Arctic Animals and Snow

It's getting super cold here. Temperatures in the single digits, BURRR! Even though we rarely have snow we are exploring fake snow in our sensory bin! I wanted to use something that all the kids could play in, so I needed something edible. I used a large tub of potato flakes from Sam's Club.  I included our arctic animals, some glass decorative discs for the "ocean," some spoons, scoops, and a couple containers. The containers, scoops and spoons are always included.
A loved scooping the "snow" and the glass discs into the bowl, dumping it out, and refilling. Then he enjoyed making the whale swim. He "swam" the whale all around the bin chanting, "swim, swim, swim."
R spent her time creating a birthday cake for all the penguin babies to eat. She scooped and stirred. When she was ready we all spent a moment singing "Happy Birthday" to the penguins. Then she had them eating their cake. R took a turn having his animals eating as well.
I LOVE how they are beginning to pretend play and A is learning to engage in the story that is going on.

 Every month we learn about a new animal. I let our subscription to Zoolets dictated what animal we are exploring. This month is penguins. All the kids seem to love penguins. And while we spend each day reading a little more about them in our Zoolets magazine, we, also, watch videos, pretend play, and read nonfiction and fiction books about our animals.
I believe that reading nonfiction is especially important for young children. Our books we are reading this month to further explore penguins are Planet Earth Penguins and Your Personal Penguin. Both are listed below.

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Earth-Penguins-Quinlan-Lee/dp/0545080827

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Personal-Penguin-Sandra-Boynton/dp/0761143726/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421123586&sr=1-1&keywords=your+personal+penguin