Snow Crafts

If your yard is like mine and looks like a Polar Bear habitat for 6 months a year, you get really, really tired of snow. There's only so much you want to stand outside in sub-zero temperatures and help your children out of snow drifts. Sometimes you want to come inside for a while and get the feeling back in your fingers, whether the kids like it or not. If your kids love snow but you want to spend some time where you can't see anybody's breath, bring it inside!

Annalee colors a frozen masterpiece

Here's some fun snow crafts sure to entertain the little ones long enough to defrost everybody.

• Color it! Pack some snow into a pan and give the kids markers. They can dab right onto the snow and make pictures, mix colors, you name it. This is great for dried out markers, since it renews them when it gets them wet! As it starts to turn to slush, they can swirl rainbows. Or fill squeeze bottles (old glue bottles are perfect) with colored water and let the kids squeeze out their designs. When it's too melted, dump outside and get another load.
  
  
• Make indoor snow sculptures. Bring in a bucket of it and let kids carve, pack and create. Put the finished products outside to preserve them.
  
  
• Make snow ice cream. Mix one gallon of snow with one cup of sugar and one tablespoon vanilla. Stir in 2 cups milk or milk substitute, just until it's the right consistency.
  
  
• Make snow cones. Mix one packet of Kool-aid, 3/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup sugar in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Have the kids shake and shake till the sugar is dissolved, then pour it into a squeeze bottle. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop some packed snow into a bowl and let kids drizzle the syrup on top.
  
  
• Do experiments. Give the kids a pan of snow, a cup of warm water, a cup of cold water, and a cup of hot (not too) water. Then give them droppers and show them how to squeeze drops onto the snow. How does a drop of cold water react to the snow? Hot? What if you pack down the snow and try it? What if you sprinkle salt? Sand? Sugar?
  
  
• Snow and a stick: Sometimes kids have the most fun with the simplest stuff. My kids love to have a pan of snow and a chopstick. They poke holes, make patterns, stir, swirl and experiment. If they start to get bored, encourage them to find other things to press patterns with. Don't find them yourself!
  
  
• Bring it in the bath. Victoria loved to take a bath with a bucket of snow when I was pregnant. I'd sit by the tub and dole out more as needed and she'd experiment with dousing it, making snowballs, sprinkling it with bath water and giving herself the shivers with it. She even learned a little about science and nature while she played, though she never knew it.

The great thing about snow is it comes in bulk, it's free, and it's portable. It practically cleans up itself, magically turning into a nice little puddle that tiny hands can easily wipe up.

Now, in March when there's nothing but brown snow to do crafts with..... that's a bigger challenge. Coming next -- mud crafts! Just kidding.

Maybe.....


To the Crafts Index

All works on this site Alicia Bayer unless otherwise noted.
Don't take it - that would be rude.