Lyndsey Simple and easy snow day activities that help keep your kids busy, and help keep you sane! Make the most out of an off schedule day.
In case you haven’t heard, there are a lot of Winter Storm Warnings going on right now. We are going on our third snow day in a row in my home town! Snow days don’t only throw off your schedule, but they can become difficult for everyone when there are too many in a row. Unpredicted and unplanned days off can become a recipe for disaster, especially with young kids that have way too much energy! The best thing to do in these situations is to plan or improvise with some energy busting good old family fun!
Take a look at these 15 ideas for energy busting, fun-filled, snow day activities to help keep your kids busy!
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1. Sledding
If you have kids and live in an area that gets snow, you likely already have at least 1 or more sleds at home. If you don’t, you can usually find one at the dollar store for pretty darn cheap! Use a hill in your yard, your driveway, or find a local sledding hill and take advantage of the snowy day!
Dress warm, bring along hand warmers, pack some hot cocoa in a thermos, and spend an hour or two sledding the hills. Don’t have a hill, or the roads are too bad? Well then, tie some ropes to the sled/tube handles and have the kids pull each other around the yard! What better way than this, to get everyone’s wiggles out? Snow tubes work great for pulling because they are so light and slide so well.
Check out these snow tubes on Amazon:
2. Snow Shoeing
Snow shoeing can be a simple and fun way to get out and get some exercise on a snow day. Don’t be cooped up all day, use this as a way to get out of the house with a purpose. Now, not everyone just has snowshoes readily available. Did you know that you can craft your own snowshoes? What a great way to get craft and creative, kill some time, and end up with an awesome tool you can use!
There are several different ways you can make snow shoes. Keep in mind, you only need them for the day, so you don’t have to be too intricate. So, how do you make snow shoes? Well, the easiest way is with tennis rackets and duct tape if you have those items available? If not, you can make them with stick and duct tape, or with sticks and rope/twine.
Check out this fun “how to” on making snow shoes with branches / boughs from trees.
https://www.instructables.com/Gorilla-TapeGorilla-Glue-Snowshoes-from-Scratch
Take a look at these cute monster track’s kids snowshoes!
3. Game Day
We love game days at our house! It might not always be the most ‘active’ of things to do, but it definitely keeps our kids entertained. Currently, my son’s favorite game to play is Trash / Garbage. This is a card game that is super simple to catch on to, and can be played as long as there is number recognition and an ability to follow directions.
How to play Trash:
https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/trash
Get some snacks together, and make a day of playing different games! Check out my post below for a list of best games by age. This can help you have some games on hand for situations just like snow days!
4. Indoor Obstacle Course
If it’s too cold to do outdoor activities, or maybe you just don’t like the cold/snow, take the fun inside! How do you take the fun inside? Make an indoor obstacle course! An indoor obstacle course can be a great way to burn up energy on snowy days without the dressing up and dealing with the cold. So, how do you make an indoor obstacle course? Use your imagination! You can build and indoor obstacle course with practically anything in your house.
Supply ideas (could be, but not limited to):
- Yarn
- Tape
- String
- Blankets
- Cushions
- Chairs
- Tunnels
- Balls
- Scrap wood/boards
- Benches
- Laundry baskets
- Blocks
- Cups
Obviously, you will need to be creative with these items. But the creativity is what we are here for! Check out the articles below for some indoor obstacle course ideas.
Parents.com Indoor Obstacle Course Ideas
https://www.parents.com/fun/activities/indoor/indoor-obstacle-course-ideas-for-kids
Piccalio. Indoor Obstacle Course Ideas
https://piccalio.com/blogs/grow/15-fun-indoor-kids-obstacle-course-ideas?_pos=1&_sid=9176d1494&_ss=r
5. Baking Day
Baking can be a fun and easy way to have fun with your kids. A lot of times, we may already have a favorite recipe, and baking ingredients readily available. The key to a fun baking day is to not set expectations of how much you will get done, and to keep it simple. Simple can mean simple recipes, or as simple as a box cake or box cupcakes.
Don’t feel like this has to be some extravagant adventure, just make it fun and easy. Let your kids be independent as much as possible. One of my favorite baking ideas is to make sugar cookies. The kids can help make the mix, roll the dough, cut the shapes, and decorate them! This gives so many different options for involvement and fun activities together!
Take a look at this list of fun baking recipes to do with kids:
Fun Recipes to Bake With Kids by Del’s Cooking Twist
6. Build A Snowman
This is one of my kids’ favorite winter activities. My kids love to build snowmen! So, what will you need to build a snowman? Well… snow of course! Outside of that, you can use whatever it is you have available to decorate your snowman. One time, we put a sombrero on ours! Why a sombrero? I say, why not a sombrero!
Ideas for Snowman Decorations:
- Hat
- Scarf
- Carrot
- Buttons
- Dowels
- Sticks
- Gloves
- Old clothes
- Pompoms
- Foam
You can make a theme for your snowman as well, or snowmen if you have multiple. One of my favorites that I find hilarious is a beach theme. Put out some beach chairs and a beach umbrella. Dress your snowmen in sunhats and beach wear. This is such a fun and unique theme.
