While winter days are great for staying cozy with the family indoors, sometimes the kids get a little restless with the usual routine. If you're looking for some fun ideas to keep them engaged and entertained, look no further than this list of fun winter activities for kids.
You'll find loads of winter activity ideas for sensory play, science experiments, winter art ideas, and even some winter-themed alphabet and counting activities. They're all perfect for toddlers, preschoolers and young children who love to explore the wintery world around them.
You might also like these lists of activity ideas:
- Winter crafts for kids
- Winter books for kids
- Snowflake crafts for kids
- Penguin crafts for kids
- Snow globe crafts
- Real snow activities
If you are looking for winter printables for kids head to the Messy Little Monster shop to see our collection of winter themed tracing activities, playdough mats, sensory bin printables and more!
Fun Winter Activities for Kids
Let's kick things off with a few of our favourite winter activities for kids we've done right here at Messy Little Monster. The snow volcano was a big hit, and the snow paint is a great activity to do indoors or outside. We have a few winter counting activities, playdough ideas, and even some fake snow if you don't have the real stuff outside.
Snow Volcano
You'll be the coolest mom in town (get it, coolest?) if you try this Snow Volcano Science Experiment with your kids! Go outside, make a big volcano, add colouring, baking soda, vinegar, and dish soap for an explosive and colourful volcano in the snow. It's so much fun!
Snow Paint
Bring the snow inside for a little artsy fun! Our Snow Paint activity shows you how to mix snow and food colouring and use it to create some watercolour art. While you can paint with a paintbrush, part of the fun of using snow is feeling the cold! If you'd like to make a finger paint version using snow, use a washable paint instead of food colouring to dye the snow.
Snowman Playdough
If you don't have enough snow to build a snowman outside, don't fret! Try our Snowman Playdough activity to build some playdough snowmen instead. Add buttons, ribbon, cardstock, or other accessories as well as our free printable to make your snowman look dapper.
Counting Snowmen
Is your little one learning to count? Our Counting Snowmenactivity is a fun hands on way to practice counting to five in the winter. Add the appropriate number of buttons to the snowman's belly to complete each one. The kids will ask to do this again and again.
Snowman Fingerprint Counting
Want to count a little higher? Practice counting and number recognition with this printable Snowman Fingerprint Counting Activity. The task is simple—look at the number, and add that number of fingerprints to the snowman's middle. Your toddler or preschooler will have a fantastic time with this.
Homemade Fake Snow
Don't get much snow in your neck of the woods? OurFake Snow Recipeprovides a wonderful sensory experience for little hands, and you can even refrigerate it before play so that it really feels cold to the touch. Add some arctic animal toys or Frozen characters into the mix, and you're set for hours of play.
Homemade Snow Sensory Play
The recipe above uses baking and soda and water, if you don't have these ingredients or you fancy a change try this Homemade Snow instead. This recipe uses flour and water, which means not only is it easy to make and fun to play with, it is also safe if your child sneaks a little into their mouth. It would also be great for kids who love dozers and dump trucks because it looks like sand.
Playdough Winter Wonderland
You may not be walking in a winter wonderland, but you can create one on a cold winter day! Our Playdough Winter Wonderland incorporates playdough, items from nature, printable snowmen, glitter, and other fun elements to create a winter wonderland right on your table or desk.
Snowy Sensory Play
Foam soap is a wonderful ingredient for sensory play. It is foamy, white, and looks like snow without venturing out into the cold if you don't want to. This Snowy Sensory Play with Foam Soap activity is easy to set up, fun to play with and will keep your little one engaged for hours.
Winter Sensory Bin
If you want easy winter sensory play without the mess check out our winter sensory bin. This sensory bin for toddlers and preschoolers is made using our set of winter printables that you can also use to play a matching game.
Ice Skating Penguin Sensory Play
Make some ice to play with this winter! If you have some little penguin toys, they'll look like they're ice skating over the pan of ice. This Ice Skating Penguin Sensory Play is super simple to set up for your children. If you don't have penguin toys, no worries! Just use any of your child's toys and pretend that you're at the skating rink.
Frozen Oobleck
Keep those toy penguins out as they are perfect to use with this frozen oobleck activity. If you have ever played with oobleck (sometimes called gloop or goop) you will know how much messy fun you can have with it. This Frozen Oobleck Sensory Play activity takes it one step further. Freeze oobleck in ice trays and invite your toddlers and preschoolers to explore!
Painting on Snow
You can head outdoors or bring the snow indoors for this Painting on Snow Activity. Experiment with different colours, patterns, and designs. Making a snow rainbow is a lot of fun, and you can even study the snow as it melts and see how the colours blend together.
Snow Spray Painting
Keeping with the real snow theme how would you like to try painting snow with Snow Spray Paint! Making snow spray paint is easy and so much fun. Spray the snow on the ground or have fun spraying snowmen or snow covered trees.
