As the chill in the air settles in for the winter and we look for ways to stay warm and cozy at home, here are some fun craft ideas to get into the spirit of the winter season.
Paper Bag Snowpal Crafts
What you need:
- White paper bag
- White cardstock
- Colored cardstock (black, red, green, orange, and pink)
- Glue stick
- Safety scissors
- Googly eyes (optional)
- Buttons (optional)
Assembly process:
- Use white cardstock to cut a round face for the snowpal and draw on eyes or use googly eyes. Then cut small pink circles for cheeks.
- Assemble the snowpal’s face by gluing the two pink cheeks just below the eyes.
- Have your child use their imagination to draw what they think a carrot nose would look like on the orange construction paper and help them cut it out and glue between the pink cheeks.
- Place the completed head on the bag flap and glue in place.
- As a fun challenge for your child, have them draw a scarf on green construction paper. You might want to draw a few examples to help your child if they are unsure of what a scarf looks like. Assemble the snowpal's body by gluing the scarf into place. Trim off any excess pieces.
- Glue the two buttons below the scarf or you can use black construction paper to draw and cut them out.
- Attach the completed snowpal’s body to the bottom of the white paper bag with the glue stick.
- Finish off the snowpal by drawing, cutting, and gluing the hat on top of its head.
- Now, you can have a puppet show with all the fun snowpals.
Gingerbread Soft Dough
Since this is the time of year when a lot of people are cooking and baking in their house, here is a fun way to have your children help you cook something they can then use, when it's cooled.
What you need:
- Medium-sized mixing bowl
- A pot or pan
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
Assembly process:
- Mix the flour, salt, and cream of tartar into a medium mixing bowl and whisk well.
- Add in the ginger and cinnamon and mix it well.
- In a pot or pan, add the water, oil and vanilla and begin to stir them together. This is a great way to work with your children on how to measure and how to use math.
- Slowly add in the dry ingredients (flour, salt, cream of tartar, cinnamon, ginger) to the pot and mix well. Cook on low to medium heat. Please note: The cinnamon makes the playdough take a little longer to come together and cook so keep that in mind when using this receipt.
- Keep mixing well and spread out in the pan if possible so that the salt mixes well with the water to dissolve. There is no need to continuously stir while cooking your playdough. Let it sit for a few seconds and play a counting game with your child before mixing and flipping the dough in the pot.
- The dough is done when it starts to form a ball and looks fully cooked. Take your playdough off the heat and let cool. Let your child know that it needs to be cooled before playing with it safely.
- Once it has cooled, roll the dough out onto a counter top and knead for about 10 minutes so that it becomes smooth.
- Then have fun and enjoy your new toy!
Popsicle Stick Snowflakes
What you need:
- Colored popsicle sticks or if you don’t have colored ones, you can always paint them first.
- Tacky glue
- Hot glue sticks and hot glue gun
- Bells
- Glitter
- Tinsel pom poms and/or craft foam balls
- Twine for hanging
Assembly process:
- Before you begin you will either need to paint your popsicle sticks fun colors if they aren’t already colored.
- Then use hot glue to stick your popsicle sticks together in the shape of the snowflake, put a small bit of hot glue in between each popsicle stick.
- Once done, add a bit of hot glue to the back and add your twine for hanging.
- Caregivers, you can get the snowflakes ready and then the kids can do the decorating!
Time to decorate!
Use any materials you have around the house to decorate your snowflakes. Have fun!