Fun in the Snow for the Kids

We have our first snow of the season this weekend and the kids are excited beyond belief.  So I thought it would be a good time to post some of the simple snow activities that they enjoy -- and which keep them from arguing and lobbing snowballs at each other's heads (at least when I'm looking :-)  

1. Line up several soda bottles or cans  (weighted a bit so they don?t tip over right away) and try to hit them with snowballs.

2.  Put an empty box out in the open and see how many snowballs you can get in it.

3. Play Follow the Leader -- the first child creates a path through the snow (walking, hopping, jumping, walking in circles, backtracking, under and over objects, etc.) and the other children must follow the footprints exactly.  My kids love this one as they certainly don't want to be outdone by one another!

4. Make monster tracks!  Cut giant footprints out of cardboard.  Use a pencil to mark an X on either side of the child's foot on the cardboard, poke holes and thread some heavy string through the holes so you can tie the footprints to the child's feet.  Then send them out to make monster tracks.

5. Fill spray bottles with water and food coloring and let them decorate the snow with designs, words and their names

6. Build snow monsters!  We usually don't get enough snow to easily build snowmen so my kids build snow monsters instead -- they're smaller in size then snowmen, can come in a wide variety of shapes and can be decorated with buttons, plastic lids, pieces of fabric, and whatever else we can find around the house that might be suitable for a snowy monster.

7.  And, of course, there is the traditional practice of making snow angels where the kids lie down on their backs and by lifting their arms to the side and opening their legs wide they leave an impression that looks like an angel.

8. My kids love to take photos and everything looks new and different in the snow so I give each of them a disposable camera and let them take pictures of everything and anything.  After we get the photos developed we have a lot of fun trying to figure out just what they took pictures of and recalling all the fun we had playing in the snow.

9.  When it gets too cold outside we bring in a couple buckets of snow in and let them play with it in the bathtub.  When it melts playtime is done.

10.  And when it's all said and done we have hot chocolate (or as my daughter calls it warm cocoa) and, if we have a fire going, some S'Mores.

Any other ideas for keeping my bickering duo busy on a snowy day :-)