— Kris Karpinia, Environmental Educator
The sight of a 10-day forecast full of below-freezing days may sound like a lot of time being spent indoors. With a few household materials, a small amount of preparation, and proper clothing a family can enjoy the blistery weather outside longer than anticipated!
Making cold-weather cool, no pun intended, only requires a few materials. Most activities are easy to set up and quick to clean up. Using simple tools and materials will keep the frozen free play open-ended and fun!
Watercolors:
Photo Credit: Preschool of The Arts
Liquid watercolors can be compared to duct tape in their versatility with snow and frozen play. Using watercolors and tools such as a pipette or turkey baster, a child can have fun decorating the yard in bright colors for the neighbors to see. Encourage your child to practice those fine motor skills by trying to write their name in the snow as well!
Frozen Balloons:
Photo Credit: Cabin Life
Fill balloons up with water and watercolors and set them out overnight to freeze. Come back the next day to a lawn full of hard, virtually indestructible lawn ornaments. Depending on how many frozen ornaments you create, one could play giant tic-tac-toe or checkers in the snow!
Bubbles:
This is where the real magic comes in. Freezing a bubble sounds tricky, and it is. Getting the perfect combination of soap, bubble size, location, and no wind will be required. Once achieved, this piece of art will truly make any child’s day, and possibly yours as well!
WATER BEADS:
Photo Credit: Busy Toddler
For this activity, you will need wax paper, an eyedropper or pipette, and some watercolors. Mix any colors you may want to use and place droplets of water on wax paper outside to freeze overnight. The next day you could have tens to hundreds of small colorful beads to play with!
You could also try this activity with florist water beads. These tiny marbles need time to soak in water (~4-6 hours), but they will grow into squishy water-filled beads that your child won’t want to put down. Water beads are a great sensory activity alone, but when frozen they are hard to not let go!