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Whether you live in a snowy climate or not, these simple winter time activities for kids will allow children to explore art, math, and sharing (if siblings or a playdate is involved)! We had a lot of snow one winter when we lived in northern Virginia! My son’s school was canceled for an entire week after the twins were born, so I created a few activities to try to prevent cabin fever.
In case you missed my post about using cotton balls as snowballs for math and art activities, click here. I also shared a One Item Activity that gets children tossing pretend snowballs to get some energy out if you are stuck indoors.
Here are a few other activities for toddlers, preschoolers and school age children to try:
Winter Time Activities for Kids
Six Sticks House made from Craft Sticks
For this first activity, all you need are 6 craft sticks. No craft sticks? Use straws. This idea came from a book by the same name. It is an easy reader book that is currently available on Amazon for only $.01…yes, 1 cent!
We took the book’s inspiration-and since we were stuck inside the house anyway-made our own “6 sticks houses” to decorate.
All you need in addition to the sticks is paper, glue and crayons or markers. Have your child tell you about their house after they decorate it. Older kids can even write a story about their house or who lives in it.
DIY Winter Time Fridge Felt Board
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You may have read my post about making a magnetic felt board out of a brown paper bag here. It is so easy to change up with the seasons with simple, inexpensive felt-or velcro dots on the back of paper cutouts.
I traced and cut out simple circles in various shapes, cut small pieces of black for coal and small boots, scarves, hats, etc out of a couple of colors of felt to create a snowman design station on the front of the fridge. The kids can create, pull apart and create again to practice their fine motor skills and sharing as you can see in the picture…and no putting on and taking off of the snow gear!
(Of course five minutes later they were probably arguing about who got to build where on the board…)
Bake Cookies
Then there is always the idea to bake cookies. Never a bad idea! 🙂 I pinned this recipe for the best sugar cookies to my Desserts board on Pinterest and it turned out great. The recipe is easy and really delicious!
It was really easy for the kids to cut out cookies and then we whipped up a simple icing so they could ice the cookies. Small containers, small kid-safe knives and damp rags for wiping sticky fingers as they worked made for a fun and child-directed time without much mess or need for me to micro-manage.
Don’t let the weather get you down, just use it for some inspiration to play indoors in creative ways, I hope you can use these winter time activities for kids today.
What helps you fight off cabin fever on snowy or rainy days?
Here are a few other Winter activities for kids!
Some simple but effective ideas! I like the idea of painting the cookies with icing! Thanks for linking up with #frugalfamilylinky hope to see you again soon!
Hi Helen! Simple works for us, for sure! No need to complicate things-LOL! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Baking is always a hit at our house – even though I usually burn the cookies! lol! On stuck-in-the-house days my daughter likes to play with the couch cushions, jumping on them, spreading them out, stacking them up. It keeps her busy!
Couch cushions are a great way to keep moving indoors-my two older ones often have the couch cushions playing "pillow quick sand" as my 6 year old has named it. And, I burned the first batch of these cookies too! 😉 Learning experience…