It’s wintertime. It’s cold and even on clear days, the trees are bare. In some areas, winter often means kids must stay indoors, but that doesn’t mean they can’t appreciate the season. Here are 4 amazing activities kids can do this winter.
Braving the Cold
Have your children dress extra warm on cold days, because there are still outdoor adventures to be had. Exploring the world after a snow can give kids the joy of snowball fights, building forts, or making snow men.
These can only happen if kids have appropriate winter gear, so make sure they are well dressed in a warm coat, mittens, and with a change of clothes available for when they come inside.
Snowmen Craft
No matter how beautiful the outdoors are, coming inside to warm up is also a necessity. Bad weather may also mean kids will have to skip outdoor activities that day. Fortunately, there’s still plenty of ways to appreciate winter weather indoors, and rock snow men are one of those ways.
To make a rock snowman, kids will need some paint, glue, tiny sticks, and round flat rocks. The rocks can be painted white to look like snowballs and stacked on top of each other.
Exploring Iceburgs
Wintertime is also an excellent opportunity for education. Filling a bin with cold water and large chunks of ice can give kids a chance to explore what the arctic ocean might look like. Provide cups and spoons to scoop up ice with, as well as warm towels to dry hands and spills.
Once little explorers have had a chance to experiment with cold water and ice, try putting ice in warm water. What happens? What happens if you sprinkle salt on the ice?
After experimenting with ice, share pictures of real iceburgs and what happens to them when they travel to warmer waters.
Popsicle Stick Craft
One final winter craft is making a snowflake ornament with some popsicle sticks and glue. If popsicle sticks are fanned out to form a circle and glued together, they look like a snowflake. Kids can have fun decorating the snowflake and adding a loop to hang it with.
This is another great teaching opportunity. Every snowflake is different in real life, and no doubt so are the snowflakes made by the kids.
Handprint Tree
Another fun craft involves turning preschooler hand prints into a beautiful landscape painting. You can do this by having kids paint a backdrop, such as a blue sky and green grass. Once it has dried, kids can paint brown paint on their hand and press it onto the background. Paint from the bottom of the hand print to the ground, and now it’s a tree!
Kids can add little dabs of white paint at the top of each branch (their fingers) to turn it into a wonderful winter scene.
Winter is cold, but also beautiful. Whether kids are indoors or out, there’s a fascinating world to explore. These activities can help young learners explore both outdoors and in.
