Winter Holiday Activities for Elementary Children
Keeping elementary school children entertained during the winter holiday season can seem an exhausting prospect with cold weather sometimes keeping energetic youngsters indoors and in need of constant occupation. But the season can inspire a range of indoor and outdoor activities that can be educational and fun for their carers too.
-
Inspirational Walks
-
Setting children a collecting task can make walks entertaining even in cold weather and allow them to collect materials for other winter activities. Write a list of items that would be useful for craft projects such as pine cones, twigs, evergreen needles and berries and set off on a winter treasure hunt. Take a wildlife book with you so they can learn about nature, plants and animals as they go.
Craft Projects
-
Pine cones and other winter foliage can be used to create many different craft items. Stick them around the edges of old drink coasters to form candle stands to make sweet seasonal gifts. These can be painted with non-toxic gold and silver paint from craft stores. Create collage pictures by gluing dried leafs and twigs to stiff cardboard. Stick googly eyes (available from toy and craft stores) to pine cones to create little characters; twigs can be added to the pine cones to form arms.
-
Baking Activities
-
Simple baking activities can keep children entertained for hours. Check online for recipes for classic favorites such as cupcakes, which can be particularly fun to decorate with frosting and candy sprinkles. For very young children, soft dough left over from bread making can be rolled out and formed into whatever shapes they wish and baked in the oven till hard. There are also ready-made colored "doughs" available from craft and toy stores which can be used in this way.
Homemade Seasonal Cards
-
Show children how to make a basic greetings card by folding a piece of stiff paper or card stock in half (if they are very young you may have to do this for them). Then give them colored pens, glue and glitter to decorate their cards with. Last year's cards and magazines can be a good source of pictures for them to cut out with scissors, then glue on to their own cards.
Reading, Writing and Storytelling
-
It is all too easy to forget about the simple and traditional winter activity of curling up with a good book. Visit your local library and ask for children's books with a wintry theme. Depending on the age of your children, you can either read to them or leave them to it. Encourage older elementary children to write and illustrate their own winter stories and poems in blank notebooks.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit children in winter image by Marzanna Syncerz from Fotolia.com
