Winter Art Projects for Kids

Oh, the weather outside is frightful……

With winter comes less daylight, cold weather, and more time spent indoors. Yah fun, right?? It does not take long for kids to go stir crazy. I know kiddo has a tendency to bounce around a bit if she’s inside for too long. To help with that, plan a few winter art projects for kids. These winter art projects for kids work well at home for fun, at home for schooling, or in a classroom and are best suited for toddlers through middle school. With some modifications you should have no problem using them with the age group you are working with.

Hand Wreath

This Peace on Earth handprint wreath by Meaningful Mama is one of my favorites.

Even thought Christmas is over, the doesn’t mean you still can’t be winter festive. These also work to decorate for any other holiday. Use pinks and reds for Valentines, blues and reds for Labor Day, Memorial Day and the 4th of July. White, grey and black for Halloween. The possibilities are endless.

The hand wreath is simple to create and will work well with all ages. First you will need a paper plate. Cut out the circular middle, leaving only the outside ridged rim. Trace the child’s hand on different colors of construction paper. If they are of age, they can do it themselves, If not, they’ll need some help. For winter colors light blues, greys and whites work well.

Once you have enough to cover the paper plate rim, you can use a glue substance of your choice to glue them on the paper plate rim. Once the hands have all been glued, using a hole punch, make a hole at the very top. Using some string or yarn, tie a loop for hanging.

 

Handprint (and Footprint) Pictures

Creating Really Awesome Free Things (C.R.A.F.T.) has a wonderful post of 59 handprint and footprint art ideas.

Handprint pictures not only make great winter art projects for kids, but also a great keepsake. With a handprint picture you can capture the size of the child’s hand at the time the piece was created. You can make many handprint pictures like trees, turkeys, snowmen and handflakes.

For a tree have the child use a brown color to draw the tree trunks. Once complete use green paint to cover the child’s palm and fingers. Place the child’s hand just above the tree trunk for an instant tree. To create the turkey, cover the child’s hand in brown paint. Place the hand on paper and allow the child to decorate the hand by making the thumb the turkey face and the fingers his feathers. Handflakes look best on dark navy or black construction paper with white paint.

 

Winter Still Life

I know some of you are under snow. Kiddo and I save a lot of sticks for our fairy houses and furniture projects. We have a small  bucket of sticks in the garage. If you aren’t under snow and aren’t totally frozen you should be able to find a few sticks to use. I love this Nocturnal Storytime project by Sturdy for Common Things.

 

A still life is a group of inanimate objects. Gather several winter-themed objects for this winter art project for kids. Make sure the objects are appropriate for the age group and try to make an arrangement of these items. If you like, you may let a child select the objects and arrange them for the still life. Allow the children to draw their interpretation of the still life with paint, pencils, markers, crayons, or chalk.

 

Toilet Paper and Paper Towel Roll Projects

Over the years we have collected many toilet paper and paper towel rolls for various projects. We’ve made snowmen for Christmas, butterflies for Valentines and even use them for our play kitchen we made for kiddo a few years ago.

I have found that Do Small Things with Love has a great round-up post of 51 Toilet Paper Roll Crafts projects.

 

Do you have a favorite winter craft to keep kids entertained? Feel free to share it in the comments!