homeschoolinginwinter

Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

December 25, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

This easy cardinal birds in winter watercolor is a cute project. Be sure you grab more ideas for winter fun on my page winter season unit study.

And the watercolor painting of the cardinal birds in winter and fun birch trees makes a fun display to bring a pop of color.

In addition, you can create it as an art piece on its own or use it as part of a unit on winter birds or winter in general.

Cardinal Birds in Winter and Birch Trees Easy Watercolor Kids Activity

I have some great resources that will help you get started on your unit study.

Too, we are using two different kinds of paint on this cardinal project which are watercolor and acrylic

Also, you’ll learn a new technique to create a unique look to the bark of the birch trees.

But first look at these cardinal bird resources.

Cardinal Bird Hands-on Ideas

Do the Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity.
Work on this Colorful Winter Bird: Northern Cardinal Lapbook & Unit Study.
Make a yarn wrapped cardinal art project.
Try out my How to Make a Fun Paper Mache American Robin Bird Craft but make it a cardinal.
While you learn about these colorful winter birds you can help feed them with this Winter Nature Craft: How to Make Easy DIY Bird Feeders.
Cardinal Fun Fact Coloring Page.
Track how many cardinals visit your yard each day for a week, how many are male? How many are female?
YouTube, listen to the cardinals song with this video.

Next, add some fun books and resources about cardinals.

12 Northern Cardinal Bird Books and Resources For Children

Add a book or two to your unit study or to your learning day. Cardinals are fun to study anytime of the year.

Wild Bird Guide: Northern Cardinal

Packed with information, the writing is clear and direct and accessible to bird watchers at every level.

Backyard Birding for Kids

With bird facts, an identification guide, and how-to instructions, this is a perfect children’s introduction to bird-watching.

Albert

The morning begins like any other. Albert reaches out the window to check the weather. But from the moment a twig lands in the palm of his hand, life is never the same

Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the Natural World

One of my go tos for nature study.

Explore the anatomy of a jellyfish, the inside of a volcano, monarch butterfly migration, how sunsets work, and much more.

Rothman’s whimsical illustrations are paired with interactive activities that encourage curiosity and inspire you to look more closely at the

Because children's thinking is more visualized, the intuitive demonstration of the model can better help children construct in the brain. This birds playset can help children get a more direct understanding of real birds world and stimulate their interest in exploring nature.

Why Evergreens Keep Their Leaves

One autumn evening, Little Redbird settled down for one last sleep before flying south for winter. As he slept, a strong gust of wind shook him from his cozy nest . . .

. . . Little Redbird hurts his wing and misses his chance to fly south for the winter. As he searches for a new home amongst the trees, he begins to realize that not all trees are fit for the winter cold. As more and more trees refuse him shelter, too preoccupied with their preparations for the frost, Little Redbird fears the worst. That is, until he comes across a friendly bunch of evergreens.

In the spirit of Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince, Why Evergreens Keep Their Leaves is a timeless story of kindness and why the fir, spruce, and juniper trees are evergreen all winter long.

Backyard Birding Flashcards: 100 Common Birds

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds is now transformed into 100 easy-to-reference cards housed in one handsome pull-drawer gift box. Divided into one stack of 50 common Western and Eastern North American birds, and one stack of 50 common birds found across North America, each card features precise illustrations and text concerning habitat, behavior, and voice description necessary for easy identification.

Attracting & Feeding Cardinals

The vibrant red of the male Northern Cardinal is stunning any time of year—and nothing is more beautiful than the early spring duets of cardinals singing their hearts out. You love these beloved birds, and you want to see them visiting your backyard or garden. Professional naturalist and award-winning author Stan Tekiela teaches you all that you need to know about cardinals.

Cardinals (Backyard Bird Feeding Guides)

The vibrant red of the male Northern Cardinal is stunning any time of year. And nothing is more beautiful than the early spring duets of cardinals singing their hearts out.

