Winter Activities for Preschool & Kindergarten

Winter Science Activities

• Budding scientists can experiment with the following activities:

  Allow your children to guess whether salt, salt water, cold water, hot water or nothing will make ice melt the fastest. Graph and talk about the results.

  Float an ice cube in a bowl of water and give each child a length of string. Tell them to try to pick up the ice with the string. Next, allow a child to place the string on top of the ice and put salt on the ice. Watch the surprised faces as the ice adheres to the string.

  Talk about the Eskimo environment and how an igloo is constructed. Provide sugar cubes and frosting and give your children an opportunity to build an igloo.

Winter Games

• Winter games provide fun without the chill. Games include the following:

  Use balled up newspaper, rolled up socks or large marshmallows to have a snowball fight indoors.

  Cut out and number paper mittens. Instruct your children to hang the mittens on a clothesline in correct numerical order and then in reverse numerical order.

  Play a variation of the hot potato game with an ice cube. Provide applause for the child who has the ice cube when the music stops.

Winter Art Projects

• Little artists warm up with art projects such as these:

  Give each child black paper and white glue. Instruct your students to paint a wintry picture with the glue. Apply silver, gold or white glitter to the wet glue and gently shake off the excess.

  Cut out snowmen from contact paper. Give your children cotton balls or marshmallows and small pom-poms or chocolate chips to create their snowmen.

  Use butcher paper to draw and cut out a mitten or winter hat. Give your children small pieces of construction paper --- use several bright colors. Let the students glue the paper pieces on the mitten or hat to create a winter mosaic.

Winter Story Time

• Explore your school or public library for cozy winter-themed book titles, or visit an online preschool site for additional winter titles. Your children may enjoy the addition of soft blankets and cocoa. Read the story to them, then let the children draw a scene from the story using white chalk and black construction paper.