Snow Much Love!
By Susan Mallette
Share snow much love this month as you snuggle together to read this classic story of unconditional love between a mother and child.
Title: Mama Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Joosse
Ages: 2 through 5
Summary: A small Inuit girl asks her Mom about love through examples: “Will you love me if I put a salmon in your parka? Do you love me more than the whale loves his spout?”
Themes: Unconditional love, Inuit life in the Arctic.
Social Studies
Talk about what love is -- how it means caring, sharing, helping and being with someone else. Talk about how love looks when you do something forgetful like throwing your laundry on the bathroom floor instead of in the hamper. Does love go away then? Do moms love children more if they remember to pick up their toys? Explain to children that love is not something you give to them sometimes but all the time.
Art
Make heart cards.
What you need:
Pink or red construction paper
Markers
A medium-sized, see-through jar
What to do:
Help your child think of a time he did something that tested your patience, like dumping all his puzzle pieces from every box in one pile on the floor. Cut out a heart and write a sentence about that time on the heart, such as “I loved Amy when she threw all the puzzle pieces on the floor.”
Brainstorm more examples of good times, like “I love you when you hug me in the morning”; of patience-testing times, like “I love you when you
track muddy footprints on the clean kitchen floor.” Write these messages on
more hearts. Put the hearts in a jar.
The next time your child is fussing about something, pull a heart from the jar, read it and give him a hug. It’s always nice to know Mom loves you all the time.
Science
Try this saltwater freeze experiment.
Question:
How come the ocean freezes in the Artic? I thought salt water would not freeze.
What you need:
2 small clear plastic cups
Water
6 tablespoons of salt
What you do:
Fill both clear plastic cups one-quarter full of water. Put six tablespoons of table salt in one of the cups of water and stir. Freeze both cups.
Notice how the salt goes to the bottom of the cup of salt water and how the water on top freezes.
Facts:
Salt water does freeze if the temperature gets cold enough, like in the Arctic. The salt in the water separates from the water and the water freezes while the salt in the ocean water goes to the bottom. In the Arctic, the ocean freezes when it gets really cold.
Art
Make a snow collage.
What you need:
Glue, thinned with a bit of water
Dark blue or black construction paper
White items such as cotton balls, coconut, salt, sugar, white chocolate chips, frosted white cereal, white beans and rice
What you do:
Use glue thinned with a bit of water to paint a picture on dark construction paper. Then use white foods and objects to make your picture come to life.
Snack
Make Eskimo cookies!
Ingredients:
1-1/2 sticks soft butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cold water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons cocoa
2 cups uncooked quick oats
A bowl of confectioner’s sugar
Cream butter and sugar; add water and vanilla and cocoa. Mix in oats and chill for 3 hours. Shape into balls or circle cookies. Sprinkle or roll in confectioner’s sugar. Keep refrigerated.
Note: This recipe is not an authentic Arctic food. The Arctic people eat mostly raw fish and rice. Fresh fruits and vegetables have to bought from the mainland and are very expensive.
Susan Regan Mallette, a former English teacher, spends her time homeschooling, writing curriculum and homemaking. See more about Susan.
