Snow angels and roasting marshmallows are for amateurs! If you want to take your snow day to an all new level, these three activities are for you.
- Snow Paint
You need three things for this super-creative project. Food coloring, spray bottles—and lots of imagination. Fill your spray bottle with water and add a few drops of food coloring. Shake that baby up and let that beautiful white snow be your child’s canvas!Make multiple bottles with different colors and you’ve got an entire palette of snow paints to work with!No spray bottles? I bet you’ve got a few water guns in the house! Those will work too. Just make sure your kids don’t spray each other because the dyes could stain their winter coats.Check out some beautiful snow paint artwork from The Sits Girls.
Learning Perk: Making snow paints can help you teach your kids how to make new colors by mixing up some of the food dyes. (i.e., Yellow + Blue = Green)You can also try an indoor Snow Paint project.
- Salt Dough
Talk about a straight-from-the-cupboard recipe! Salt, flour and water—BAM! You’ve just provided your little one with hours and hours of fun. You can make shapes and figures and just about anything your kid dreams up with this dough.If you’ve got snowflake cookie cutters, this is a great opportunity to teach your kids about the wonders of all that white stuff that kept them home from school.
Learning Perk: Mixing and measuring is a great way to teach your kids about fractions.Get the full recipe for Salt Dough from Learning 4 Kids.
- Homemade Crayons
Got a bucket of broken crayons? Remove the paper, break ‘em into tiny pieces and pop them into a muffin tin. If you’ve got cool-shaped silicone molds…that’s even better.Melt these crayons in a warm oven for a few minutes, then let everything cool down and you’ve created brand new crayons!
Learning Perk: Recycle, recycle, recycle. Making new crayons from old crayons bits saves resources and money.Get the specifics on making homemade crayons from Crunchy Scott.
Here’s What’s Really Awesome About These Projects
- Everything you need is right in your kitchen cupboard. I mean, you can’t just run to the craft store on a snow day?!
- These projects are super-fun and seemingly messy—but there’s really not much cleanup at all!
- Each of these activities has an educational aspect to them. Even though it’s a snow day, there’s no reason you can’t squeeze a little lesson or two in there!
Looking for more crafts and fun for your family? Try our snow day bird feeder and check out our Fun Family Crafts and Project Pinterest Board!
Scott Meeks is the communications manager at National PTA.
