Wintertime brings some beautiful sights. From shimmering icicles to smooth frozen ponds, the snow and ice can create a lovely view. While some animals are out enjoying the winter weather, others hide away until the warmer spring days. Today’s book follows a young hedgehog who wants to enjoy all the beauty of winter like the other animals. This children’s book on winter weather gave us the perfect activity to create some winter wonderland crafts.

Standard Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission from purchases you make through the links in this post. I received a copy of this book as part of the blogger campaign from Penguin Young Readers in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Today, we had the opportunity to participate in the Walking in a Winter Wonderland Blogger Campaign from Penguin Young Readers. This campaign has a variety of fun posts from lots of awesome bloggers, all celebrating 6 new books celebrating Christmas and Winter. We had the opportunity to check out The Snowy Nap, written and illustrated by Jan Brett.

“When winter comes, Hedgie tries to stay awake so he doesn’t miss out on all the fun his friends are having. Snow is on the way, and as Hedgie trundles around the farm all his friends tell him of the winter-time fun he will miss as he hibernates–Icicles decorating the chicken coop! Lisa making snowmen! The pond turned to slippery ice! It sounds so amazing, Hedgie decides to stay awake instead of going to his burrow. But then a snowstorm starts. Luckily, Lisa finds him and brings him inside so Hedgie gets to see the wonders of winter from inside the cozy house.” – Penguin Young Readers

What We Thought

The Snowy Nap utilizes Jan Brett’s beautifully nostalgic style of illustrations to share Hedgie’s story. Each page has intricate sidebars full of cozy details, and clues about what is coming in the story. The animals are drawn with lots of personality, and the winter scenes are full of colors and textures that bring the snowy scenes to life. The sweet story includes a lot of descriptive text that celebrate all the beautiful sights of winter. Kids will love the cute animals, as well as the hilarious twist at the end of the story.

Hedgehog Painting

The adorable hedgehog at the center of this story inspired us to create our own hedgehog paintings. First, I cut a simple hedgehog shape out of brown paper and glued it onto a piece of white cardstock. Next, I poured some brown paint onto a plate and gave my daughter a fork to dip into it. We then used the fork to create spikes on the back of our hedgehogs. After the paint dried, I used a black marker to add eyes and nose. I loved how they turned out, and my daughter thought that painting with a fork was hilarious!

Related Post: Prepare for Winter with Hibernation Fun!

Frosty Window Painting

In the story, Hedgie wakes up one day to see frost covering the window and creating beautiful designs. We used Epsom salts to create a similar effect on our windows too! First, mix 1/3 cup of Epsom salts into 1/2 cup of warm water until they are completely dissolved. Add 1-2 drops of liquid dish soap to the mixture to make it easy to clean off the windows. We used paintbrushes to paint designs on to the window and let them dry. After a few minutes, crystals started to form on the windows, mimicking the frost in the illustrations.

If you don’t want to paint on your windows, you can also use the same mixture on dark paper. We painted it onto black paper and were pleasantly surprised by the pretty crystals that formed.

Related Post: See how we painted with snow with Leo Lionni’s ‘Frederick’!

Icicle Ornaments

Decorate your home with these easy icicles that don’t cause any damage! This open ended art activity allows kids to create their own icicles while practicing fine motor skills. Cut 6 inch lengths of craft wire, and lay them out with a selection of white and clear beads of different shapes and sizes. I added a small loop and bead at one end of the icicle to hold the other beads on. Have kids start with small beads and continue adding them in larger sizes as they make their way to the top. Make a loop at the top of the icicle, after the last bead, and wrap the extra wire around to tighten it. Last, add a hook to the loop so you can hang your icicles. Every icicle is different, so each of your ornaments can be different too!

Winter Walk

If you live in an area that gets frosty weather, this book provides a great opportunity to take a winter walk around your neighborhood and look at all the beautiful sights. The great descriptive text and beautiful illustrations in the book can help you to look past the annoyances that the snow and ice can sometimes bring, and make you focus on the beauty of winter. Take a look at the shimmering icicles, the sparkly snow, and the ice crystals on branches, or look for snow tracks or winter homes for animals.

Related Post: Enjoying the Snowy Days!

There are lots of fun ways that you can celebrate the beautiful sights of winter, and The Snowy Nap is a great place to start! Check out some of the other bloggers on the Campaign below!

More Posts You May Enjoy:

Check out the other bloggers on the Winter Wonderland Blogger Campaign:

Snowflake One

December 10 – Gypsy Mom
December 11 – A Buckeye Teacher
December 12 – InRandom
December 13 – Mommy Ramblings

Snowflake Two

December 10 – DoodleMom
December 11 – Coquette Maman
December 12 – Pink Polka Dots
December 13 – Word Spelunking

Snowflake Three

December 10 – Babies to Bookworms
December 11 – The Unique Classroom
December 12 – Inspiration Laboratories
December 13 – Dream Reader Kids

Snowflake Four

December 10 – Library Lady’s Kid Lit
December 11 – Crafty Moms Share
December 12 – Books and Giggles
December 13 – All Done Monkey
December 14 – A Peace of Mind

Snowflake Five

December 10 – What’s a Kid To Read
December 11 – The Inspired Apple
December 12 – Because.my.mother.read
December 13 – Lovely Little Things

Snowflake Six

December 10 – MaiStoryBook
December 11 – Here Wee Read
December 12 – Bookoholic Mom
December 13 – Quiet In The Chaos
December 14 – Read. Learn. Repeat