Activities or Crafts to do During Long Winter Months

When it comes to the cold winter months, it can be difficult to find things to keep you and the children occupied. Snow days can be fun, but it’s hard to spend the whole day playing outside in frigid temperatures. To keep the amount of screen time to a minimum, here are a few things that you can do to keep everyone busy during the dead of winter.

1. Making Snowmen:

These snowmen are a cute craft idea that are easy and quick to make with little mess.

You will need:

• Foam Cup
• Felt, color of your choosing (for scarf and nose)
• Pom pom (for earmuffs)
• Pipe cleaners
• Glue, Scissors, and Markers

This is just one of many cute craft ideas that you could make. You could also make snowflakes, snow globes or other fun winter themes with your children. There are many crafts that are quick and easy to make while also being fun for the kids. The things needed are for the snowmen made from the styrofoam cup. However, these other images are also quick and easy projects to make.

Making Snowmen project found HERE

2. Making Slime

There are so many different recipes for making slime. Slime is something fun for all ages to play with. Some parents might worry about the slime being dangerous for the children. However, if you are aware of the ingredients being used, you can make sure that everything used is safe. This way, you aren’t leaving out the young ones when doing fun activities. Playing with slime is a good sensory experience for the little ones, and the older ones will have fun with the measuring and mixing while making the slime.

The recipe for “Unicorn Poop Slime”, the ingredients needed are:

• 1-gallon jug of glue
• Liquid starch
• Food coloring (gives the slime the fun colors, but is not needed)

For every 1 cup of glue, you will need 1/3rd -1/4th cup of starch. Amount of starch may vary. Add starch into the glue and knead with your hands until it is the consistency that you are looking for. You can make just one color, or you can make different bowls of different colors and combine them to make the different colors shown here in this photo.

Making Slime project found HERE

3. Homemade Bouncy Balls

Ingredients needed:

• 1 Tablespoon Borax
• 2/3rds cup warm water
• 2 Tablespoons Glue
• 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
• Then your choice of food coloring

This will make one bouncy ball. In one container, mix the borax and warm water. In a second container, add together the glue, cornstarch and food coloring. Then mix together. Once it is mixed together start shaping with your hands. The more you shape it and work with it, the more firm it becomes. After they are done being used, they do lose their shape. You can save the mixture though. All you need to do is work with it and reshape it to get the ball again.

Making Homemade Bouncy Balls project found HERE

3. Homemade Indoor Igloo

When it is too cold to go outside for very long, you could always make indoor igloos. This project is fun for the kids and pretty easy to make.

Things you need:

• Styrofoam cup
• Mini Marshmallows
• Glue

For this project, all you need to do is cut a little hole in the cup for a door to your igloo and then start gluing on some marshmallows until you decide that your igloo is done!

These are a few simple crafts that can be done to time with the kids and keep them entertained during winter break, during a snow day or even just over a weekend! These activities can be done with any age group. These are only a few of the many activities/ crafts that can be done with the kids. There are so many different crafts or projects that you can do with the kids. Pinterest is a great place to look for more fun crafts and activities to do with the kids.

Homemade Indoor Igloo project found HERE

Author, Samantha Potocnik
Samantha is an intern at EVOLVE and a student at University of Wisconsin River Falls.

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