Authentic Bird Sounds, Northern Cardinal, American Goldfinch, Chickadee

Kids and adults of all ages love these birds, and are captivated by their sounds. They also make great baby toys, and sensory toys for kids any age.

Includes 3 Realistically designed bird toys that produce authentic bird calls from the Cornell lab of ornithology archives of bird recordings.

The Burgess Bird Book for Children

The Burgess Bird Book for Children (1919) is a classic nature book by Thornton Burgess, who introduces young listeners to the subject of bird life by means of a series of interviews within a story. Peter Rabbit and Jenny Wren interview Slaty the Junco, Redwing the Blackbird, Melody the Wood Thrush, Spooky the Screech Owl, and many other common birds to learn about their appearance, their eating, mating and nesting habits, and their songs and calls. The text remains popular as an exceptional combination of information and entertainment.

Cardinals (Backyard Birds)

Whos that singing in the backyard? Its a cardinal! Find out where cardinals live, what they eat, and how to identify the birds and their eggs.

Furthermore, here are some cardinal facts.

Cardinal Facts

Northern Cardinals are mostly non migratory and stay in their habitat year round.
Their lifespan is about 3 years and the oldest recorded lived to be almost 16 years.
Cardinals are usually the first to visit backyard feeders in the morning and the last to visit at night.
Both male and female cardinals can sing unlike most other species of songbird. Male cardinals might sing up to 200 songs in just an hour.
Male cardinals are the bright red ones you see, females are a dull brown with just a bit of red on tail and wingtips.
Northern Cardinals are protected by the Migratory Bird Act, which means you can’t have one as a pet and it is illegal to kill them.
They get their red feathers from carotenoids in their food.

In addition, look at some more winters unit study ideas.

More Winter Unit Study Resources

Look at these other winter unit study resources.

Now, grab your art supplies and make this fun winter art project.

How to Make Cardinal Birds in Winter Watercolor

First, you will need:

Watercolor paper
Watercolors
Paintbrushes
Black acrylic paint
An old credit card

Next, here are the direction.

Use a watered down black or gray with a small paintbrush to outline a few general tree shapes and branches.

On as many branches as you would like, paint a red tear drop shape for your cardinals and add a little wedge at the base for a tail.

Fill in the blank spaces between the trees with various shades of blue; you don’t have to make it solid, whitespace looks great in watercolors.

Put a little black paint on a paper plate and tap the edge of a credit card into it, wipe off a little bit of excess.

Start on one side of the tree outline and set the edge of the card and then drag the card across the tree stopping halfway across.

This will give your bark the look of a birch tree. You can do this as much as you like up and down the tree.

Allow the black paint to dry fully.

Once paint is dry go back and add a little bit of black to the center of the bird’s face, black feet, and a bit of yellow for a beak.

When everything is dry your cardinals are ready to be displayed in a frame or as is.

What do you think? Ready to try this for a fun homeschool art, science, and hands-on lesson?

Cute and Simple Snowman Story Stones Winter Art Activities For Preschoolers

November 29, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, you’ll love these cute and simple snowman story stones for winter art activities for preschoolers. Grab my other ideas for a winter unit study.

I am all about learning through play as much as possible, especially when it comes to younger children.

Story stones are fantastic tools that can be used to teach your children so many early literacy skills and more.

Cute and Simple Snowman Story Stones Winter Art Activities For Preschoolers

They are inexpensive, easy to store and easy to use.

Too, they offer an open-ended learning experience that has many benefits for young budding readers.

First, in creating the story stones your child gets a chance to express themselves artistically.

In addition, they can work on fine motor skills and hand eye coordination.

Benefits of Storytelling Through Hands On

Then, in the storytelling there is so much that the story stones help build and improve.

For example, communication skills, language skills, listening, vocabulary, memorization, recall, imagination, creativity, and critical thinking.

Story stones also help children express their feelings, thoughts, and ideas.

