Outdoor Activities for Toddlers in Winter

Don't let cold winter weather deter you from spending time with your toddler outdoors. Bundle up in coats, hats and mittens, then head outside for playtime. There are several activities that let you and your toddler scoop, sculpt and slide in the snow while enjoying the fresh air and exercise.

  1. Snow Painting

    • Turn a dreary winter landscape into a colorful canvas, as suggested by the LeapFrog website. Fill a spray bottle with water and four or five drops of food coloring. Outdoors, your toddler can spray the snow with splotches of color. Prepare several bottles using various colors of dye, and then let your child experiment with color mixing in the snow. Try using recycled condiment bottles, shampoo bottles, eye droppers or turkey basters to create different types of designs.

    Ice Blocks

    • The Disney FamilyFun website recommends making sculptures with blocks of ice. Fill plastic containers, muffin tins or the bottom halves of milk jugs with water and freeze them to make blocks of ice. Outside, pop the ice out of the containers, and let your child stack and build with them. Show your toddler how to squeeze water from an eyedropper in between blocks to freeze them together and make ice sculptures.

    Ice Decorations

    • Decorate a bush or tree with colorful blocks of ice, using an idea from the Disney FamilyFun website. Fill an ice cube tray or candy mold with water. Let your child squeeze in two or three drops of food coloring. Cut a long piece of string and help your toddler lay it across the ice cube tray or mold, so that the string falls into each section. Take the ice cube tray outside and let it freeze, then pop out the pieces. The string will have frozen inside each piece, creating a long string of colored shapes. Let your toddler hang the ice decorations on a tree or wrap them around a bush.

    Traditional Winter Activities

    • Remember that your toddler has probably never experienced the traditional outdoor activities you may remember from your own childhood. Take your child sledding down a low hill, using a piece of cardboard or a large lid from a garbage can for a sled. Show your toddler how to lie on the ground and move her arms and legs to make a snow angel. Help your child pack snow together to make snowballs or a snowman. Bring out the summer sand toys and use them to scoop, mold and build with the snow.

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