The weather is cooling down for us in the North West, and that means: it’s time for winter-themed activities at our learning centres! We thought we’d share some of our go-to, easy preschool winter craft ideas for this age group. We’ll also share some creative winter and snow projects we’ve found online.
1) Construction paper themed ‘glue together’ shapes – a gingerbread man, an apple, a tree, a beaver, a winter forest and whatever you can imagine!
This is probably the simplest way to set up an easy preschool craft, which can be adapted for any season of the year. It helps kids practice their fine motor skills by cutting with scissors, colouring with crayon grips, squeezing and spreading glue, and working with glitter or fine, small bits of sequins, beads and little ‘googley eyes.’
For the younger kids, or if time is limited, the early childhood educators can prepare these shape cut outs in advance, and simply give to the kids for gluing together and decorating.
Here are some of ours, so you can see what the daycare kids came up with (click an image to open a slideshow):
2) Craft a snowman for a classic, preschool winter craft, in oh so many ways
You’d be surprised how many ways there are to craft a snowman. And, thankfully, most of these make for easy, preschool-friendly art projects too. If your classroom or daycare uses different materials to make snowmen on different days, it can also turn into a sensory and tactile activity.
Here are some of the ways we make snowmen at our daycare centres:
Marshmallows and sticks snowman
(click an image to open a slideshow)
This can be done with pretzels, too, for a fully edible treat! See an example here.
Play dough snowman
(click an image to open a slideshow)
Here is a recipe for snow cloud dough we found: https://theimaginationtree.com/snow-dough-recipe-for-winter-sensory/
And here is a recipe for plain white play dough to use for various winter crafts:
https://theimaginationtree.com/recipe-for-white-play-dough/
Paper plates snowman
(click an image to open a slideshow)
This can also be done with shredded paper, to add more texture (but also more mess!). See it here.
A paper roll snowman
Thanks to this blogger for the idea!
A cotton ball snowman
Of course this had to be one of them. Credits to this blogger for showing a photo of one. This works with penguins and polar bears too, by the way! And, if you don’t have the traditional cotton balls, you can use the circular cotton pads found at the drug store, too.
A sensory squishy ziplock snowman
This is a year-round craft and homemade toy that can be customized to winter with snowman components. See it here.
A name snowman
This is a lot like a paper snowman, except the number of balls for the ‘body’ depends on the kid’s name. It’s a fun way to personalize a snowman! See how here.
An envelope snowman
This is so cute – your class can use it to write letters afterwards, or have a puppet show! Here is how to make a snowman out of an envelope.
An egg-carton snowman
Any new way to make a snowman is a welcome one. Why not paint some egg cartons you were going to recycle anyway? Here is a view of one, for inspiration.
Rock snowmen with mix-and-match outfits
The kiddos can paint the rocks, then put them in a pile, and have a winter-long game to play mixing and matching their snowmen! Tell stories with them too. This is a great craft for the imagination. Here are photos and steps.
3) String beads and garlands to teach fine motor skills with a winter craft
Whether or not the kids in your classroom celebrate Christmas, strings of beads, painted cheerios, popcorn and other garlands can still make for great decor pieces. If not for a tree, then they can hang in the classroom, or at home for some pretty fun.
The other great thing is that these can be collective, class projects. If each child cuts out a shape, decorates it, and then adds it to the string, the group can make a row of gingerbread men, mittens, stockings, and so on. Here is an example.
4) Make a winter snow globe or sensory bottle (great for toddlers)
While this is cool any time of year, these sensory bottles can be winter-themed for preschool crafts. Kids can fill a bottle with the glitter and sequins of their choice, add some coloured glitter glue, and a few other ingredients, and you’ve got hours of fun. Find the recipe and instructions here.
5) Paint the snow with the preschool class
While they’re outdoors making snow angels and snowmen, they can also paint the snow! The trick is to get the colours to stay on the snow, of course. Here is a recipe for how to do it.
6) Make paper and stick snowflakes to decorate the preschool classroom tree
If your organization celebrates Christmas with a Christmas tree, you can make ornaments out of snowflakes. If not, these snowflakes are fairly religious-neutral, so they can still make for a great winter craft idea, to use in other ways. For example, hanging in mom and dad’s car over the rearview mirror, perhaps? As wall decor? Or fridge magnets?
However you use them, these easy winter snowflake crafts can get very creative.
We made Christmas tree ornaments using this same concept:
Paper cut out snowflakes from different types of paper
Of course, there are the paper-cut out snowflakes. You know, fold a piece of paper, and cut little shapes and corners. Open it up, and voila! You have a paper snowflake. These can be made with cupcake liners, paper plates, paper towels, sticker paper, and more, for different textures.
Another easy way to make snowflakes out of paper is with a hole puncher. Hole punches can come in different shapes too, if you want this to get more creative.
Make snowflake ornaments as a preschool activity
But, you can also make these with popsicle sticks or even twigs from outside.
Here are instructions to make very pretty, nature-inspired snowflake ornaments with blue paint and shiny glitter. Seriously, even adults can enjoy having these around!
Here are instructions for toddler-friendly popsicle stick snowflakes, with sequins.
This same pattern of stick or popsicle stick snowflakes can be made with strips of paper, too. Or, you can add sequins to a paper cut out shape of a snowflake, like shown here.
Yarn threading snowflake
You can also do a threading craft to make a symmetrical snowflake, with yarn and a paper plate. That said, this one may take a bit of dexterity, so it’s more suitable for the older ages in your classroom, or the young ones who can get the hang of it. Here it is.
Snowflake painting and glue projects
This blogger has a few more ideas for snowflake crafts that preschoolers can make. They include glue and glitter ‘cling’ and ‘re-stick’ shapes, some cut out of contact paper and a painting project using the wax method, where the paint covers everything except the snowflake that was drawn in white.
The wax and ‘paint over’ method can also be done with tape, instead of wax. See it here.
7) Finger-paint with white paint to make winter-themed preschool art
White paint makes for great snow in an art scene, wouldn’t you know. Finger painting is a great sensory and fine motor skills activity. Combine the two, and you have an easy preschool winter craft.
Try this handprint polar bear painting.
Or covering paper trees with white paint as snow.
8) Build a gingerbread house and decorate holiday cookies
This is a craft the kids can eat afterwards! You can build the parts of a gingerbread house together (each kid can have a slab of ‘wall’ or ‘roof’ to decorate). Or, you can let each preschooler decorate their own ‘real’ gingerbread man, Christmas tree, or any other shape. Then, tell Starbucks they can keep their expensive seasonal sugar cookies shaped like beautiful artisan snowmen!
(click an image to open a slideshow)
9) Make a touch-and-feel book for winter
This one we found was so creative, it just had to be shared. Kids can cut out shapes from fabrics and felt, pom-pom balls and more. Then, they can write a story book and put it all together! It can be a memory keepsake, or a gift for someone too!
Here is the post to learn more.
See more activity collections for early childhood classrooms on our blog!
They are:
- 12 Space-themed crafts & activities for preschool or daycare classrooms
- 10 Activities and crafts to teach preschoolers about the ocean
- 17 Preschool interdisciplinary apple lessons and activities
- Preschool activities to start, grow and maintain an edible classroom garden
- Essential props to have or make for your preschool dramatic play corner
- A comprehensive guide to art supplies for your preschool process art table
- Preschool sports ideas to play in early childhood, and their benefits
- 11 Preschool field trip ideas and lesson topics to go with them