Beautiful and Flexible Early Learner Homeschool Planner
$7.25 Add to cart

These open-ended winter themed story stones are sure to spark some fun and interesting tales that will entertain both you and your little one for hours.

You can use these story stones in so many ways to change up the learning.

14 Ways to Use Your Snowman Story Stones Creatively

Have your child blindly draw 4 or 5 stones from a bag and tell a story using the prompts on the stone.
Ask your child to choose 3 stones for first, next, last and tell you about it.
Use the stones for young children to work on positional words. For example, put the hat ON the snowman and put the snowman NEXT to the tree.
Draw a simple winter scene on a large piece of construction paper and encourage your child to place some stones around the scene and tell you about it.
Place them in their small world or sensory bin play and let creativity take over.

Start a story with “once upon a time”, pull a stone and give a couple sentences, the next player pulls a stone and continues the story, repeat.
Use in co-op in small group settings, take turns telling a piece of a larger story.
Tell a story using the picture prompts, present some sticky situations to your child, like the sun coming out, and ask your child to finish the story with solutions.
Use the stones to sort living and nonliving items.
Show the pictures on your stone and have your child tell you the beginning letter, sound, how many syllables, etc.

In the reverse call out a letter and have your child find a stone that starts with the letter.
Choose one stone and ask your child to describe it.
Practice writing the words for the pictures on the stones on paper, a chalk or led board.
Have your child practice stacking the stones as high as they can to work on fine motor skills and they can tell a story about the objects as they stack as well.

Next, look at some more winter unit study activities.

More Winter Unit Study Resources

Look at these other winter unit study resources and more winter art activities for preschoolers.

Too, here are some fun ideas of what to paint on your stones.

Of course the best pictures are ones your little ones love, but here are some ideas too.

Winter Art Activities For Preschoolers Storytelling Stones Ideas

A frozen pond
Snowmen
Hats
Trees
The sun
Spring flowers.
Animals
Childs favorite items like football, doll, bike, etc..
Snowflakes
A road
Letters or numbers
Your child’s name

How to Make Snowman Story Stones

You will need:

Large smooth river rocks. You want them large enough so there is enough surface area for your child to work on them.

I use acrylic paint /paint pens and sometimes both. Acrylic paint is easy to use, durable, and inexpensive. It is a great choice for this project.
Paintbrushes
Any matte clear sealing spray or you can brush on a couple coats of modge podge.

First, wash and dry your stones well to remove dust and dirt.

I got mine at a local landscape company but you can also find them on Amazon or at craft stores if not in your area.

Draw on your designs with a pencil until you are satisfied with them.

Then, use small paint brushes or paint pens to fill in your designs and allow them to dry completely and keep wet q tips on hand to tidy up your lines as needed.

You can also use a paint pen.

Or fabric paint, these have a great small tip for little hands but do come out thick.

Once the designs are dry spray well with a coat or two of clear sealer to preserve them or alternatively you can use paint on modge podge to seal.

Let dry according to directions on the can.

Store the story stones in a pretty basket on a low shelf to invite your curious creative little ones to use them.

Winter Craft Ideas How to Make Fun Pinecone Flowers

November 24, 2022 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

If you’re looking for winter craft ideas for a winter season unit study, your kids will love these fun pinecone flowers.

These pinecone flowers are adorable and add a sweet touch to your table or bookshelf.

Creating an entire bouquet is a great way to fill a chilly fall or winter afternoon with your nature lover.

Winter Craft Ideas How to Make Fun Pine Cone Flowers

I just love the mix of the natural and the handmade.

This activity can be done as a standalone or as part of a tree or pinecone unit study.

All you need to do is gather up some pinecones from the yard and a handful of small sturdy twigs and you are ready to get to creating a beautiful bouquet.

Favorite Nature Winter Craft Ideas

If you want to include this craft as part of a unit on pinecones or trees in general here are some of my favorite resources for nature study.

