Make Music
- Make music with easily accessible objects like bowls, spoons and plastic containers to create musical instruments. Sing songs while encouraging children to play along with the beat, just like a band! Learning to anticipate patterns and place objects or events in sequence builds critical early math skills.
- Freeze dance is another favorite musical game; play music and have toddlers dance, pausing when the music stops.
Experiment
- Bring snow inside and place it in a bin for sensory play. Add scoops, cups, or small toys for digging and building. Talk about what “cold” feels like and compare ice, snow and water. Use other words for “cold”—like “freezing,” “icy” or “chilly.” Ask how the ice feels different from snow and water. All of the objects may be cold, but one is smooth, while another may be fluffy. Let children see ice and snow turn into water and talk about the process of melting.
For more STEM activity ideas, check out our Problem Solvers curriculum .
Be Active and Get Out Some Energy
- Use materials like cones, hula hoops, pillows, and jump ropes to create a fun and engaging obstacle course.
- Have an indoor scavenger hunt by hiding soft toys or objects around the room for toddlers to find.
- Use soft, white pom-poms or crumpled tissue paper as pretend snowballs and toss them into baskets or buckets.
- Cut out big circles from paper and scatter them across the floor. Suggest the children hop from to the next without touching the floor. Incorporate different colored circles to make the game more challenging.
- Use a bedsheet as a parachute for group play with soft balls or toys.
- Play hide-and-seek, Simon Says, freeze tag and other active games that encourage learning .
Still need to get out energy? Find even more play ideas for active children here.
Get Crafty
- Collect pinecones and let toddlers paint them with washable paint or sprinkle them with glitter for a winter-themed craft.
- Use items like pinecones, twigs, leaves, and acorns collected outside to create a winter nature-inspired collage.
- Create simple paper snowflakes together by folding and cutting coffee filters or let toddlers decorate pre-made ones with stickers and glitter.
Play Pretend
- Put on a puppet show and help the children create a storyline around two or three characters.
- Pretend it’s one of the stuffed animal’s birthdays and organize a party with all the fixings: tea party, cake, pretend candles and of course, lots of stuffed animal friends. What are the teddy bears eating? What games do they like to play? Activities like this encourage using imagination to expand on a pretend play scenario.
- Pretend to be animals that live in the cold, like polar bears, penguins, or foxes, and create an “arctic adventure.”
- Cut 10-15 squares (about the size of a piece of bread) from different colors and textures of fabric. Say, “I’m going to make a sandwich” and pile up a few squares. Activities like this encourage symbolic thinking and pretend play skills.
Read
- Choose snow-themed winter books like The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats or Snowballs by Lois Ehlert.
- Act out the story and create voices for the story characters.
- Talk or sing about the pictures.
- Ask questions about the story – and let children ask questions too!
Find more resources on helping children develop a love for literacy here.