Cookie Cutter Painting
Keep toddlers and preschoolers busy with this fun and simpleCookie Cutter Painting! Grab some cookie cutters with a winter theme, add a roll of paper and some paint and you are ready to start creating! This activity is a great way of making homemade gift wrap.
Rainbow Ice Play
Have you ever made Rainbow Ice? Here is a fun winter twist to it. Take rainbow ice out on a snowy day and use it to colour a tray of snow. How fun!
Marshmallow Snowman
Stay inside in the warm as you make an edible marshmallow snowman craft. These little snowmen are so easy to make but look adorable. You can make them for yourself, but they make great gifts too!
Winter Bucket List
You will have enough winter activity ideas to last the whole season with this printable winter bucket list. Scroll through and pick out your favourite ideas or try and complete the full list!
Kids Winter Activities
Need more winter activities for kids ? Check out these creative, educational, and fun ideas we have found from our friends on the web!
Frost Science Experiment
Try this Frost in a Can Science Experiment from Life Over C's to fit a little science into your wintery days. Older children can participate in the fun, too, studying how the frost forms and why salt melts ice. Little kids will enjoy the cool process of the frost forming!
Winter Sensory Bottle
Sensory bottles are terrific for helping children calm down when they're feeling anxious. This Winter Sensory Bottle by Childhood 101 is inspired by Frozen and will look magical as the snowflakes and glitter fall through the bottle.
Frozen Slime
Are your kids obsessed with the Frozen movies? They'll love this Frozen-inspired Slime by Crayons and Cravings. It's blue, sparkly, and full of snowflakes, sequins, glitter, and beads.
Winter Alphabet Sensory Bin
Work on learning the alphabet letters with this blue and white sparkly Winter Alphabet Sensory Bin by The Educator's Spin On It. Your child can identify the letters as they dig them out from amongst the pom-poms and then put them in order. You can also spell out words as the letters are found.
Snowman Sensory Squish Bag
Create a quiet, hands-on sensory activity for your baby, toddler, or preschooler. This Snowman Sensory Squish Bag from Fantastic Fun and Learning is made using a Ziploc bag, clear hair gel, shaving foam, and some loose parts that kids can move around by squishing and touching the bag to build a snowman.
Edible Fake Snow
This Edible Snow recipe from Views from a Step Stool is perfect for toddlers who may still stick their fingers in their mouths while they play. It's made with flour and water, so it's taste-safe, but not tasty. You don't want your child to eat it, of course, but if they do happen to put a pinch in their mouths, they'll be fine. Use it with your pipe cleaner trees, winter dolls, and Arctic animal toys.
Snowflake Sensory Bag
Have some squishy fun with this deep blue Snowflake Sensory Bag from B-Inspired Mama. It's filled with hair gel, snowflake buttons, and sequins to make it sparkly and pretty. This is such a fun and easy to set up winter activity for toddlers and preschoolers.
Counting Snowballs
Preschoolers can practice number recognition and counting this winter using this Counting Snowballs Busy Bag from Fantastic Fun and Learning. Numbers are written on the sparkly snowmen, and kids choose the number of cotton balls to match the number. It's a terrific quiet-time activity.
Build a Snowflake
Looking for a winter STEM activity? Try this Build a Snowflake Activity by Fun-a-Day. Using just construction paper, tape, and glue, you can build a snowflake of simple shapes like squares, circles, and triangles.
Fizzing Ice Experiment
This Fizzing Ice Experiment by Life Over C's is a fun take on the classic baking soda and vinegar experiment. Adding food colouring and dish soap makes the reaction super foamy and colourful!
Winter Sensory Bin
Your toddler can enjoy hours of quiet play with this simple Winter Sensory Bin for Toddlers by My Bored Toddler. Cotton balls, tongs, scoops, and bowls are all you need to pull this easy activity together.
Hot Cocoa Alphabet Printables
There are so many ways to use these Hot Cocoa Alphabet Printables by Fantastic Fun and Learning. Make the shapes with playdough, cotton balls, pom-poms, beads, marshmallows, trace with your finger, laminate them, use a dry-erase marker, etc. What a fun way to practice the alphabet!
Winter Gross Motor Dice
Get the kids up and moving with this Winter Gross Motor Activity from Life Over C's. Download the printable cube, put it together, and roll it to find out what movements you'll make. Kids and adults alike can act out the movements, like shovelling snow or waddling like a penguin.
Frozen Winter Sensory Bag
Ice, shaving cream, and sparkly snowflake confetti come together in this fun Frozen Winter Sensory Bag by Views from a Step Stool. It's squishy, cold, and lots of fun to discover the blue and silver snowflakes under the white "snow."
Pin this list of winter activities for kids to have plenty of ideas for those days when you can't go outside to play.
