If you are lucky enough to live somewhere with winter weather – you can bring the outdoor in for a little snow day fun! Painting with (and ON) snow is a fun way to let children explore concepts of color mixing and the scientific properties of snow.

First, we scooped up a small bucket of clean snow and brought it inside (if you scoop your snow before you are ready to use it, then you’ll need to keep it in the freezer until you are ready). We put snow into small bowls for children to use while watercolor painting. Instead of using cups of water — children wet their paint brushes with the snow. We discussed what snow is made from (water) – and how as the snow gets warmer inside it will start to melt (properties of matter). Using the snow instead of water keeps the brushes from getting TOO wet, and makes the watercolor pictures more vibrant, as well.

Inevitably, as the children cleaned and wet their brushes on the snow, the snow started to turn colorful. So we explored some color mixing in the process. In the end, many children enjoyed painting the snow more than their pictures! So we brought out some bowls and scooped some snow for children to paint on individually.

Another way one class did some indoor snow painting was by using liquid watercolors in cups and had the children dip their brushes in the colors and painted on the snow.

If you don’t have SNOW where you live …

We are fans of Insta-Snow / Super Snow, to make your own “snow-like” experience! It has a cool texture to it, and a small amount of powder makes a good portion of snow that lasts quite awhile.

While we were at the NAEYC conference in Atlanta, Discount School Supply had a booth with some Insta-Snow mixed in with opal glitter and coloring (very pretty).

Other SNOWY activities and art projects

If you search on “snow” in our Idea Search Tool … you’ll find a lot of fun snowy activities (many requiring materials OTHER THAN snow!).

You can also check out our Snowy PINTEREST board for more art and educational ideas related to snow!