Snowy Day Art Projects

If you find yourself home with children on a snow day for this winter season, you may be rummaging around for projects to burn some energy. Whitley County Fine Arts has a few suggestions to get your creative juices in gear for your children.
Gather some of your older cooking spices from the kitchen cabinet and mix them with a bit of glue. Allow your child to paint with the mixture — it will provide a great sensory learning experience! You can also mix in brown sugar, oatmeal or rice. Discuss the scent of each spice mixture and explain that spices come from plants of all different shapes, colors and sizes. Not only will your child make a fragrant painting, but you will be incorporating science into art as well! As a bonus, you will be giving your spice rack a New Year cleaning at the same time. Consider covering the table with wax paper, newspaper, or an old vinyl tablecloth to ensure simple clean up afterwards.
Give your child a sheet of paper and teach them to plan their day by drawing pictures (if they are too young to write) or writing sentences explaining what steps must be taken to play in the snow. This will engage their planning, time budgeting and prioritizing ability. Then, have them draw or list activities in order of importance and write an estimate of how much time each activity will take. If your four-year-old thinks that it will take only five minutes to feed the cat, get dressed and build an entire snow castle, its okay: the goal is not accuracy. However, this task will begin giving them the building blocks for future activity prioritization and time management. As a bonus, their activity plan will make a great framed gift for a parent, grandparent or other special adult that isn’t present for the snow-day activities! Encourage your child to consider all the steps involved in an activity and try to be as detailed as possible: setting up toys or games, finding the sled in the garage, getting bundled and dressed for the snow, and cleaning up after. A great way to allow children to think of these steps on their own is to ask, “Then what happens next?” after each step. Then, allow them to “build” a miniature model of their Winter Wonderland igloo scene with cotton balls, Q-Tips or disposable cups. This will allow them to use their imagination on a small scale indoors and perhaps letting the temperature warm a few degrees before going outside to put their plan into action. It will also give you a heads-up if your child is planning to challenge you to a snowball building contest or ultimate snowball battle!
Is the wind chill too cold for your little one? Set up an “indoor” snowball game with cups and cotton balls. If you have disposable cups handy, your child can decorate them first with markers. Allow your child to invent the rules and point system, and each round add a different rule such as standing on one leg, tossing the cotton ball into the cup while standing backwards, or holding the cup on your head and trying to catch the cotton ball. Even though you may run out of new ideas each round, your child will be sure to keep them coming!
We hope these ideas will help add to the magical fun of having a school snow day. By creating a few special “Snow Day” traditions, you can make lasting memories the child in your life will carry with them well into adulthood.