Got Winter? Try these snow and ice activities

This weeks "Got? series" post is Got Winter? Try these snow and ice ideas. A collection of creative, arts, crafts and just plain fun using snow and ice.

Just click on the photos to be taken to each original post with the directions to each idea. Have fun!

This idea is just fantastic! Mr Potato Snow Heads!!!

Have a snow experiment.

How does adding oil change the melting process? Fine out here.

Make ice sun catchers. These are beautiful!

Practice fine motor skills by scooping ice.

Make colourful ice sculptures.

Colour mixing experiment by allowing different coloured ice cubes to melt and mix.

Colour mix with frozen water colour paints, bonus is you get to paint at the same time.

Make an ice volcano.

Ice gems add wonderful colour to your yard, deck and walkways.

Make a snowman as a bird feeder and feed your feathered friends.

Make ice ornaments to brighten up your yard.

Try a glowing ice and salt experiment.

Make ice boats.

Add faces to your trees instead of making a full snowman or if the snow isn't proper packing snow for snowmen.

 Learn about melting by applying heat to mini snowmen.

Try Lego (or other small toy) excavations.

Make candles in the snow.

 Make Ice Mandalas.

How about ice ghosts or could be monsters if it's not near Halloween

Make snow cakes.

Make snow cookies for the birds.

Create colourful icicles.

Make nature ice scultpures.

Better yet make ice sculpture candles.

 Or even Rainbow Ice Lanterns.

Make and play in a sensory polar play box.

Make ice castle homes for peg peole and critter play outside.

Excavate dinosaur ice eggs.

Make ice chalk.

Paint the snow! It's a huge, bright, glorious canvas.

Build a colouful igloo.

Paint snowball faces.

Snow pearls would be a super sensory exploration.

 Here are 5 snow activities you may never have thought of too...like Frozen tag and Frozen bubbles.

 This idea for glow sticks in the snow is just a picture but would be fun to do too.

This idea for monster snowshoes doesn't give a how to (it links to a book) but they idea is simple to replicate and super cute.

 Explore these winter books and the activities listed to go along with each book.

Try an experiment to see how blubber keeps arctic animals warm.

No real snow and ice in your area? How about trying this small world play by replicating snow.

Or try making our snowflakes from coffee filters.

And last but not least try making ice cream from snow. I have a whole collection of ideas HERE on a past Got? series post.

Paper Shamrocks DIY

These shamrocks are so quick and easy to make you will find yourself with an armload in no time.

1) Gather your supplies
-paper
-paper cutter (scissors if you don't have one)
-stapler

(not shown: glue and thread to hang)

2) I first saw this idea HERE and knew this would be a great craft Sierra could put together in no time flat. Here is how we made ours. Chose three colours of contrasting papers in greenish tones. I had three greens but two of them were very similar so I used yellow for the centre instead of the third green.

My papers were 9"X12" in size to begin with. I used a green paper with sparkles in it for the outer piece and cut (with my paper cutter) that paper into 1" strips along the longest side of the paper (1"X12" strips).

3) Next I chose the darkest green and cut it into 1" strips. However this time I cut them along the short side of the paper so I ended up with 1"X9" strips.

4) For the yellow centres I cut 1"X12" strips the same size as the first green pieces.

5) You will end up with a pile of strips. Each shamrock requires 1 yellow (my centre colour choice), and two each of two shades of different sized green papers.

6) Take a yellow strip and fold it in half.

7) Layer a short dark green piece, the two of the longer green pieces and then another short dark pieces and stack these in between the folded yellow centre piece and staple together to hold in place.

8) Fold the yellow centre piece over outwards, to touch the base as shown below.

9) Repeat and fold the dark green piece over and then the light piece.

10) Carefully flip it over and repeat steps 9 and 10 on the other side and staple to secure all pieces together in place.

11) Repeat to make three of these heart shapes.

12) Cut the excess paper off below the staple.

13) Hot glue the three hearts together and add a strip of paper to be the stem.

14) Attach a string and hang. I originally planned to hang these in the window but they are quite big and being green they were a bit hard to see.

 

So we hung them near our photo wall above our couch.

We also tried to make a smaller size by cutting off two inches from each piece before assembling the pieces but it didn't make a huge size diference. If you want smaller ones I'd recommend taking 4" off each piece.

Sierra made hers pretty much by herself. She cut the strips, placed the pieces together in order, did the first staple to secure them. She then folded them over one by one but asked for help doing the final staple as the pieces kept slipping and she found it frustrating to have to redo it.

All in all I think these turned out pretty cute and were a simple craft for her to do pretty much by herself. We don't do a lot of St Patricks Day decorating but a splash of colour this winter is always welcome in my house!