Baby it's cold outside: Clever, wintery activities

Baby it's cold outside: Clever, wintery activities

When the weather turns frightful (or for those in California or Florida or other warm climates, just a smidge less sunny), some parents act like bears - gather up the kids, all of their toys and books, and hunker down for the season, spending as much time huddled by the fire or under the covers as possible. Other parents are more like the United States Postal Service - neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, can deter them from engaging in their regular trips to the park or local museum. Whatever category you may fall in, or if more likely than not, you fall somewhere in the middle, we at The Savvy Source have some ideas to help you while away the winter with fun and creative activities that will delight you and your children.

Snow Painting

Activity for 2-6 year olds

On those cold snowy winter days, bundle up your kids and give them a couple of spray bottles. Fill the spray bottles with water and add a little food coloring to each one. The kids can spray the colored water onto the snow and create a masterpieces!

Materials Needed: Spray bottles, water, food coloring

Winter Windows

Activity for 1-6 year olds

Add a small amount of liquid dish soap to white tempera paint. Mix it thoroughly. Have your child paint pictures or designs on a window. Cover the windows with plastic wrap and let the paint sit overnight. The next day, remove the plastic wrap from the windows and you'll see your frosty "winter" window come to life! **By including the liquid detergent, the paint will come off your windows with a few sprays of glass cleaner.

Materials Needed: Liquid dish soap, white tempera paint, paintbrush, plastic wrap

Ice Ornament

Activity for 1-6 year olds

Create an "ice ornament" or "ice sculpture" by arranging natural objects found on a nature walk (like pine cones, leaves, sticks, rocks) in a shallow pan. Fold a length of string in half and lay it in the pan so the fold is over the edge of the pan and the two ends are in the center of the pan. Fill the pan with water and freeze (either in your freezer or outside if the weather is cold enough). When the water is completely frozen, remove the ice from the pan and hang it outside on a tree branch.

Materials Needed: Natural objects (pine cones, leaves, sticks, pebbles, stones, bark, pine needles, shells, dried flowers, nuts), shallow pan (or pie pan), heavy string or old shoelace, water, freezer (or weather cold enough to freeze water)

Mitten Sequencing

Activity for 3-6 year olds

Trace 11 mitten shapes on construction paper and cut them out. Write one number from 0 to 10 on each mitten. String a piece of yarn between two chairs to resemble a clothesline. Have your child clip the mittens with clothespins in order from 0 to 10. You could also use this activity to practice putting letters in order.

Materials Needed: Construction paper; yarn; clothespins

Indoor Beach Party

Activity for 2-5 year olds

When winter is getting the best of you, have an indoor beach party with your kids (and friends)! Get out the swimsuits, sunglasses and beach balls, put on some Beach Boys tunes, lay out some beach towels and have a picnic! The kids will love getting out these items from summertime and don't ALL kids love to have as few clothes on as possible?

Materials Needed: Summer items

Skiing Cotton Ball Snowman

Activity for 2-6 year olds

Take two cotton balls and glue them together. Then take two wooden stir sticks, like the kind for coffee, and cut them about 1-2" long each. Glue the wooden sticks to a piece of paper side by side. Then glue the two glued cotton balls, one on top of the other, to the sticks with the sticks sticking out just a little bit in front to make little skis. This is the base for your skiing snowman. Next use some puffy paint or colored glue to dot eyes, nose, three buttons down the chest and a smile line for a mouth. Last, use some ribbon to tie a scarf around the neck and a little piece of paper to the top of the head to make a hat. Make a bunch of these, and you have a cute and original holiday centerpiece

Materials Needed: 2 cotton balls, 1 wooden stir stick, a small piece of paper, thin ribbon, glue and puffy colored squeeze paint.

Paper Evergreen Trees

Activity for 3-6 year olds

Make a simple 3-dimensional evergreen tree from construction paper. Fold a piece of green construction paper in half, then cut it in half along the fold. Put the two pieces together, and fold them in half again. Draw half an evergreen tree along the fold -- half of a big triangle will work fine. Cut along the line you just drew to create two identical trees. Cut a slit up from the bottom halfway up through the center of one tree; cut a slit down from the top of the other tree, stopping halfway. Slip the two trees together along the slits. Using clear tape, tape the bottoms and tops together (pieces of tape on the bottom and at the top make the tree stand up well and stop the slit ends from flopping over). Create a whole forest of pine trees to put in the center of your winter tablescape.

Materials Needed: Green construction paper, Crayons, markers, or tempera paint, scissors, clear tape