5 Winter Crafts for Toddlers

Beat cabin fever with little ones with these five fun, easy and affordable crafts.

Man oh man has it been cold here! If it was up to me I would stay curled up in my PJs and a warm blanket all day and watch movies until spring. Maybe I’m part bear??? I have two young boys though who love being outside (whether it’s 10 degrees or 80) so that just isn’t an option. And keeping two boys cooped up in the house all day will drive them (and me) crazy.

Even though we haven’t been able to get out as much as we’d like lately we have been able to keep busy. I’ve learned that if I can keep their minds busy it’s almost as good as letting them run out their energy outside. And luckily they love crafts just as much as their mama does! Here are just a few of the crafts that we’ve done lately.

Marshmallow Igloos– Make a fun little igloo out of marshmallows and a styrofoam cup.

Supplies:

Marshmallows

Styrofoam Cup

Glue

Scissors

Directions:

Cut an oval shaped opening in top of cup.

Dip marshmallows in glue and attach to Styrofoam cup. Hold on for 10 seconds to make sure marshmallows stick.

Fill entire outside of cup with marshmallows.

DIY Window Clings– Create fun window decorations in minutes. with just three ingredients

Supplies:

Puffy Paint (I got my set at Michael’s and used a 40% off coupon)

Ziplock bag

Patterns (print snowman here and hearts here)

Elmer’s glue (optional)

Glitter (optional)

Directions:

Place pattern in ziplock bag and seal (you may have to cut your paper so it fits in the gallon size bag. Also, make sure all the air is out of the bag).

Using puffy paint, trace outside of shapes.

You can use the Elmer’s glue and fill in shape. Just make sure that the Elmer’s is touching the puffy paint on all edges.

Sprinkle glitter on wet glue.

Let sit overnight.

Slowly peel glue off ziplock bag and attach to any window.

Penguin Footprint Art– Create an art masterpiece with your feet and fingers.

Supplies:

Black, White and Orange Paint

Paintbrush

White paper

Googly Eyes

Directions:

Using paintbrush, paint the bottom of your child’s foot black. Make sure to get their foot completely covered and covered well so there is plenty of paint.

Place their foot on the middle of the white paper.

Wait for black paint to dry.

Paint a white oval in the middle of the black foot print.

Using your child’s pinky, paint the whole finger black and make the wings (near the heal of the footprint).

Repeat on other side.

Using your child’s thumb, paint it with orange paint and make the beak right above the white oval.

Attach googly eyes above beak.

Snowflake Magnets– Create magnets to display kids’ artwork with only three supplies.

Supplies:

Pipe Cleaners

Beads

Magnet

Hot Glue Gun

Directions:

Cut pipe cleaners into three equal parts.

Star to tie pipe cleaners together to make a star shape.

Make a pattern and add beads to each star arm.

Fold down end of star arm to prevent beads from falling off.

Using hot glue gun attach magnet to center of star.

Homemade Snow– Create your own snow when it’s too cold to go outside (or if there isn’t snow on the ground).

Supplies:

Baking soda

Shaving Cream

Glitter (optional)

Directions:

You can find the full directions here.

There are so many benefits to doing crafts with kids. First, it helps with their creativity and imagination. When we made the Marshmallow igloo we probably played for 45 minutes having different characters of theirs (Darth Vader, Buzz Lightyear and few others) live in and play in the igloos. We talked about how igloos are like houses only they are made out of ice blocks instead of bricks.

It also helps them with fine motor skills and pattern recognition; especially on the snowflake magnets. Learning is fun and what better way to learn than to build something?! And teaching children at home doesn’t have to be expensive. All of the supplies to make these five crafts cost $1 or less and most you probably already have at home.

I got some of the ideas for these crafts, like the window clings and the snowflakes, from Green Kid Crafts. If you haven’t heard of them before they offer monthly subscription as well as individual boxes filled with fun arts, crafts and science projects geared toward kids. Last month we got the Arctic kit which include projects geared towards Arctic living. This month we got the Mad Scientist kit which included a DIY lava lamp, Slime monsters, rockets and more. You can find out more about Green Kid Crafts here.

<br />

There are also a ton of great kid crafts in this book.

So if your kids are getting cabin fever hop on over to the dollar store (or shop in your cabinets), pick up a few supplies and let the crafting begin!

Looking for even more activities to keep the little ones busy? Check out these posts: