December 18, 2024

Winter Activities for Your Children on Snowy Days

When the weather turns cold and snowy, how can you keep cabin fever from setting in? As a company based in Western New York, we know snow! While snow can feel like it limits your ability to spend time outside, it also offers a lot of opportunities for fun!

Here are some of our favorite snowy day activities – inside and outside – to keep children engaged, active and having fun!

1. Classic Snow Play

Of course, first on our list is playing with the snow! Snow can be the perfect building material – it’s easy to pack, easy to fix mistakes, and endlessly moldable. You can build one of the classics – a snowman, a snow angel, a snow fort or igloo, a small hill for sledding. Or challenge your children to be more creative. Build their favorite animal out of snow, create a self-portrait snow person, or use their footprints to create a mural.

Use food coloring and water in a spray bottle to complete their artwork.

2. Nature Exploration

The world is transformed under a blanket of snow! What signs of life can still be found? Children can find and identify bird and animal footprints, or see what birds are still hanging out in the yard. Discover which plants survive in winter, or even thrive! Learn how trees can be identified without their leaves. Look for unique patterns in the ice or frost on the windows, or see who can find the most beautiful snowflake.

3. Unique Crafts Using Snow

Get creative! Snow and ice can be great canvases for art. A few of our favorite, simple ideas:

Add food coloring to water balloons, freeze them outside, and then create beautiful colored ice globes when they’re popped.
Create a winter suncatcher by collecting leaves, berries, twigs, etc. and freezing them in ice using a plastic lid or paper plate as a mold. Once they’re frozen, pop them out of their molds and admire your creations!
Blow bubbles in the cold! What happens to standard bubbles when they’re blown into freezing air?

4. Make Old Fashioned Winter Treats

Snow can be used to make some delicious treats! Please be certain that the snow you’re using for these is clean and fresh!

Maple syrup snow candy. Heat some maple syrup. Have your children collect some clean snow in a baking dish, and then pour the hot syrup into the snow and wait for it to freeze and solidify. Now you have delicious, old-fashioned maple candy. Get creative with the designs and shapes as you pour!
Snow ice cream can be made by combining a little milk (1 c.) , sugar (⅓ c.) and vanilla (1 tsp.), and then adding in clean, fresh snow until you get a creamy consistency.
Slushies! Collect a mug of clean snow, and add a little bit of your child’s favorite juice.

5. Feed the Birds!

Many birds don’t fly south for the winter. Help these intrepid winter soldiers stay fed by creating some healthy bird feeders for them! Children can go check the feeders a few times a day to see which treats the birds are enjoying, or try to identify the birds that are enjoying their feast! Be sure to use ingredients that are as natural as possible, without added sugars or preservatives – protecting our wildlife is important!

Bird feeder garland. String popcorn, berries and dried fruit onto a thick thread (be careful with needles!) and hang it in a tree outside.
Spoon peanut butter into the crevices of a pinecone, and roll it in birdseed. Hang the pinecone feeders outside, and refill as needed!
Frozen bird feeders. Use a muffin tin or other molds to freeze a variety of seeds and nuts into ice cubes. Hang them outside, and as the ice melts from the sun the bird food will be released.
Get creative! How else could you create birdseed treats for your backyard friends to enjoy?
Related to this, have your children create window decorations to prevent window strikes by unsuspecting birds.

These are just a few examples of ways to have fun in the snow! We hope this list inspires you and your children to come up with your own games and activities for snowy days.

News