired by a book Monkey and I found recently: Snowmen at Work by Caralyn Buehner.  Monkey adores snowmen, as do I, so this is a really fun book to read together.  The illustrations by Mark Buehner are amazing, and there is even a seek and find element to the book, as you try to find different animals hidden in each painting.

Since this book is all about snowy fun, I decided we should do snowball painting!

Yes, we do live in California, so no, we do not have any actual snow to paint.  Instead, we grabbed the next best thing: cotton balls!  My idea was to paint with the cotton balls, which is exactly what I did.  They are really fun to use and make for some interesting art.  For younger kids, they might be easier to hold than paint brushes, while still giving some fine motor practice and winter sensory fun.

Monkey came up with another idea for how to paint with our “snow balls.”  Basically, he used the paint like glue, dipping the cotton balls into the color he wanted and then sticking them onto the paper to make a design.

It was also fun to just let him play and roll the “snowballs” in the paint.

Snowmen at Work is based on a little boy’s fantasy about the jobs that snowmen might do – a dentist fixing the coal in a snowman’s smile, and so on.  My favorite is that the pizza snowman delivers frozen pizza!  Monkey loves trains, so his favorite part of the book is the toy factory, which features snowmen making toy trains.  He loves to examine the picture, reciting over and over the order in which the parts of the train are assembled.

To capitalize on his interest, I made him a felt train that he can assemble himself.  Great activity for when Little Monkey is napping!

What winter books are you reading with your little ones?

I am forever indebted to Jaime of Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails for starting the All Things Kids Google + community.  It is a great place to network and find ideas for activities, crafts, and treats for kids!  And now several of the moms behind that community have come together for our first monthly series – Winter Books Crafts & Activities!  Be sure to link up your own book-inspired winter play below, and don’t forget to check out all the great posts in this series:

Monday: Fun-A-Day!

Tuesday: All Done Monkey

Wednesday: House of Burke

Thursday: Crayon Box Chronicles

Friday: Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Saturday: Mamas Like Me

Sunday: Sugar Aunts