If there's snow on the ground, consider it to be one big canvas ready to be painted. Fill spray bottles with cold water. Add a few drops of food coloring to each bottle. Outside, pass out bottles and invite children to spray designs and pictures onto the snow. Once they've had a chance to be creative, use this activity to reinforce writing lessons by asking children to spray letters into the snow.
Just because there's snow on the ground doesn't mean your sandbox tools have to be packed away. Let children build using shovels, buckets and their own gloved hands. As long as there are a few inches of snow on the ground, children can create buildings, forts or snow piles. Pass out plastic utensils they can use to carve designs into the sides of their buildings. Unlike in the sandbox, there should be plenty of snow for children to share without fighting.
Use trees to teach children about what happens in nature during the changing seasons. Find out what types of trees are outside your school, then print photos of these types of trees during summertime. Lead children toward the closest tree and ask them to describe it. Show children a photo of the same type of tree in summer and ask them to find what's different between the two images. If some trees still have leaves and some don't, invite children to guess why they're behaving differently.
Snow or mud will create an ideal surface for children to hunt for animal tracks. Ask children to hunt around for any tracks they can find. They may find bird, dog or even human tracks. Once a child finds something, invite the entire group to gather around. Ask children to guess what made the tracks, then follow the tracks as far as is practical. Children can make up stories about where they think the animal or person was going.