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Schools canceling. Parents working from home.  If you’re counting on plenty of babysitting via TV or video games to keep your children busy, stop! That “s’now” fun.  Read on for 10 ideas for real snow day fun and learning.

1. Read.Snuggle with a book and read with a family member. Talk about the book together as you go. Find new places in which to read, like the bathtub.
2. Bake. Reinforce math by doubling or halving a recipe. Make something to share with a neighbor or friend.
3. Fall. Backwards, that is, into snow. Make snow angels and decorate them with paint.
4. Build. Dress for outdoors and build snow families and snow forts.
5. Knock. Check on your neighbors, especially senior citizens. Bring them a treat you made.
6. Shovel. Help move the stuff around. If you don’t have a shovel, use a broom.
7. Imagine. Encourage open-ended play. Dolls, cars, models, Legos, anything with small people or animals work well. When a child uses anything to pretend or make up stories, that’ open-ended play.
8. Measure. Find all measuring tapes, rulers, yardsticks, even a dressmaker’s measuring tape if you have one. Estimate the measurement of things around the house, then check using one of the tools.
9. Draw. Can you draw a map of your house? Your neighborhood, town, state, the world? Copy one if you need to.
10. Write. Compose a valentine poem or a card message for Valentine’s Day.

Print and post this list for your children to use.  Join them for some of these so snow days become memory-making days.

For educators, fall really feels like spring.  A fresh year, a new class, brand-new students: all of these embody new beginnings and the opportunity to grow.  My growth during this season, though, often begins with a search.

Whenever possible, I scan my yard and local fields for milkweed.  If I see a patch, I examine the leaves for monarch butterfly caterpillars so I can capture a few, put them in a jar with milkweed leaves, and prepare to witness a miracle.

Who taught me how to do this?  One of my fourth grade students.

One first day of school, Stefan brought in a Mason jar stuffed with milkweed and placed it carefully on his desk.  He announced that a monarch caterpillar was inside and he was going to watch it metamorphose into a butterfly over the next two weeks.

I was enchanted!  Here was a student with curiosity, an interest in science, and the confidence to place a jar on his desk on the first day of school.  Without knowing it, he led the class and me into a frenzy of learning about monarchs, learning that spilled over effortlessly into evenings and weekends.

Together, the students and I researched monarchs and learned geography alongside new science vocabulary.  We read books about them, sharing our favorites back and forth.  We discussed what we learned and wrote essays and poems. We raced into school every day to examine the monarch for changes, learning patience and developing the deep understanding that comes from observation.  We drew diagrams showing the stages of metamorphosis, carefully coloring in the proper colors of each step.

When the great day came, we watched the monarch emerge from its chrysalis and take its time drying its wings.  It was a breathtaking moment.  We let it sit on our hands, feeling the peculiar touch of its legs.  Stefan opened the outside classroom door and placed the monarch butterfly on a plant in the sun.

The monarch wasn’t the only creature with a metamorphosis.  I realized in a new, powerful way that by embracing students’ interests–and letting a fourth grader have a caterpillar jar on his desk–that this was an eloquent way to put student learning first.

Thank you, Stefan.

Kathleen M. Nollet, Ph.D.