40 Things to do on a School Snow Day

When I was a kid having a school snow day was like an unexpected gift-suddenly, for no reason you get a WHOLE DAY, right smack in the middle of the week.  No school!! The thrill! The joy!

Every time there was so much as a flake in the sky we’d scramble for the radio and listen anxiously hoping against hope that in the regular mix of morning show banter and songs we’d get that magical list of schools that were closed.  And oh the anxiety if we caught the list half way through. . . we’d have to wait another 10 minutes until they ran through it again!

As an adult with 2 primary school aged children to entertain I have to admit that snow days don’t fill me with quite the same joy they once did.  I work on letting go of my anxiety about all the things I’m “supposed” to be getting done and use it as a special day to connect with my kids.  With a little thought and inspiration you can use snow days to build special memories with your kids-even teens!

To get you started on your own snow day fun, here are 40 fun things to do on a school snow day.

Inside fun:

1.  Stay in your PJ’s all day

2.  Make homemade play dough

3.  Make homemade finger paints

4.  Build a fort of old boxes & sofa cushions

5.  Build a tent with a sheet.

6.  Watch old musicals like Singing In the Rain.

7.  Have an indoor picnic.

8.  Make Bread-for extra fun let the kids “sculpt” with the dough-their creations can be baked & eaten

9.  Bake Cookies-I like these shaped gingerbread cookies because they don’t have to chill, but drop or bar cookies are fun too.

10.  Make snow “icecream”

11.  Make maple syrup “candy” with snow (ala Little House on the Prairie!)

12.  Have a taffy pull

13.  Make maple syrup/honey snow cones!

14.  Make chocolate covered pretzels (or chocolate covered whatever you have in the pantry-it all tastes good w/chocolate!)

15.  Bring a baby pool inside with snow to play and make snow castles.

16.  Curl up on the couch with a hot cup of tea (or hot chocolate) and read a good book. Or two. Or three

17.  Make homemade soft pretzels, like from the mall.

18.  Write letters to anyone from Grandma to your congressman.

19.  Play board games.  Maybe have a tournament.

20.  Play card games.

21. Do “Snow Art”-use small snowballs as paintbrushes with watercolors. Note-a trash bag under the paper saves you a lot on cleanup!

22.  Play video or computer games.

23.  Make a torn paper mosaic

24.  Feed you birdy friends by stringing popcorn to hang on a tree or making a pine cone birdfeeder.

25.  Make paper mache bowls. (note-this tutorial uses a pumpkin instead of a balloon. You can use the same cling wrap technique on another bowl instead)

26.  Color on some free printable coloring pages.

27.  Let the kids choose the dinner menu and have them help you cook.

28.  Have a pretend fashion shoot.

29.  Make some toys and models with free printable paper crafts from Canon. (note: trust me, there are things for teens on here-the copy of the Russian church with onion domes is gorgeous & complex)

30. Make paper beads.

31.  Make melted crayon art.

32.  Make new crayons from some old ones.

Outside fun:

33. Have a snowball fight!!!

34.  Make a snowman.

35.  Make snow angels.

36  Go snowshoeing or cross country skiing.

37.  Build a snow fort.

38.  Go sledding. No sled, no worries! Go cardboard sledding.

39.  Play some snow games.

So, what are some of YOUR favorite ideas for fun things to do on a school snow day?

Thanks to the following twitter friends for all their great input:  Merlene, ShesSoThere, MommyBrain, kwbridge, DesignerG, Mandison918,smtwngrl, MyschaTheriault, ctreit, olsenspeech, getsweetie, PaddyShaughn,JustDoingMyBest

Photos are used under the following creative commons copyrights:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lin/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamholmes/ / CC BY 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chez_loulou/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ginnerobot/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gozalewis/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34691831@N02/ / CC BY-ND 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/m-oo/ / CC BY-ND 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mahalie/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

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