Winter Fun: 7 Activities to Help with Cabin Fever

Sensory Bin: Alphabet Snow World

Before I put away our  Christmas village, I decided to make a winter wonderland sensory bin. I pushed all the fake snow into my bin, stole the trees, and threw in some poster letters. I know that the fake snow isn’t eco-friendly so I tried to reuse it here. Once we’re done with the bin, I’m going to try to bag it for next year.

I asked Vicky to find different letters and together we spelled her name. She really enjoyed this one, especially stirring around the snow and letters like a potion. By the end of the day, her peg people were in there too, exploring a little world of her own creation. The sensory bin tools are from Chickadees Wooden Toys and are practically indestructible.

Fine Motor: Dot Stickers and Shapes

It’s been a dreary few days so Momma busted out the dot stickers. Originally, I had meant for her to only put stickers on the lines of each shape, but she was having so much fun, who am I to judge?
Each time she took a sticker, she would say “thank you, (color)”. It was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.

How do you keep busy on rainy days?

Art: Make Your Own Toddler Christmas Tree

This was a fun activity I had seen earlier on IG. I improvised a little with duct tape and a pipe cleaner when our branch wouldn’t stay put in the solo cup. Then I handed the tree to Vicky and let her go to town. The finished product is very cheery indeed. The best part is she can repeat it tomorrow.

Gross Motor: Jingle Bell Shaker

We hadn’t used our mason jars in awhile! I decided it was time for a good old fashioned Christmas noise maker. I took some dollar store jingle bells and threw them inside. The nature of mason jar tops makes them pretty toddler proof (unless you’re putting your toddler through a weightlifting regimen). Vicky has spent most of yesterday just walking around and jingling the bells. It’s so cute! Give it a try!⠀
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Sidenote: she has dropped this on the non-carpeted surfaces of our home. I don’t know if it’s the pattern or type of glass, but these aren’t super fragile and don’t break easy.

Sensory Bottles

Momma, you’ve got enough going on during this holiday season, so don’t try to over-complicate things. Looks like a series of Christmas themed sensory bottles, right? Well, sort of. The tree branch is from our autumn theme, the rice is from our Cinco de Mayo theme, and the red and white were from July 4th! 🍁 🇲🇽 🎇⠀
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Early Math Skills:

Snowmen/Tree Match

Though the weather outside is frightful, inside it’s so delightful! There’s about to be another cold snap, but we have a lot of fun going on in here!⠀
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Chickadees Wooden Toys winter set is a perfect holiday color matching activity. While you can work other loose parts in, the activity works perfectly with just these eight figures. She’s stocked them in a few different color schemes. Check out the link in my bio for a link to her store! PIEDMONT10 will get you 10% off!⠀

Penguin Color Matching

Vicky is quite astute at her colors already, but I thought a winter color matching activity is in order. I found these free PDF penguins in cute little scarves at Tot Schooling. The file has another page of hats that you can cut out and match with the appropriately colored penguin. You should go check them out. They have tons of free printables to match every theme!

Did you try any of these out! Make sure to comment below!