The winter season is always exciting for children because that means snow, sledding, hot chocolate and movies, Christmas magic and lots more! There is so much opportunity for a parent to design simple activities for their little ones so they can learn about winter-related things, including through arctic small world play, edible snowman, science experiments, drawing on windows, making ornaments, literacy exercises etc. A lot of these activities were part of our home-made advent calendar (24 burlap bags which each contain a Xmas-related activity (decorating the house, arts and crafts, sensory play, PJ/hot chocolate and movie night, reading winter/Xmas books, writing a letter to and meeting Santa etc) and/or candy Let’s get started!

Sensory Bins and Science Experiments

I love anything that is sensory-based or that allows a child to conduct experiments with simple ingredients like food coloring, water, cooking oil and so forth.

• Winter sensory bin: This year, I put together a winter sensory bin complete with fake snow powder to which Emilia added water, food coloring and glitter to make colored snow, polar animals (polar bear, penguin and a killer whale), an empty snow globe for her to shovel the snow into the globe and place the tiny pine trees. This one activity allowed her to learn about making snow, mixing colors, the process of ice changing to water and she made a beautiful Christmas decor piece — a snow globe! We used some materials from a science kit I bought for her.
• Edible Snowman: This activity is sensory-based AND 100% edible, which is the perfect combination for parents who want easy, sustainable activities for their little ones. I just added marshmallow (small and big), chocolate chips (for the eyes) in bowls and gave Emilia a few chocolate sticks to insert in the marshmallows to make arms. She chose to also make legs and hair with the sticks. One item we could have used for the snowman’s nose is corn candy (its shape is a triangle and its color is orange like a carrot). Once Emilia completed this activity, all there was left for her to do was to….EAT IT! That was the best part.

Learning about Literacy, Shapes & Colors:

• Make a Xmas Tree out of Magnetic Tiles and pom-poms: I added the materials for this activity to an activity tree on our Montessori-inspired toy shelves. Simply trace the shapes and color the borders of the shapes on a piece of paper and have your child match the tiles by shape and color. Once that part is completed, ask them to add pom poms to the tile Christmas tree with wooden tongs. This improves their fine motor skills.
• Sorting mini Xmas tree balls by color: have your toddler sort the assorted small Xmas tree balls by color. Have him place them in wooden bowls you lay out for him. This will keep him busy for a long time!
• Draw Xmas items on our window with a glass marker: Work on shapes with your little one to make Xmas/Winter-related items. We showed Emilia how to draw a candy cane, a snowflake, a present, Xmas tree by tracing it for her on the window. She simply connect the dots to make the final drawing. This builds on tracing and literacy skills.
• Make Xmas cookies out of play dough for toddler/make real Xmas cookies with your toddler: This activity really falls in 2 categories (sensory play and learning about shapes) and is so much fun because your child will start to learn what it takes to bake cookies and we all know it’s a whole process — from mixing the ingredients to make the dough, chilling it, then rolling it out, making Xmas shapes with cookie cutters, sticking them in the oven, then letting them chill before decorating them with icing and sprinkles/chocolate chips/colored sugar. I encourage Emilia to wear her chef hat and apron because flour and dough can get very messy very quickly!
• Trace letters on flour or snow outside or even the fake snow you made in the sensory bin (see previous paragraph) using a Montessori letters and sand tracing board.
• Write a letter to Santa: For preschoolers, have them trace their names and maybe one worded Xmas gift they would like. For building word recognition skills, you can print out Xmas-related simple words like snow, gift, tree, jolly and have her glue these words on the stationary.

Make a Christmas Ornament by Building on Acquired Skills

This year, I wanted Emilia to focus on one particular winter item: the snowflake. As outlined in the previous paragraph, she started learning about drawing the shape of a snowflake on the window with glass markers and I wanted to provide an opportunity for her to make her own snowflake ornament out of arts and crafts material we have in our house. So these are the materials I laid out for her for this activity:

• Popsicle sticks: These are great for all kinds of arts and crafts and since we go through a lot of ice cream over the summer, I just end up keeping the sticks for multiple purposes such as this or even for gardening (label your crops).
• Glitter markers: These are so convenient as well because when you use them on wood like popsicle sticks, it gives the same result as glitter paint but it’s a lot less messy!
• Buttons: Buttons are also part of my loose parts collection for my kids as well as in my own crochet bin. I use neutral colored buttons but you can use colored buttons for this particular ornament making activity. I also like having an assortment of sizes. In this ornament, we have 2 sizes. Emilia chose which ones she wanted to stick on.
• Glue: You can of course use a hot glue gun, but you can also just apply liquid glue that is kid-friendly.
• String: You can either fasten the string to the stick with a hot glue gun or drill a hole in the stick and insert the string through it and tie it.

Enjoy these simple winter activities with your toddler or preschooler. A carefully prepared home environment and activities such as these will help your child learn through play. Children develop so much during the first 6 years so make the most of it and most of all, have fun with them!