Keeping Busy in the Cold

The crisp winter air may keep us indoors more often, but there are still plenty of fun and engaging activities to enjoy with your little ones during these colder months. The NYLO team has curated a few winter-themed activities to keep your children entertained and learning while staying warm.

Remember: Always supervise young children during these activities.

Sensory Activity

Winter Wonderland Sensory Play

Create a “winter wonderland” on a tray by combining different sensory materials. Encourage your child to explore the textures, colours, and sounds using their hands and provided tools. This activity promotes sensory development, fine motor skills, and imaginative play.

What you will need:

• a large tray
• various sensory materials (shredded paper, cotton balls, pom poms, small toys, glitter)
• small containers
• spoons
• scoops

How to make it:

1. Fill a sensory tray with a fluffy base using a combination of soft cotton balls and shredded paper in wintery colours like blue or white.
2.  Sprinkle shimmering glitter and colourful pompoms throughout the tray to add sparkling touches.
3. Include small toy animals, such as penguins or polar bears, to bring the winter scene to life.
4.  Offer spoons and scoops to encourage imaginative play and sensory exploration.

Time Together

Storytime

Cuddle up with your child and read some winter or food themed stories. You can also use puppets or toys to act out the stories. This activity promotes language development, imagination, and bonding.

What you will need:

• books about winter, food, snow and animals
• soft blankets
• cushions
• snowflakes and winter themed ornaments

Top tips for the cosiest winter story time experience

• Create a cozy winter story time nook by decorating a corner of your home with soft blanket and cushions.  

• Use any spare fairy lights to add some atmosphere!

• Collect a pile of stories that your children can choose from – wintery books like The Snowman and The Mitten and books about food like Oliver’s Vegetables, The Hungry Caterpillar, Handa’s Surprise, and Eat Your Peas are some of our favourites.

• Do not forget your theatrical skills, children will love it! You can get together with some friends to have a nice story time.

What you will need:

1. paper cups
2. pens
3. small ball (or rolled up socks)

How you make it:

Get the children to draw silly faces onto their cups (they might need parents help for this). If you have more time, you could even paint characters onto the cups or choose a particular theme.

Different examples for character cups could include:

•  Woodland or Zoo Animals
• Flower Faces
• Book Characters
• Members of the Family
• NYLO characters

Encourage little ones to knock down the cups using the ball – this is a great game to encourage hand eye co-ordination and develop their ability to kick or throw.

Cooking Activities

Veggie Faces

Let your child create their own funny faced snack. This activity is fun, creative, and encourages healthy eating. Get creative with decorations. Use vegetables to add unique features to your snowman. This recipe is easy to customize and perfect for children to help assemble.

Children can help with washing the fruit, spreading, and assembling. Some children might even be ready to help slice or grate any chosen fruit/veg with parent’s help.

What you will need:

• 1 rice cake (for base)
•  soft cheese (for background)
• mix of vegetables (we’ve used peppers and cucumber)

How to make it:

1. Arrange rice cake on a plate or a serving tray
2. spread soft cheese on the rice cakes – encourage your little one to use the back of a teaspoon to spread this themselves.
3. Let your child use their imagination and use their chosen vegetables to create a funny face

Top Tip!

Grated carrot makes for fun hair.

Remember to adapt these activities to your child’s age and abilities. Most importantly, have fun and enjoy spending quality time together this winter!