Here are 25 easy-to-implement outdoor winter arts and crafts projects for kids.
1. Snow Painting
What You’ll Need:
- Spray bottles
- Water
- Food coloring
Make it Happen:
- Fill water bottles to almost full with cool water.
- Add food coloring to water, creating a different color in each spray bottle. The colors dilute when they are sprayed on the snow, so don’t be stingy with the food coloring.
- Spray snow to create art
2. Snow Drawing
What You’ll Need:
- A sturdy stick
Make it Happen:
- Use stick, gloved fingers, and/or shuffling feet to create a masterpiece in newly fallen snow.
3. Create a Winter Photo Album
What You’ll Need:
- Camera
- Printer or access to photo printing center
- Photo album
Make it Happen:
- Take pictures of snow on trees, birds, icicles… anything that says winter to you. You may want to wait until right after a fresh snowfall to take your pictures.
- Print pictures at home or send them out to a local photo center for printing.
- Assemble photos in album. You now have a winter-themed treasure that you can always look back on.
4. Create Ice Igloos
What You’ll Need:
- A tray or baking pan with high sides
- Ice cube tray
- Bowl of cold water
Make it Happen:
- Freeze ice cubes and pop from tray into a bowl.
- Line up ice cubes in tray or baking pan with high sides to create the bottom layer of your structure.
- Dip the bottom of an ice cube into your bowl of cold water and add it on top of the ice cube base created in step 2.
- Continue adding additional ice cubes until your structure is complete.
Other Thoughts: Do this activity outside on a cold day to for best results. Pick up some silicone novelty ice cube trays if you want to experiment with different shaped ice building blocks. You could even freeze water in paper milk cartons if you want to use larger blocks of ice for constructing.
5. Kool Snow
What You’ll Need:
- Packages of kool-aid powder
- A fresh snowfall
Make it Happen:
- Sprinkle kool-aid powder on snow and watch as the colors appear. Sprinkle more than one color on top of each other to experiment with blends.
6. Decorate a Tree with Ice Ornaments
What You’ll Need:
- Natural decorative items (pine needles, dried flowers, berries, etc.)
- Plastic plates or small Tupperware-style containers
- String
Make it Happen:
- Tie the string into as many loops as you want ornaments.
- Fill the plates or containers with water. You may want to put containers on a large flat baking tray to make moving to the freezer easier.
- Put the loops of string in the water, but leave a bit hanging out to serve as an ornament hanger.
- Add decorative items to the water.
- Freeze.
- Now you have ice ornaments!
7. Snow Molds
What You’ll Need:
- Cake pans
- Hard plastic cups and bowls
- Ice cube trays
- Cookie cutters
- Fresh snow
Make it Happen:
- Use objects to build snow creations
Also See:
25 Winter Active Play Ideas for Kids