Snow Day Fun!

Many places across the U.S. now have a fresh blanket of snow. Some of us will think that is great and some will not be quite as thrilled. But most kids LOVE snow! Lots of kids keep their fingers and toes crossed in hopes that the snow will be deep enough that school is canceled for the day! So if you live in a place that is “lucky” enough to have a lot of snow, just what can you do on a snow day? Let the fun begin!!

Probably one of the favorite things to do is to build a snowman! Big or small, we love them all!

Another favorite has to be sledding down a snow covered hill!

Some “people” just love running around in the snow! Can you guess who this is?

Yep! It’s our dog! 🙂 He LOVES the snow!

Do you see any animal tracks in the snow around your house? We often have these visitors to our yard.

What else is fun to do in the snow? How about making snow angels? Lay flat on your back in the snow and move your arms and legs in wide arcs in the snow and you will make a snow angel.

Build a snow fort or a snow wall.

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Then hide behind your snow fort and have a snow ball fight!

Group of kids play snowballs game together. Standing behind the snow wall fortress with fir forest on the background during winter day stock images

If you can find some very clean snow, you can even make snow ice cream! Yum!

When you are all done playing in the snow, you can head back inside your nice warm house, put on some dry clothes and enjoy a warm drink snuggled under a blanket! 🙂 Have fun!

Let’s Make Beaded Snowflakes

January is here and so are cold temperatures and snow for some of us! Let’s make some snowflakes today that won’t make us any colder! These are easy to make and so pretty! (And they are great for practicing some fine motor skills.)

You’ll need 3 pipe cleaners (or chenille stems), a pair of scissors or wire cutters and some colored pony beads.

Cut the 3 pipe cleaners in half.

3 half pieces will make 1 snowflake so you now have enough pipe cleaner pieces for 2 snowflakes. Here are 2 different ways to wrap the pipe cleaners into the snowflake shape: #1.) Fold 2 pieces into a “v” shape.

Put the 2 pieces together at the bends.

Wrap the 3rd pipe cleaner around the center of the other 2.

OR way #2.) Hold the 3 pieces of pipe cleaner together…

And give them a twist or two in the center.

Now it’s time to use the pony beads. You will need 5 beads for each “spoke” of the snowflake for a total of 30 beads. The colored beads can be in whatever order you decide to use. You can make a pattern of colors for your child to duplicate like the following pattern: green, white, blue, pink and purple.

When they have enough beads laid out in the right order, it might look something like this:

Slide the beads onto the piper cleaner spokes in the same order.

After the 5 beads are on the pipe cleaner, bend the rest of the pipe cleaner spoke into a circle and push the end back into the last bead.

Continue sliding the beads onto each pipe cleaner spoke and bending the end in until all 6 spokes have been done. Isn’t it pretty?!

You could also have your child find 5 beads of the same color for each spoke. These beads match the color of the pipe cleaner spoke they will be placed on.

This way is also quite pretty!

Or you can let your child put the beads on in any order that they like. If you would like to hang your snowflakes up, simply add a piece of thread or string through one of the circles. I hope you will have fun making these beaded snowflakes! 🙂

Do You Have the After Christmas Blues?

When all the hustle and bustle and excitement leading up to Christmas has passed, do the After-Christmas Blues show up at your house? Sometimes taking a break from all the “new” toys and kits that arrived on Christmas Day, can be a help. Try going back to some of the “old” crafts they’ve done before but haven’t thought about in a while. New toys and things will seem more fun again after the kids have had a little break from them. There is comfort to be found in the tried-and-true. Here are a couple of suggestions of things we’ve done on here before but might be fun to pop out for the kids again.

#1.) Making paper snowflakes. It’s still obviously winter and cold outside so how about doing a craft with snowflakes that don’t make your fingers cold when you play with them. Follow the link to this project:

Do You Want to Make Snowflakes?

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#2.) You can even make a snowman with your paper snowflakes.

Do You Wanna Build a Snowman from Paper Snowflakes?

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#3.) Hide and Seek Snacks. Try making up a fun snack in little cups and hiding the cups for the kids to find. Look for that post here:

Hide and Seek Snacks

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#4.) Make some craft stick snowflakes. These are easy and fun! Follow the link to see how they’re made:

https://wordpress.com/post/thekidsniche.com/3254

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There are over 450 posts here on my blog so I hope you can find some fun things to do with your kids to help everyone get back on an even keel again. Those new gifts will look even better afterwards! Have fun! Hugs to all of you! 🙂

Simple Winter Wreath

Are you ready to put away your Christmas wreath but feel like its too soon for spring decor? Here’s a fun and quick little project for a winter wreath. We can still have snow where we live for a couple of months yet, so making a wreath with snowmen and snowflakes seems totally appropriate. You can use whatever theme you’d like – even a spring theme, if you are so inclined. This project is probably geared more for older kids or for younger kids with lots of help from an adult.

Here’s what you need to get started: a wreath form, (I used a 14″ one), some fabric printed with your theme, a glue gun, and some little items you might like to use to decorate the wreath. Gather up any items that might go along with your theme and you can play around with them till you decide which ones to use.

Start by cutting strips of fabric 2″ wide by the width of the fabric. You can use shorter strips if that’s what you have because we will be gluing them together anyway. I needed 5 strips to cover my 14″ wreath.

Trim off the white selvage edges.

Take one strip and start wrapping it around the wreath form. You can glue down the first edge if you want to but I just wrapped the fabric strip around the wreath close enough that it held the end in place.

When you get to the end of your strip, cut it as much as is needed so that you attach the next strip on the backside of the wreath. That way it won’t show on the front.

Using the glue gun, make a line of glue close to the end of the strip on the top side of the fabric.

Lay the end of the next fabric strip on top, lining up the edges. It will then look like a continuous strip of fabric.

Continue wrapping the fabric strips around the wreath form and adding new strips as needed.

When the entire wreath is covered with the fabric, trim the end so that you glue the end down on the backside of your wreath.

This time put the glue on the wrong side or the backside of the fabric.

And now the wreath is ready for decorating! 🙂

Lay your little decorative items around on the front of the wreath. Take time to move them around and to try different ideas.

Once you decide where you want them, use the glue gun to glue them in place.

You did it! And I’m sure it looks great! Find a place to hang your wreath where everyone can enjoy it! Hope you had fun making a winter wreath! 🙂