Wonderful Winter Activities!
Happy New Year from the AIS Vision Team! We are not quite done celebrating all things winter yet, so zip up your jackets, put your boots on, and hang on tight for this week's blog post to be filled with indoor and outdoor winter activity ideas! Of course, these ideas are adapted to be tactile and meaningful for our children who are blind and visually impaired!
Indoor Activities
A sensory bin is always a great place to start for winter! You don't even have to leave the warmth of your home! This wonderful sensory bin is filled with yummy treats and ingredients for hot chocolate!
Another wonderful idea is to make your own hot chocolate! Here are a few recipes that use different ingredients from around your home! It is always fun to mix and match the flavors and try something new!
Sometimes it is not possible to get outdoors, so bring the snow inside! Homemade snow can be very fun and it has the same consistency as real snow, just without the cold! This is great for children who have sensitivity or do not like getting their hands wet. I found two recipes online. The first is mixing conditioner and baking soda together. The second is mixing baking soda and shaving cream together! Either way, use however much you want until you get the consistency you desire to mold the snow! You can also use food coloring in it, but I would wear gloves so it does not stain your hands or clothing!
A really fun game that can involve different sounds is a bucket toss! I would fill the buckets with different items such as beans, tin foil, bells, water, etc. That way, when your child tosses the ball into a bucket for points, they can tell how many points they received just by the sounds!
Who doesn't love marshmallows?!?!?!?!!? This is a very easy and fun way to use them to make art projects! Using toothpicks, make any design of marshmallows (we used different sizes) to make creatures, snowmen, or animals! Then you can eat them!
The final indoor project is tactile painting! All you need is a shape formed from WikiStix on a paper, some shaving cream, glue, and glitter! You fill the shape with shaving cream, add glue on top and mix it all together. It dries a little fluffy and holds glitter very well! Its a fun way to incorporate sensory activities with a tactile finished product!
Indoor OR Outdoor
Bowling is always a fun game to play inside or outside! Just by using some simple plastic cups, you can set up a target. For the indoor game, you can use some of your homemade snow or a ball to roll towards the target. I would also put a sound source in the target so that the child knows where to aim. For outdoor bowling, use real snowballs! You can also use the colored homemade snowballs to see them easier!
It is always a good idea to help out our animal friends during the winter! Here is a wonderful idea for a bird feeder that hangs from a tree branch. You mix seed, berries and nuts together with some gelatin and water. Form them in a cookie sheet and you are ready to go! You can also use other items to make feeders for deer and rabbits. We used corn and nuts for the ground feeders, and a plastic cup as a bigger mold! This is a fun way to get outside and go for a nature walk to help the animals!
Tinker trays are always so fun! You can create almost anything with them and it is all tactile! In this activity you can include math lessons such as symmetry as well as Science lessons if you are trying to create a certain shape.
Whatever winter activities you do, be sure to stay warm! Have a great week!
Alex, AIS Vision Team
Indoor Activities
A sensory bin is always a great place to start for winter! You don't even have to leave the warmth of your home! This wonderful sensory bin is filled with yummy treats and ingredients for hot chocolate!
Another wonderful idea is to make your own hot chocolate! Here are a few recipes that use different ingredients from around your home! It is always fun to mix and match the flavors and try something new!
Sometimes it is not possible to get outdoors, so bring the snow inside! Homemade snow can be very fun and it has the same consistency as real snow, just without the cold! This is great for children who have sensitivity or do not like getting their hands wet. I found two recipes online. The first is mixing conditioner and baking soda together. The second is mixing baking soda and shaving cream together! Either way, use however much you want until you get the consistency you desire to mold the snow! You can also use food coloring in it, but I would wear gloves so it does not stain your hands or clothing!
A really fun game that can involve different sounds is a bucket toss! I would fill the buckets with different items such as beans, tin foil, bells, water, etc. That way, when your child tosses the ball into a bucket for points, they can tell how many points they received just by the sounds!
Who doesn't love marshmallows?!?!?!?!!? This is a very easy and fun way to use them to make art projects! Using toothpicks, make any design of marshmallows (we used different sizes) to make creatures, snowmen, or animals! Then you can eat them!
The final indoor project is tactile painting! All you need is a shape formed from WikiStix on a paper, some shaving cream, glue, and glitter! You fill the shape with shaving cream, add glue on top and mix it all together. It dries a little fluffy and holds glitter very well! Its a fun way to incorporate sensory activities with a tactile finished product!
Indoor OR Outdoor
Bowling is always a fun game to play inside or outside! Just by using some simple plastic cups, you can set up a target. For the indoor game, you can use some of your homemade snow or a ball to roll towards the target. I would also put a sound source in the target so that the child knows where to aim. For outdoor bowling, use real snowballs! You can also use the colored homemade snowballs to see them easier!
It is always a good idea to help out our animal friends during the winter! Here is a wonderful idea for a bird feeder that hangs from a tree branch. You mix seed, berries and nuts together with some gelatin and water. Form them in a cookie sheet and you are ready to go! You can also use other items to make feeders for deer and rabbits. We used corn and nuts for the ground feeders, and a plastic cup as a bigger mold! This is a fun way to get outside and go for a nature walk to help the animals!
Tinker trays are always so fun! You can create almost anything with them and it is all tactile! In this activity you can include math lessons such as symmetry as well as Science lessons if you are trying to create a certain shape.
Whatever winter activities you do, be sure to stay warm! Have a great week!
Alex, AIS Vision Team
Comments