Painting with snow is a fun art activity for the kids to do in the yard in winter time. Just grab some markers paint brushes and coffee filters and head out side to make some authentic preschool snow art!
Check it out! We were painting with snow, using markers, paint brushes and coffee filters. This simple activity was perfect for the toddlers and preschoolers in my daycare.
This outdoor art activity was a great way for the kids to explore colour-mixing and to use snow in a way that they never had before. We paint ON the snow every winter here in my daycare, but until today, we’d never painted WITH the snow. The hooligans loved it! It was fun just getting creative in a care-free way, and the vibrant art the kids produced was a cheery and welcome sight after looking at our stark, white landscape for weeks.
**Be sure to check out the links at the bottom of this post for more unique and creative ways to play with snow in winter-time!
For this painting with snow activity, we used:
- coffee filters
- washable markers (must be washable so the ink will run when wet)
- paint brushes
- SNOW!
We began indoors, by colouring our coffee filters with the markers. This is a great way to test your marker supply see which ones are good and which ones are dried up.
*Do NOT throw out your dried up markers! You can turn those into these awesome liquid water colour paints.
Scribble all over your coffee filter you have it mostly covered with colour.
Now, bundle up, grab some paintbrushes and your coloured coffee filters, and head out to the yard.
We did our snow painting on the back deck. It provided a nice firm surface to lay our coffee filters on.
Plus, it’s a sunny, sheltered spot, so even though the temperatures were cold, the sunshine was warm enough to melt the snow on our coffee filters. You need some melting to get those colours flowing.
It was challenging for the hooligans to grasp their paintbrushes with mitts on, but they did it. Living in a climate that’s cold and snowy 4-5 months of the year can really teach a child tolerance, patience and persistence. I’m always amazed by the kids’ determination when it comes to getting things done when they’re bundled up from head-to-toe this. They don’t often get frustrated by how their winter clothing restricts them; they just push on through, and figure out how to get things done.
The hooligans dipped their paintbrushes in the snow, and scrubbed and rubbed them over the coloured coffee filters. Although you can’t see their little hands and fingers working, you can bet there’s some great fine motor skill development happening inside those mittens as their little fingers and thumbs work to grip and manipulate their paint brushes.
Soon enough, the marker ink became wet, and the colours started blending together.
We really didn’t have an end result in mind for our coffee filters. This open-ended, winter art activity was all about the process – just experimenting and having fun.
Perhaps we’ll use our coloured coffee filters to make another project like these butterflies or this beautiful spring wreath.
Now, go check out all the other projects in the challenge! There are dozens of creative painting techniques for you and your kids to try! .
And now, here’s a cool experiment you can do with coffee filters and markers INDOORS.
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
Louise
Painting with snow looks so much fun!!! I love the effect it creates too.
Kate Lloyd
This looks like so much fun.