We get a good amount of snowfall where we live and at times winter gets so hard that getting out seems nearly impossible. January is the time we all stay home for most of the time and school closures are inevitable. Making snow angels and snowman, sledding, snowball fight, warming up ourselves with hot cocoa and marshmallows…the cozy memories of winter last a lifetime. I’m grateful for the time we could spent together learning and living! Here’s a collection of Winter theme activities we’ve done over the period.
1. Snowman Name
Manipulating clothespin while learning their name is a 2 in 1 activity with simple prep and using just a paint stir stick and cotton pads.
Supplies ➡️
⛄️Paint stir stick.
⛄️Clothespin.
⛄️Cotton round pads.
⛄️Black Marker.
Steps ➡️
🔸Hot glue the cotton pads onto the clothespin.
🔸Now glue one cotton pad on top of the stick and decorate it as snowman head( I used googly eyes and felt for hat and nose)
🔸Mark the letters in your kiddos name on the paint stick.
🔸Invite them to match the cotton pads to the corresponding letters on the stick.
2. Snowflake Counting
A simple winter themed DIY math activity for preschool and kindergarten children to learn number recognition and subtizing when rolling the dice. Subtizing is an important skill where one instantly recognize number of group instead of counting each part individually.
Supplies ➡️
❄️Foam snowflake (Dollar spot)
❄️White pom poms
❄️Clothespin
❄️Cardboard
❄️Sharpie
While gluing the pom poms on the foam snowflake remember to do it as how it show on the dice. I hot glued the snowflake on cardboard for extra strength and also to make it a fine motor practice.
You could alternatively skip the cardboard to roll a dice and ask the child to identify the right snowflake.
3. Number Mittens
Supplies ➡️
❄️Pasta box oh yeah any box is fine 😊
❄️Blue stickers from DT or any stickers if you don’t have these
❄️Yarn
❄️Painter’s tape
❄️Sharpie
Steps ➡️
🔸Draw a pair of mittens on the cardboard and cut them out. I made 6 pairs of them.
🔸Stick the stickers in one set of mittens and write down the corresponding number in the other sets using a sharpie.
🔸Tie the yarn at the end of numbered mitten using painters tape and leave the other end for matching.
🔸Let your kid count the stickers in each mitten to find the matching mitten and connect them together with the yarn.
🔸I wanted to keep them all in one place so I glued all of them in a big piece of cardboard but you could rather leave them loosely for a tabletop activity.
Do you see it’s self correcting if you add similar pattern on the painters tape for each mitten pair ?
4. Snowflake threading
This one is a simple fine motor activity you can do with paper plate and yarn.
Supplies
🔸Paper plate
🔸Yarn
🔸Blue paint
🔸Plastic threading needle
Steps ➡️
❄️ First paint the back of paper plate with blue paint. This step can be done by the kids.
❄️ Once dried draw the snowflake shape using a sharpie on the back and mark a dot at end points. You can leave the lines as a guide for kids while sewing.
❄️Use a pushpin to make the hole at the dot and then pierce through using the plastic needle to make the hole bigger.
❄️ Thread the yarn on the needle( can be tried by kids) and let them sew the pattern along the guided lines.
5. Melting Snowman
Have you ever tried baking soda + vinegar science experiment at home? If not just try it once and I’m sure kids will ask more of that! Here it’s always a hit and I try to fit something with the theme.
Mix some baking soda with little water. We should be able to roll a ball with that. Using some round tray freeze the balls and add eyes and nose to look like snowman. Once it’s frozen take some vinegar and basters/droppers to set out the magic of melting the snowman!!
6. Tape resist Snowflake
Another easy toddler art that require minimal set up. Make a snowflake design on poster paper using masking tape and give them a brush & blue paint. Let them paint to heart content and there’s no rule here. Just have fun with the brush strokes. Make sure the tape edges are covered with paint. After it dries off peel the tape out to reveal the snowflakes!!
7. Decorate Mittens
An invitation to create mittens for winter theme learning. What’s in the tray ➡️
❄️Pom poms
❄️Buttons
❄️Snowflake stickers
❄️Tissue paper squares
I also set out some foam glitter strips to use as the cuffs if she prefer to add them in her mittens!
Cut out a mitten pattern from cardstock and give them glue to begin the fun. Use what you have at home – glitter/poms/tape/ribbon/stickers/beads anything would do. So check out your craft stash and set it out in a tray and let them be creative!!
8. Pinecone Snowman
Supplies ➡️
🔹Pinecone
🔹Styrofoam balls
🔹Pom pom
🔹Pipe cleaner
🔹Ribbon
🔹Toothpick
🔹White & orange paint
Steps ➡️
🔹Paint the pinecone using white paint
🔹Use pipe cleaner and pom poms to make the earmuffs on the styrofoam ball. I hotglued them since it was coming off.
🔹Stick a toothpick in for nose. Paint it orange at the tip and cut off the rest.
🔹Use a sharpie to draw eyes and mouth
🔹Hot glue the head into the pinecone body.
🔹Cut a ribbon and tie around for the scarf.
🔹Use a pipe cleaner to wrap around the pine cone and shape it as hands.
9. Winter Tree Art
Supplies ➡️
❄️sketch paper / Cardboard/ Any heavy duty paper
❄️Broken sticks (Borrowed from Nature)
❄️Salt
❄️School Glue
❄️Blue & White paint
❄️Qtips
🔸First I let her paint the paper entirely blue. You may use blue paper if you have and skip this step. But M loves to paint so mostly I start art projects with white.
🔸Once it’s dried I gave her the broken sticks to glue down in the shape of tree. An opportunity to teach following directions and gluing.
🔸Once again we need to wait till the glue is dried. Then get the glue and add a layer of glue on sticks( I did this part) and let her sprinkle the salt on top. Shake the excess off from paper.
🔸Get the qtips and make some snow dots using white paint all around the tree to finish the work !!
10. Playdough Invitation
A simple Playdough invitation to make a snowman. What’s on the tray➡️
.
⛄️Blue beads.
⛄️Blue and black buttons.
⛄️Plastic Toothpicks .
⛄️Googly eyes.
11. Sensory Mittens
I made the mittens out of cardboard and placed them on top of a tray filled with blue dyed rice. Those cute tiny scoopers are a dollar spot find.
She started off with scooping the rice into the mittens. After counting the snowflakes she asked for more jars/ funnels and scoopers. Sensing the wild play I moved it to the floor with a plastic cover and it turned out to be a full blown sensory bin saga. But it was well worth it!