The Nature Anatomy book is always a goldmine of information.

There are plenty of pages on bark, leaves, pinecones, tree rings, etc.

Another great pinecone activity is this Easy and Fun PineCone Snowy Owl Winter Craft for Kindergarten.

This is a cute and well done Pinecone Unit Study that you can do.
Nature lovers should have a copy of Peterson First Guides Trees on hand. This is a great reference for home or to pack for nature walks.

Safari LTD Trees Toobs are great as a reference especially trees you might not see in person but they can also be used for dioramas and sensory bins.

Finally, explore this simple activity: Why Do Pinecones Open and Close While you have pinecones gather up.

Pinecone Facts

Also, here are a few pinecone facts.

The main purpose of a pinecone is to keep the tree’s seeds safe.
The inner bark can be sliced and fried, it is a good emergency food option.
Pinecones can stay on pine trees for more than 10 years before falling to the ground.
The large pinecones you see are the female pinecones.
Pinecones are the official Maine state flower.
Pine nuts can be used in coffee, jam, tea, and seasoning.
Pinecones are a natural barometer for predicting severe winters and forest fires. A pinecone on the forest ground is an indication of moisture and could mean a wildfire risk. The closed scales on a pinecone indicate damp conditions while open scales mean the forest floor is dry.
Pine, spruce, firs, cedars, larches, hemlocks, yews, etc. are all conifers and produce cones, but pinecones only come from pine trees.
The reason that pinecones close their scales is to protect the seeds from cold temperatures and the wind.

Other Winter Craft Ideas

Also, look at a few more craft ideas.

Now, look at how to make these fun pinecone flowers.

How to Make Pinecone Flowers

You will need:

Pinecones
Sticks
Craft paint
Paintbrushes
Toilet paper rolls
Pruning shears/cutters
Hot glue gun/sticks

Go on a nice leisurely nature walk and gather pinecones and twigs.

If you can’t find any in your area, they are easily found at craft stores in bags.

Clean the pinecones with soap and water to remove dirt, bugs and loose pieces.

Allow to dry completely. Use pruning shears or loppers to cut pinecones into about 3 pieces. Pull off loose leaves.

Cut empty toilet rolls into rings and use them to prop up your pinecones.

This will help them dry quicker from underneath.

Paint pinecones completely inside and out, top and bottom and allow them to dry.

Repeat with a second coat to get nice coverage, allowing it to dry completely.

If you like, add dots of yellow paint to the center to create the center of the flower the pistil.

Once all the paint is completely dry choose a twig to fit with the size of your pinecone and attach it to the bottom with a generous amount of hot glue.

You will need to hold each one in place while the hot glue cools and hardens. Repeat for each flower.

Once all stems have been added you can arrange them in a simple jar or lay them on shelves to brighten up your home.

Fun Selfie Salt Dough Gingerbread Kids Activity for Long Winter Nights

November 21, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today is National Gingerbread Cookie Day and your kids will love this fun selfie salt dough gingerbread kids activity. Add this fun craft to my winter season unit study.

If you are not a fan of edible gingerbread, I have a fun activity for you.

Turn these salt dough gingerbread men into a cute little 3D or even an entire family portrait.

Kids can recreate themselves, favorite book characters, historical figures, or any other person they like.

Fun Selfie Salt Dough Gingerbread Kids Activity for Long Winter Nights

This is a great way to spend a chilly winter afternoon and would be the perfect activity for an all about me unit, or to give to a kid that loves taking selfies a different outlet for that creativity.

Use paints, paint pens, and other craft items to create custom gingerbread men.

Great Gingerbread Facts

The term gingerbread is from the Latin term zingiber via an old French word-gingebra, meaning preserved ginger.
The first known recipe for gingerbread came from Greece in 2400 BC.
Nuremberg, Germany is known as the “Gingerbread Capital of the World”.
Ginger not only tastes good, but it also helps act as a preservative.
It is believed gingerbread was brought back by returning crusaders from the middle east where it was custom to bake spicy bread.
There are 2 dates for National Gingerbread day- June 5th and November 21st (the 21st is actually National Gingerbread Cookie Day.

