For many little ones, the arrival of snow is one of the most magical times of year. Take advantage of this natural art material and make some colorful creations. Then drink some hot cocoa, snuggle up, and share one or two of the classic snowy tales in our booklist.
For this simple activity, all you’ll need is food coloring, paint brushes, and water. I used a muffin tin but you could also use bowls, cups, or any other vessel to hold your “paint.”
Simply color water with your food coloring, bundle up, and take your art supplies outside! (With little ones, you could even get educational and discuss primary and secondary colors while you’re making your “paint.”) Any size paint brush will do. We found that the bigger brushes were easier for younger children (with less patience) to use. Since they soak up less water, you need to dip smaller brushes more often.
Now, just paint! You can paint the ground around you. You could make and then paint a snowman. You can create and paint small snowball-sized sculptures that you can then move around the yard.
The day that we painted, the snow was not the right texture for snowmen or snowballs. But we found clumps of icy snow around the yard and painted those! We were able to decorate quite a collection.
If a brush isn’t really your style, or if you want to paint something large like a snowman, you can put your “paint” into squirt bottles or spray bottles. Here we used an empty ketchup bottle to squirt our designs onto the snow.
Once you’ve created your colorful snow art, warm back up inside with any one of these delightfully wintry tales.