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It's cold

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8/1/24

It's Cold!

Wow, it’s suddenly really cold isn’t it! Have you had any snow yet? It feels like it is cold enough for it doesn’t it. We are getting a bit impatient waiting for the snow so I thought we would have a go at making our own as we want to build a snowman! The best bit is it won’t make our hands freezing cold when we play with it!

I made some different types of pretend snow.  I do like a good experiment so I couldn’t just make one, I wanted to test a few so I could then see which one I liked the best. Would we actually be able to build a snowman out of any of them?

I definitely had a favourite! I wonder which one you’ll like the best? I added a tiny bit of glitter to my snow because I love it and can’t resist. But it is definitely optional, you can get environmentally friendly glitter now which is good! To make my snowmen I bought a kit from Baker Ross, but it was also really fun playing with Lego figures…they made snow angels and threw snowballs at each other, and we also had fun playing with our polar animals in the snow too!

It's Cold...Snow Recipe No.1

What you'll need...

300g / 2 cups – bicarbonate of soda

300g / 2 cups – cornflour

Water

Method...

Put the bicarbonate of soda and cornflour in a bowl. Slowly add a tablespoon of water at a time (I used quite a bit as I was trying to make it to stick together to make a snowman) and stir together until you have a consistency you are happy with.

Results...

This recipe made a very crumbly snow. Great for creating a snowy scene and we enjoyed playing with it but it was a bit tricky to use to build snowmen with, it was a bit too crumbly! We tried putting it in the freezer for half an hour which did help make it feel a bit more like real life snow.

It's Cold...Snow Recipe No.2

What you'll need...

450g – 600g / 3 – 4 cups of corn flour

1 cup of vegetable oil / baby oil

Method...

Mix the two ingredients together in a bowl to form mouldable snow. Start with 3 cups of corn flour and then add more if its too wet or you’d rather it be drier/crumblier.

Results...

You should end up with a mouldable snow that you can use to create your own snowmen. We used vegetable oil but you could also used baby oil if you are sure that your children wouldn’t put it in their mouths. I must admit the corn flour and vegetable oil combined did make our snow a tiny bit yellow so think I’d try it with baby oil next time! I stuck with only 3 cups of corn flour so our snow could stick together to create our snowmen. At first it was still a bit crumbly but the more we played with it the better it was and we could make snowmen with it by the end.

It's Cold...Snow Recipe No.3

What you'll need...

300g – 450g / 2 – 3 cups  of bicarbonate of soda

100g / 1/2 cup of white hair conditioner

Method...

Put the two ingredients in a bowl and mix together to form a mouldable snow. Start with 2 cups of bicarbonate of soda and then add more if it’s too sticky or you’d rather it be a bit more crumbly. 

Results...

This was definitely my favourite as it felt and looked the most like real snow and worked really well! We could make really good snowmen out of this snow. It was great once we’d put it in the freezer for half an hour too. Be careful with this recipe though, it’s probably not suitable if your children might put it in their mouths.

All photos and illustrations in this blog post are Whizzbots, Public Domain or Shutterstock Images.

Other images on the site may be Creative Commons Images, which are credited appropriately.