Weather conditions like snow can be a big pain in the Wintertime, but snow can also lead to a lot of fun! Of course there are tons of things you can do outside in the snow, like building a snowman, making a snow angel and starting a snowball fight, but once it starts to get too chilly and your clothes begin absorbing water, it’s time to go inside and find other fun things to do while staying warm indoors.
Here are some fun activities and crafts perfect for a snowed in afternoon!
Snow Painting
A lot of times in the Winter kids like to go out and build snowmen. The next time you go out to build a snowman, dress him up extra by painting him with Kool-Aid! Because of it’s vibrant colors, Kool-Aid makes great snow paint! Purchase some red, green, yellow, blue and any other color you can find, Kool-Aid, put it in a squeezable bottle with a spout (similar to what ketchup used to be put in at old school burger joints) then add color to your snowman, snow angel, snow fort, snow anything!
Water Bottle Penguins
For this cute craft you’ll need an empty water bottle, black & orange foam, 2 google eyes, black feathers, white cotton balls, glue dots and scissors. You may want to try visiting your local craft store to find everything that you need. Begin by stuffing your empty water bottle with cotton balls until filled up. Next cut out feet and wings from black foam, then cut a strip of black foam to cover the head of the bottle/to act as the head.
Glue your wings on either sides of the bottle and glue the feet to the base of your bottle. Glue the black strip of foam around the neck of the water bottle. Add google eyes to this strip. Next cut a beak out of your orange foam and glue underneath eyes, it may reach lower than the black foam strip and that’s alright. Lastly add feathers, gluing them on the inside of the black foam head strip so they stick out of the top in tufts.
Colorful Ice Marbles
This craft is very quick, the only lengthy part of it is waiting for your colorful marble to freeze! For this craft you’ll need water, food coloring and balloons. Begin by filling your balloon with water, then add 1 color of food coloring. Tie your balloon closed then set it outside on the snow to freeze. Check back in like 2 hours, cut off the balloon, and voila! You have a bright, beautiful ice marble decorating your lawn!
Snowman “Hacky Sack” Game
Not only is this a craft, it’s an activity too! For this project you’ll need a three-section stand-up poster board (the kind people use for school projects), white paint and various other colors of paint and an X-Acto knife. Parents will need to help with the initial set up for this project, first using pencil draw a snowman made of only 2 parts, the head and the base. The bottom circle should be as wide as the middle section of the poster board. Then using the X-Acto knife cut out 2 circles, a smaller one on top and a larger one on the bottom, in the middle of the circles you drew originally. This is where you’ll be aiming and throwing your “hacky sacks!”
Now let the kids paint the poster board, filling it in white for the snowman and adding other colors and details as they go along. Once dry set up your board, get a few small stuffed animals to act as your hacky sacks (real hacky sacks may be too heavy and knock over the board if whoever is up misses but if you have old Winter hats with big poms on the end you could cut those off and use those) then let the kids aim and fire! Since the top hole is smaller that one should be worth more points when they get it in!
