Outdoor Ice and Snow Activities for Kids
There are loads of things for kids to do outside in Ice or Snow. It can seem really hard to get kids outdoors during the Winter when it’s so cold and indoors is so cosy so here are some fun activity ideas for kids to do with ice or snow! All of the ideas are inexpensive and can be done in the garden or any outdoor space so hopefully you’ll lots of ideas for fun ways to play outdoors with kids during Winter. You don’t feel like you need to stay indoors or even find a hill for sledging – here are some alternative snow and ice play ideas! And if you don’t have snow – don’t worry! This is often the case here in the UK so I have 30 Outdoor Winter Activities for kids to do that don’t require any snow too!
If the weather isn’t cooperating, consider bringing the winter wonderland indoors with synthetic ice, allowing your little ones to experience the joys of ice-skating right at home. It’s a fantastic way to keep the frosty fun going, regardless of the weather.
Ice and Snow Activities for toddlers
There’s nothing better than watching a young child’s excitement when they play in the snow for the first time! But if you’ve had enough of building snowmen – here’s lots of fun ideas for ice and snow activities for preschoolers.
Coloured Ice Cube Painting
Freeze some ice in an ice cube tray, adding a few drops of food or soap colouring to each ice cube slot. Add lolly sticks before freezing outdoors or in a freezer. Kids can use them to paint outdoors on fences or paper.
Snow Painting
Painting is not just for paper – try painting on fresh snow using paintbrushes or squeezy bottles!
Frozen Bubbles
It needs to be below freezing for this to work but looks oh so pretty if you can manage to create freezing bubbles. Here are some top tips for frozen bubble making. Failing that – blowing bubbles is a fun thing to do outside whatever the weather! This is our favourite bubble making kit – it makes the biggest bubbles! Find out more in our bubble activities post.
Snow Cookies and Snow Cake
Our kids love pretend baking outdoors – you can read more about mud kitchen activities for kids here but when there’s snow – try baking snow cakes and snow cookies!! No mud kitchen needed – just give kids some baking equipment and send them off into the snow to get baking!
Snowball Letter Recognition
A perfect outdoor phonics activity for preschoolers – try throwing snowballs at letters or numbers to help with number or phonic recognition! A brilliant way to learn phonics outdoors for homeschoolers!
Ice Scavenger Hunt
Ice Scavenger Hunt for Kids
An ice scavenger hunt is a great way to get kids outside in cold weather. Using ice to spice up a traditional outdoor treasure hunt is guaranteed to help your kids play outside for longer. An outdoor treasure hunt using ice is easy to set up and can be adapted for kids of all ages.
Salt Ice Experiment
Introduce toddlers to the science of ice! Freeze some toys in plastic pots or ice cube trays and encourage little ones to use play hammers or spoons to free their toys! Once they’ve got the hang of this – encourage using spray bottles filled with salty warm water or scoops of salt to melt the salt faster.
Find Animal Tracks in the Snow
Search for animal tracks in the snow – especially if you go on a woodland walk or after fresh snowfall.
Snow Blocks
Toddlers and young kids love to build with blocks inside – why not try it outside? Freeze water in balloons or Tupperware boxes and create ice building blocks to play with!
Ice and Snow Activities for Older Kids
Make an Igloo
Use Tupperware pots to make snow bricks and try making your own snow igloo!
Study Snowflakes
Snowflakes make the most beautiful patterns – try examining them under a microscope to see their shape. Examining snowflakes can be tricky – here’s how to catch and study snowflakes.
Make a Snow Maze
If you have a lot of snow, try making a snow maze by building walls of snow!
Have a Winter Campfire
Outdoor campfires aren’t just for the summer – try having them at any time of year. Bundle up, toast some marshmallows and heat hot chocolate and you’ll find yourself warm and toasty in no time! You can also try creating colour changing flames for your campfire!
Play Icicle Javelin
Not one for younger children but if it’s cold enough for icicles, break them off and try playing icicle javelin to see who can throw the icicle the furthest!
Ice and Snow Nature Crafts
Make Snow Animals
Try making creatures in the snow!
Try making animal faces
Just like clay or mud faces, try adding snow to a tree to make a snow face!
Make Snow Nature Faces
Using a circular shaped tin, collect evergreen nature materials like pine cones, berries and twigs – to make a nature face!
Ice Lanterns
Fill balloons with water and freeze them outdoors overnight. Hopefully they will partially freeze – you want them about 80% frozen. Cut open the balloon when most of the balloon is frozen, and the centre is a little soft. Empty the water inside the lantern to create the space for the candles. Light some tea lights and place the inside the lanterns, you can colour the water with food colouring to make brightly coloured lanterns!
Ice Suncatchers
Not only does this project get your little ones outside and exploring during the Winter, but it also requires little to no prep work and no fancy or expensive supplies. Leaves, berries, evergreen fir – anything can look beautiful in an ice suncatcher! Try freezing water in different shape pots and add nature items plus some string – try keeping the water shallow so it freezes. When frozen – you can display your beautiful sun catchers in the trees, as the sun catches them, they glisten beautifully!
Bird Feeders
Don’t forget about the little birds – lots of ideas for making fun nature birdfeeders here!
Nature Birdfeeders for Kids to Make
Hope these ideas help you and your kids get outside when it’s snowing! Spring will be here before we know it so you’ll need our Spring Nature Activities to do in the garden!
If you’d like even more nature activity ideas then try these fantastic outdoor activity books for kids for more ideas:
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NB: Some of these products were gifted for review but all opinions are my own (or my kids!).