Queen Elizabeth I of England is credited with the first gingerbread men.
Once, a doctor even wrote a prescription for gingerbread for the Swedish King Hans to cure his depression.
Ginger is a plant that is native to India and China. And is prized throughout the world for its culinary and medicinal uses.
Gingerbread itself is made from ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, anise and is sweetened with molasses or honey.
After Hansel and Gretel was published by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th century, gingerbread houses became very popular to make in Germany.

The world’s largest gingerbread house took 9 days to build, and was completed at the Mall of America in Minnesota in 2001.

It stood 67 feet tall and held 1,800 Hershey bars, 1,200 feet of Twizzlers, 100 pounds of tootsie rolls, 100 whirly pops and thousands of other pieces of candy. YUM!

Next, look at these fun hands-on gingerbread activities.

Gingerbread Activities

Create a batch of Gingerbread Playdough to use over and over.
Try some ooey gooey Gingerbread Slime, kids love sensory stimulating activities, warning, this one is messy.
Make up a bowl of Gingerbread Oobleck, they can’t resist this non Newtonian fluid for sensory bins.

Bake up a Simple Gingerbread Recipe for Kids if you want to taste your creation.

More Winter Unit Study Resources

Additionally, look at these other winter unit study resources.

Further, look below at how to make this fun salt dough craft.

How to Create a Selfie Salt Dough Gingerbread Men

First, here is the list of ingredients.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup fine salt
1 cup of water
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground ginger
Gingerbread cutters

Craft paints or paint pens
paintbrushes

Next, preheat your oven to 200℉.

And combine all of the dry ingredients together. Mix well.

Also, slowly add water until fully incorporated.

You can add a little brown or tan paint at this point to create different skin tones if you want.

Roll the dough out onto a floured surface until it’s about ¼” thick.

Cut dough into gingerbread shapes with a cutter, or other shapes if you wish.

If you want to hang your gingerbread selfie man, use a straw to poke a hole through the top before baking, be sure not to do it too close to the edge so it will be sturdy.

Spray the baking sheet with some nonstick cooking spray.

Transfer cut outs to the baking sheet and spritz the top of the cut outs with nonstick spray as well to help retain some color.

What’s more you can also use aluminum foil as a framework to bend the arms and hold them into place, make them sit up, and more.

Then, put in a preheated oven and bake for 2 hours or until thoroughly dry. Time may vary based on the thickness of your dough.

Once your dough is baked, allow it to cool completely.

Furthermore, use craft paints to decorate your ginger people with hair, faces, clothes, and other details.

Lastly, allow paint to dry thoroughly before using your gingerbread for decorations, playing pieces for games, in sensory bins, or even to make your own jewelry!

Easy DIY Fun Salt Winter Watercolor Art Project for Kids

November 14, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

If your kids are looking for winter watercolor art projects, they’ll love this easy diy salt project. Add it to a winter season unit study for more learning fun.

If you live in Texas like I do, you won’t see a lot of snow unless you’re vacationing somewhere else.

But it’s still nice to dream about beautiful forests under a blanket of snow.

Easy DIY Fun Salt Winter Watercolor Art Project for Kids

So, today we are going to create our own winter watercolor art project to capture some of that snowy magic with a few different types of paint.

I’ve seen a technique like this done using snow but obviously that’s not an option for us.

Instead, I set to thinking about how I could make it happen here and turn into a fun art lesson too.

Over and Under the Snow

And my solution was a spray bottle filled with water instead of letting the snow melt over my picture.

You will probably want to take this one outside or put a plastic tablecloth on the table under your craft to help contain the mess.

No matter what you’re studying this winter or where you live, snow or not, it can still be fun and informative to learn about snow.

