Fun Activities for Snowy Days

We're finally starting to see snow accumulation here in Maine that is typical for our winters. We had a big storm last week followed by a few inches of snow last night. Today, it is a beautiful blue sky day! As I wrapped up my last Zoom class of the day I encouraged all of my students to go outside and get some fresh air while soaking up the sunshine. Of course, that prompted a few "there's nothing to do" groans. So I suggested making a snow fort. 

If you're like me and you live in a snowy environment and are trying to encourage outdoor play, here are some activities to try. 

NOVA, as a part of their program on Denali, has directions for building a snow cave and directions for building an Igloo.

Boys' Life offers a list of outdoor winter games as well as directions for building igloos and snow shelters.

Making your own snowshoes is an activity that can be done indoors with the final product enjoyed outdoors. Mother Earth News offers directions for making your own snowshoes. There are dozens of DIY snowshoe videos on YouTube. This one is a little bit too quick, but it does have a detailed materials list in the description. 

When I was about seven or eight I was given a copy of The American Boy's Handy Book (available for free in Google Books). The book is filled with fun hands-on indoor and outdoor activities including an entire section devoted to snow forts and other snow-related activities. I took my tattered copy off the shelf this weekend and explained to my daughters that the book was written when people thought that girls couldn't do the same things as boys, but now we know better. We then turned to the section about making ice-fishing traps. Now they can't wait to go ice-fishing next weekend! 

The Easiest Way to Create QR Codes for Google Forms

Last fall I published a video and blog post about using QRCode Monkey to make QR codes for Google Forms. Doing that makes it easy for students to quickly access your Google Forms from their phones. In my school a lot of teachers are using QR codes to give students quick access to things like lunch menus, sign-in/sign-out forms, and activity registration forms. 

QRCode Monkey is a good tool and I don't have any problem recommending it. But if you're looking for an even easier way to make a QR code for a Google Form, there is a relatively new option for making QR codes built right into Google Chrome. 

When you're viewing the URL for a Google Form or any other web page in Google Chrome you'll see a small QR code icon in the right edge of the address bar. Simply click on that icon and a QR code will be generated for that page. You can download the QR code as PNG image file to download and print or download and insert into a document. This is probably the quickest and easiest way to create QR codes for Google Forms. 

In this short video I demonstrate how to quickly create a QR code for a Google Form without having to use any third-party tools.