5 Snowflake Crafts for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Snowflake crafts are sometimes the only snowflakes we see here in Texas. We live in the northern part, so we do have the occasional snow or ice storm. But it’s nothing to rely on. Whether you have had snowflakes in your area for a while now, or the only snow you’ve ever seen is on television, you and your kids will love these snowflake crafts to fill your home with that white stuff!

1. Salt painting

Supplies and Preparations

For this Snowflake Craft, you’ll need glue, salt, and watercolors. I used construction paper the first time and the glue made wet spots spread. I recommend using watercolor paper like this.

Draw snowflakes with the glue. You can draw them with a pencil first then go over the lines with the glue. Before the glue dries, cover all the glue in salt.

(This is an awesome tutorial on How to Draw a Snowflake)

Activity

Using the water color paint, gently dab color on to the salt lines. I found if I used more water, the color spread more readily. If you dab less than gently, the salt will fall off the paper. This one is actually not super Toddler Friendly. I even had a hard time with it and my three year old got frustrated quickly and lost interest. Nonetheless, it made a beautiful picture!

2. Q-tip Snowflakes

Supplies and Preparation

You’ll need a handful or so of q-tips, glue, and construction paper for this snowflake craft. Cut the q-tips in various sizes. I left some whole, cut some in half, and cut the tips off the others. Older kids will have fun designing their own snowflakes, but Roo needed help. I drew simple snowflake designs on her paper.

Activity

I encouraged Roo to trace the lines of the snowflake pattern I made on her paper with glue. We used stick glue, but school glue will work best! Then Roo chose q-tips of the appropriate size and shape to fill the line. It was great spatial awareness practice as well as fine motor development.

 

3. Watercolor Resist

Supplies and Preparation

Break out that watercolor paper and water colors again, and you’ll also need a white oil pastel for drawing the snowflakes. White crayons will work too, although not as well. You could also try making the snowflakes with white school glue and allowing it to dry before giving the paper to your toddler or preschooler.

Activity

Let the toddler or preschooler paint the paper you drew the snowflakes onto with watercolors. Blues and purples look beautiful, but if your little Picasso wants a rainbow let them go for it! Encourage them to cover the entire page to reveal the snowflakes.

4. Pipecleaner and Beads

Supplies and Preparation

This snowflake craft will take a little more adult work if you’re working with toddlers or preschoolers. You’ll need some white and silver pipe cleaners or chenille stems and pony beads. Let the toddler or preschooler practice their threading by filling at least one stem with beads as preparation.

Activity

The adult or older children will shape the snowflake by making an X shape with two pipe cleaners and bending them around each other. You can do this with the bead filled pipe cleaners if you choose. Maybe make another X to intertwine with this one. Take another stem and bend it around each stem of the X’s and create a circle. I used the beaded pipe cleaner for this. Cut smaller pieces of pipecleaner to make small Vs on the ends of some of the stems.

These make beautiful ornaments! You should see more Christmas Ornaments preschoolers can make from pipecleaners in another post.

 

5. Coffee Filter Snowflakes

Supplies and Preparation

One coffee filter for each of the snowflake crafts, some washable markers, and a pair of safety scissors are what you need for this. It helps to have a spray bottle with water too.

Activity

Have the child color the coffee filter with the washable markers. Again, blues and purples look most snowy but let them design their own.

Once the preschooler or toddler is done coloring, fold their coffee filter in half, then half again to look like a slice of pie. Preschoolers are just learning scissor skills so they may want to cut some shapes into their pie slice. Toddlers will need an adult or older child to cut for them so they don’t just cut their snowflake in half!

Before unfolding, spray the coffee filter with water and watch the colors spread. Unfold to reveal the design. Allow them to dry before handling them.

I love the idea of attaching a bunch of these on a single string to make a garland or maybe hang several strings from the ceiling to make a snowflake curtain!

Jamielyn from Iheartnaptime.com also did a coffee filter snowflake post for a fantastic act of kindness and service back in 2012 after the events at Sandy Hook Elementary when the students returned to their school.

Looking for more Snowflake Crafts?

This one also has a Snowflake Book list!