7. Pajama and Movie Day
Are you ready to just relax for your snow day? Then this is the perfect activity for you. Make it a pajama and movie day! Wear your favorite pajamas, put together some snacks and drinks (hot cocoa is a great idea), and put on some movies for a fun filled snuggled up day!
Snow Day Movie Ideas:
- Frozen
- Ice Age (any of them)
- Happy Feet
- The Chronicles of Narnia
- Eight Below
- Snow Buddies
- Snow Dogs
- Cool Runnings
- Abominable
- Balto
To make it even more special, put together a cozy bed on the floor with blankets and pillows. You could even pull out a blow up mattress, if you have one, to make it different than a normal family movie.
8. Craft Day
Craft days can be so much fun! Also, there are so many different options and choices that you can select from when doing a craft day. You can do things as simple as coloring or painting pictures, to something much more involved. If you are making a whole day of crafts, you will probably want to choose a few different ones to make sure there is lots to do!
There are some really fun different crafts that can be done, but when I think snowy days and winter, I think of a few specific crafts that could be fun. Make sure to think of or research craft ideas for items you already have, that way you don’t have to go out in bad weather.
Bird feeder crafts are always a nice activity in the winter time because the birds don’t always have a lot of food sources available. Check out the bird feeder craft ideas below to see if there are some you might already have supplies for!
Bird Feeder Crafts for Kids by The Realistic Mama
Another really fun snow day themed craft would be making paper snowflakes! Look up some videos or different snowflake designs ideas, or just free hand your own. Paper snowflakes are super simple, and can be so much fun. Put them on strings and hang them around the house to bring the snow day inside.
9. Snow Art / Snow Painting
If your looking for something to do that is out of the ordinary, try to make some snow art! This can be such a fun activity that combines outdoor play and creative thinking. You can make snow paint in spray bottles, squirt bottles (like condiment bottles), or just in bowls that you can toss around or use big brush to color the snow.
Make squiggles, lines, pictures, or whatever your heart desires! As long as you have some food coloring, you should be able to come up with some type of snow paint. Otherwise, check out this article on how to make snow paint.
How to Make Snow Paint by A Little Pinch of Perfect
10. Snowball Fight
This is pretty simple and self explanatory. Have a snowball fight! There isn’t anything more simple and fun to get outdoors and take advantage of the snowy weather. There are no supplies needed, no prep, no planning. Just dress warm and have fun!
11. Snow Fort Making / Igloo Making
When the snow gets deep enough, you can build a snow fort! You can either use shovels and/or blocks to bring snow and build it on top of itself to make a fort, or you can dig out a fort from a large snow pile. When I was younger, we would wait for my dad to plow the driveway, and then we would go dig a fort out of the snow piles, shaping and forming the inside as we dug.
Always be sure to keep an eye on your kids during this process. If there is too much snow on top of their hole and it collapses, it would be difficult to get out. Teach snow fort safety 101!
Check out these igloo building blocks, they are super helpful for forming a brilliant snow fort or wall!
12. Snow Ice Cream
If you have a bunch of fresh fallen snow, why not use it to make some snow ice cream? You can use the snow off your porch, deck or railing to make sure that there isn’t any dirt in it! This is such a fun way to make a yummy snow day treat, and it only takes a few ingredients.
It’s so much fun to catch snow flakes on your tongue, imagine how fun it would be to turn those snow flakes into delicious ice cream!
All you need to make snow ice cream is evaporated milk, sugar, vanilla and SNOW! Check out this recipe for simple snow ice cream.
https://www.blessthismessplease.com/quick-and-easy-snow-ice-cream/#wprm-recipe-container-22788
13. Hot Cocoa and Indoor S’Mores
Warm and cozy treats are the best on cold winter days. Hot cocoa and s’mores are a great pick me up treat that almost all kids will love! Indoor s’mores can be super fun, you can either have a table top s’more maker already, or you can use a chafing fuel food warmer to roast your marshmallows. If you don’t have these available, you can also bake or broil your marshmallows in the oven!
These table top S’more kits are super fun and cool!
Make a fun hot cocoa bar like below:
Find a how to for indoor s’mores here:
14. Frozen Bubble Making
Bubbles are already so much fun! I don’t know a single kid that doesn’t like bubbles, how about you? Well, take the fun of bubbles and add a chilling twist. When the temperatures drop, step outside and make some frozen bubbles!
Making frozen bubbles is a trial and error, and it’s not as easy as normal bubbles. This can be a fun trial and error science experiment to make some fun and spend some time outdoors. Fox Farm Child has already taken a lot of the guess work out of this and has given some tips, tricks and recipes to make your frozen bubble experiment a success!
Check out their post below:
15. Snow Angels
Last, but not least, is such a simple outdoor activity. Dress up warm, go outside, and make some beautiful snow angels! Once you have made a few snow angels, you can also grab a stick and draw some wonderful pictures in the snow! If the conditions are just right, the snow gets really hard and crusted on top, and you can even cut out shapes from the top snow!
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