With schools closing everyone is settling in at home for the holidays! Trying to balance family commitments, holiday preparation, and keeping your children entertained over the break definitely makes for an overwhelming (most wonderful) time of year. KMBC has put together a list of fun winter activities that will give your children the opportunity to practice a multitude of skills such as, communication, following instructions, turn taking and fine and gross motor all while having a great time!
Winter Crafts
Winter crafts are a great way for your children to practice their fine motor skills and have some seasonal fun with the family. By switching up the activities, you can also target multiple skills whether that is cutting, pasting, or even shaping & molding.
Some ideas could include:
- Paper snowflakes – great for practicing scissor skills
- Playdoh Snowmen – molding playdoh is great for fine motor strengthening! Alternatively, this craft can be done with Styrofoam balls and decorated with stickers or strips of coloured paper.
- Wintertime paper dolls – there are tons of great templates for paper dolls online available for printing. Let your children cut out and design their own winter outfits, great for identifying cold weather clothing, colours and body parts. Once completed, this can be a great tool to keep around as a visual for what clothing items we need to put on before going out in the cold.
Baking
Pick out an easy-to-follow recipe that you know your child will love. If they are open to trying new foods, this could also be a great way to introduce them to things they haven’t tried before.
If you want to take the extra step, you can create a visual recipe with pictures to help your children understand and follow along as you bake. Alternatively, you can assemble and decorate a gingerbread house. This provides many opportunities for your child to make choices between the candy they want to decorate where they want to put it and perhaps even asking for your assistance with doing so.
Sledding
Sledding is often a favourite winter activity! It is a simple way to encourage your children to be active, and can also be a great way to practice describing actions, making requests for actions and following instructions. Try pulling the sled at different speeds and encourage them to ask you to “go faster,” or “go slower.” If your child is an early communicator instead of waiting for a vocal request from them you can label and comment on these actions for them, “go fast!” “go slow”. You can also have your child point or gesture to make you pull the sled or request for more.
I spy with my little eye
Take the family and go for a neighbourhood walk or drive to look at the decorations. I spy is a great activity for expanding descriptive language, identifying colours, and practicing turn-taking as family members swap between choosing and searching.
The KMBC team wishes you a very happy holiday break!