Topics like snowflakes, ice, hibernation, glaciers, icebergs, and everything else winter entails keep it fun.

Add a fun book to this winter watercolor art project like Over and Under the Snow to investigate what happens when that white blanket of snow covers the earth.

As a matter of fact, the book which inspired this project progresses from day to dusk to night as the child and father ski over the snow noticing it all.

I love the darling images of creatures sleeping beneath the earth.

Winter Subnivean Zone

And above there are busy people, squirrels, owls, and a big full moon.

It is a great way to introduce snow, hibernation and terms like subnivean zone (it’s the network of open spaces and tunnels between the snow and ground) to your kids.

The word subnivean comes from the Latin “sub” (under) and “nives” (snow).

There is a fantastic appendix of animals at the back of the book.

It introduces animals and gives a bit of information on each spotted throughout as well as suggestions for more winter books.

More Winter Season Unit Study Resources

Then, here are some other winter unit study resources you’ll love.

Add in a few of these activities to make a fun learning about winter day.

Let’s make this watercolor art project.

How to Make DIY Winter Water Art Project

You will need:

Watercolor paper. It really makes a difference with this paper.
Fine Salt
Food coloring
Black craft paint
White craft paint
Paint brushes
Water in a spray bottle
Baking sheet

First, place watercolor paper on a baking sheet and spritz the entire paper well with water.

Pour a few tablespoons of salt into a small container.

Mix with a few drops of food coloring and repeat for as many colors as you would like to have.

Scoop colored salt all over paper randomly and in different sized piles with different thicknesses to create a mottled watercolor effect.

Spray the colored salt until completely saturated with the spray bottle.

You want to make sure that the salt is very wet so that the food coloring can absorb into the paper.

Allow it to sit undisturbed for 20 to 30 minutes.

The longer it sits the more saturated the image will be.

Too, you can let it dry overnight if your little one has the patience to wait.

Flip over your paper quickly to remove all the salt and use a dry brush to remove excess or just wait until it dries naturally and brush then.

Now you should have a beautiful watercolor paper that resembles a dusky night sky or the aurora borealis.

Winter Crafts

Allow your paper to dry completely.

Then, paint a few straight lines straight up from the bottom using a thin flat brush. Draw any amount of trees you want, just leave room for the branches.

Take the same brush dipped in black paint and start at the top line and drag it away from the line in a downward stroke.

This creates the shape of an evergreen tree.

Also, draw some scraggly spindly trees with just limbs and branches using a small, pointed tip brushed if you like.

Finally, allow your black paint to dry a little and then dip your paintbrush in white paint.

If it’s thick, add a tiny bit of water to loosen it up.

You’re gonna want your paint a little runny so that you can tap it on your hand over the paper and create splatters for snow.

Paint a moon if you’d like up in the corner.

Let your completed painting dry.

Because the paper was so saturated it may crinkle up a bit. Lay a couple heavy books on top once it’s dry to help smooth and flatten it.

What do you think? Easy winter art?

homeschoolinginwinter

Cardinal Bird Hands-on Ideas

Cardinal Facts

More Winter Unit Study Resources

How to Make Cardinal Birds in Winter Watercolor

Benefits of Storytelling Through Hands On

Beautiful and Flexible Early Learner Homeschool Planner

14 Ways to Use Your Snowman Story Stones Creatively

More Winter Unit Study Resources

Winter Art Activities For Preschoolers Storytelling Stones Ideas

How to Make Snowman Story Stones

Favorite Nature Winter Craft Ideas

Pinecone Facts

Other Winter Craft Ideas

How to Make Pinecone Flowers

Great Gingerbread Facts

Gingerbread Activities

More Winter Unit Study Resources

How to Create a Selfie Salt Dough Gingerbread Men

Over and Under the Snow

Winter Subnivean Zone

More Winter Season Unit Study Resources

How to Make DIY Winter Water Art Project

Winter Crafts

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