Winter Activities for Kids- 30+ Crafts, Printables and Easy Ideas

The winter season can be so magical, but it can also drive everyone a little stir crazy! These easy winter activities for kids include simple crafts, free printables, sensory play, indoor activities and outdoor ideas for preschoolers and elementary-aged kids. Most require just a few basic supplies, making them perfect for snow days, classrooms or afternoons stuck indoors.

The below activities and crafts and not focused on the Christmas season, but if you’re looking for Christmas-specific ideas be sure to check out these Christmas craft and activity ideas for kids!

Winter Crafts

1. Popsicle Stick Snowflakes– Make your own custom snowflakes and decorate the house with them!
2. Paper Snowflakes– There are 10 designs and templates to pick from that you can use to hang around the house or they look so pretty and fun in windows!

1. Snowglobe Handprint Craft– Let kids decorate snowmen from their fingers and you’ll have the sweetest keepsake art too!
2. Snowglobe Template– Print out a blank snowglobe and let kids decorate the inside of their own little winter wonderlands.
3. Penguin Craft– This penguin template is a fun paper doll activity. Cut out and color your penguin then decorate and add on the outfits.

Winter Printables

1. Winter Wordsearch– Print and play games can be just the 5-10 minute activity you need for a reset and this is an easy one older kids can do on their own!
2. Winter Tic Tac Toe– Try out different tokens for a fun twist on the class Tic Tac Toe game.
3. Snowflake Printable (Classic)
4. Snowman Printable– Print out various snow people and try out different configurations of their outfits and accessories!

1. Penguin Printable
2. Winter Bucket List– Make a giant list of all the winter-themed things you want to do over the course of an afternoon, a day or for the whole winter!

Sensory and STEM

1. Snow Slime– you’ll need instant snow for this fun twist on our fluffy slime recipe!
2. Fake Snow– too cold to play in the real snow (if you have it) outside? Make fake snow and bring the fun indoors!
3. Build a Snowman Sensory Bin– this is so fun to set up and let kids play with to see what they make! You know your child best to gauge if they’re able to play with something like this without eating the decorations so keep that in mind.

1. Cloud Dough– Skip the colors or make blue and white for snow!
2. Winter Playdough
3. Fluffy Cloud Slime or Fairy Slime

Indoor Activities

1. Build a blanket fort- this is one of my favorite activities for a movie afternoon or evening! Or a giant pillow pile.
2. Indoor Snowball Fight
3. Winter Sensory Bin
4. Put on a puppet show! Use our paper bag puppet templates and drape a blanket over a table to make an impromptu puppet stage!
5. My boys love the Cars movies, we like to set up all their toy cars to watch the films with us like a drive- in movie.

1. Hot Cocoa and Movie Afternoon- pick a favorite movie and build a blanket fort. Kids will love the surprise of getting to watch TV in the middle of the afternoon!
2. Make Paper Snowflakes and decorate your windows or doors with them.
3. Make Window Clings- Mix a little dish soap with glue and water color paint or food coloring. Let them dry overnight and they’ll stick to your windows! I love the idea of snowflakes for this with white glue and glitter.
4. Winter Coloring Afternoon- print off some of our templates, put out a bunch of crayons or markers and have a coloring afternoon!
5. Winter Printable Games (Bingo, Tic Tac Toe, Word Search)
6. Winter Reading Challenge- Use our Printable Charts!

Winter Recipes

1. Snowman English Muffin Pizza
2. Decorate Snowflake Sugar Cookies- try our sugar cookie and royal icing recipe!
3. Make Hot Cocoa Bombs- the best part about making your own hot cocoa bombs? Using them after you make them! 🙂

Outdoor Activities

1. Build a Snowman- Try a snow fort or multiple snow people if you have enough snow!
2. Go Sledding
3. Go on an outdoor nature walk or an outdoor scavenger hunt
4. Make snow angels
5. Look for animal tracks in the snow
6. Paint the Snow