Our Outdoor Play Area in Winter

We have made a lot of changes to our outdoor play area, but when winter comes.... it is hard to tell in the snow! This is what "lake effect" snow looks like:

Our music area. (I had considered moving it in for the winter, but thought we would try it out in the snow.... The drum and stumps are now covered.)

There won't be any mud pies for a couple of months, although some snow pies may be in the works......

All of this snow came within the last 24 hours. We've been out shoveling.

We love living on a hill.....

When the snow from the parking pad is shoveled, We have a great "butt" slide.

We call it a "butt" slide because we have to go down on our bottoms. We save the sleds for the park where we don't have to worry about the fence :).

Although, sometimes it is just as fun to go down on our bellies! It was a great day to test out the new snow, I'm sure all of our daycare friends will be itching to get out there tomorrow too! I'm sure we'll be hauling out the sleds and headed for the park!

According to the weather forecast, we'll be looking at snow all week!

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A Few Ideas With Marker Caps (As Promised)

Yesterday, I hope I convinced you not to throw away your markers that "don't work." Today, I will share with you a few ideas for what to do with all of the caps. The possibilities are nearly endless, but here are a few of our recent creations: 1) A Leprechaun/Fairy Ladder/Rope Ladder: 2) #1 if not permanently secured can also double as a rope bridge: 3) #1/#2 can also be made into a train track for your homemade trains :). (No photo available) 4) You can use them as beads for a necklace: 5) You could make them into a wind chime. (No photo available). 6. You can use them as small manipulatives to count, sort, and make patterns with. (No photo available). 7) You could use them as playing pieces in your own homemade board game. (No photo available). 8) You could put them on a wire and glue them in place to make a twirling whirly-gig. 9) You could top them with a lid from a milk jug to make tiny tables or toadstools. 10) You could make them...

Easter Egg Caterpillars!

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Xylophones and Outdoor Music (Originally posted May 2010)

These posts were originally published in May of 2010. Our music area has been updated quite a bit since then, but it will give you some basic instructions for creating the xylophone. I've wanted to make an outdoor area for music for quite some time. We had a new fence installed around the play area, and my thought was to put a HUGE xylophone on the fence, like the one we saw mounted on the wall at the U.P. Children's Museum. However, after being inspired with additional ideas for an outdoor area through following Teach Preschool on Facebook, we have opted to create an entire section of our outdoor play space to making music! The first project for our Music area was a Giant Xylophone. Here are a few photos as we worked to put it together. This photo is of our temporary installation. Due to the size of the xylophone, we need to reinforce it with wood, as the string is not strong enough to account for gravity. The xylophone is made out of scrap 2x4 pieces...

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