35+ Winter Fine Motor Activities (Printables + Reels)

Winters ❄️ are cold and lazy! They don’t really make us want to do anything, especially if you have a kid 🧒 in your house. 

However, for the crucial development of a child, it is very important to keep them occupied in fine motor activities, especially in the winter season. 

With my experience as a parent, I have come to understand the huge role of these activities as it has helped my child in various aspects of handwriting 🖊️, hand strength ✊, cutting with scissors ✂️, and pencil grasp 📝. 

Hence, today, I will be unfolding some easy yet very efficient water fine motor activities. 

Winter Fine Motor Activities for Kids

Snowman Craft Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Snowman Craft Activity” provides children with an excellent chance to express their creativity and enjoy the winter season, regardless of the weather outdoors.

Materials: Circular white pieces that mimic snowball shapes for the snowman’s body, decorations for faces, hats, and scarves, as well as pieces for arms and snowflakes to set the wintry scene.

How to Do:

1. Start by gluing the white circular pieces onto a blue background to form the snowman’s body.
2. Decorate each snowman with eyes, noses, and buttons.
3. Add small pieces of fabric or paper for the hats and scarves to keep the snowmen easy.
4. Glue on twigs or brown paper strips for the arms.
5. Finally, decorate the blue background with white paper snowflakes.

Mittens Pairing Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Mittens Pairing Activity” presented in the image is a colorful matching game that’s perfect for helping little ones practice their observation and pairing skills.

Materials: Mittens Pairing worksheet with illustrated mittens in various patterns and colors, scissors for cutting, and glue for pasting.

How to Do:

1. Give your kids a worksheet and let them cut out the mitten pictures along the dotted lines.
2. Shuffle the cutouts and spread them out.
3. Match mitten pairs by looking at their patterns and colors.
4. Once a pair is found, use glue to paste them together on the designated spot on the worksheet.

Salt Painting Activity (3-6 Years)

The “Salt Painting Activity” is a creative and hands-on art project in which salt is used to create a wintery scene.

Materials: Black paper, glue, and regular table salt to create textured artwork.

How to Do:

1. First, draw a design or scene with glue on the black paper.
2. Before the glue dries, sprinkle a generous amount of salt over the glue.
3. Tilt the paper to let the excess salt fall off, leaving the salt sticking only to the glue.
4. Optional: Once the glue and salt are dry, you can add color by gently touching the salt with watercolor paint and watching it spread.

Scissor Cutting Activity (3-5 years)

The “Scissor Cutting Activity” is help to assist children in safely practicing scissor skills while following various patterns.

Materials: Strips of paper with various dotted lines and patterns, child-safe scissors, and, as seen in the picture, cute decorative elements at the top, like cartoon winter-related characters.

How to Do:

1. Give your child the paper strip with the dotted line.
2. Show them how to hold the scissors and cut along the dotted lines carefully.
3. They can practice cutting straight lines, zigzags, and curves.
4. As they cut, the characters at the top act as a fun incentive to reach the end.

Igloo Making Activity (3-6 Years)

The ‘Igloo Making Activity’ is a fun project where kids work together to build small igloos using different materials.

Materials: Cotton balls for snow, plastic or paper cups to form the igloo’s dome, and additional decorative elements such as craft penguins and a tiny snowman made from playdough or cotton balls.

How to Do:

1. Use half of a plastic or paper cup as the base of the igloo, cutting a small entrance for added realism.
2. Glue cotton balls or white craft foam around the cup to create the igloo’s structure.
3. Decorate the surrounding base with cotton to resemble snow and place your craft penguins and snowman around the igloo.
4. Add a small festive tree to complete the winter scene.

Winter Sticker Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Winter Sticker Activity” is a colorful and engaging task for kids to enjoy. It involves decorating a sock with stickers following a specific pattern or freely, according to their own creative idea.

Materials: Worksheet with an outline of a winter sock, along with sheets of colored stickers, typically red and blue for the winter theme.

How to Do:

1. Hand out the sock outline worksheet and the sticker sheets to the child.
2. Show them how to peel off the stickers.
3. Instruct them to place the stickers onto the designated spots on the sock.
4. They can either follow a pattern, like alternating colors, or fill in the sock in their own creative way.

Winter Bookmark Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Winter Bookmark Activity” is a charming craft that combines creativity and utility, perfect for kids’ fine motor skill development.

Materials: Construction paper, scissors, glue, and decorate with googly eyes and ribbon to create a penguin themed bookmark.

How to Do:

1. Cut the construction paper into the shape of a penguin for the main part of the bookmark.
2. Use white paper to create the belly and black paper for the wings and head.
3. Glue on small details like the beak and feet cut from yellow paper.
4. Add googly eyes to bring the penguin to life.
5. Attach a piece of ribbon or yarn at the top to complete the bookmark.

Winter Color Sorting Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Winter Color Sorting Activity” is a vibrant and engaging way to teach children about colors and sorting through a fun, seasonal theme.

Materials: Color sorting worksheet with columns labeled with different colors, cut out pieces with various winter themed pictures in corresponding colors, scissors, and glue.

How to Do:

1. Cut out the winter themed pictures using the scissors.
2. Have your child identify the color of each picture.
3. Match the pictures to the color columns on the worksheet.
4. Glue the pictures into the correct columns based on their colors.

Winter Crumble Art Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Winter Crumble Art Activity” is an engaging textured art project where crumpled pieces of paper are used to form a snowman.

Materials: White paper as the canvas, tissue paper in various colors to crumple, glue to stick the pieces, and a snowman outline for guidance.

How to Do:

1. Cut or tear the colored tissue paper into small pieces.
2. Crumple these pieces into little balls to create texture.
3. Apply glue within the snowman outline on the white paper.
4. Stick the crumpled tissue paper onto the glue, following the colors of the outline to fill in the snowman’s features like the hat, scarf, and body.
5. Allow the artwork to dry.

Winter Coloring Activity (2-5 Years)

The “Winter Coloring Activity” is a lovely and interactive method for children to explore their creativity through vibrant colors.

Materials: Coloring sheet featuring a winter scene or character, and a variety of coloring tools like crayons, colored pencils, or markers.

How to Do:

1. Provide your child with the winter themed coloring sheet.
2. Lay out the crayons, colored pencils, or markers.
3. Encourage them to color in the picture, choosing colors for the hat, scarf, coat, and snowflakes.
4. They can use their imagination to give the picture their own unique splash of winter.

Paper Penguins Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Paper Penguins Activity” shown is a creative craft for kids to make their own adorable penguin friends out of paper.

Materials: Black, white, red, pink, and yellow construction paper, and glue.

How to Do:

1. Cut out penguin shapes from the black paper for the body.
2. Use the white paper to cut out the belly and face area.
3. Cut beaks and feet from the yellow paper.
4. Glue the white and yellow parts onto the black body.
5. Add details like eyes, and if you like, accessories such as a hat or a bow to personalize the penguins.

Complete Drawing Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Complete Drawing Activity” is designed to improve creativity and develop drawing skills in children.

Materials: Worksheet with a half-drawn picture of a beanie, crayons or pencils.

How to Do:

1. Look at the half of the picture that’s already on the worksheet.
2. Draw the missing parts on the other side of the dashed line to complete the image.
3. Try to make the new side look as much like the existing side as possible.
4. Once the drawing is complete, color it in with the crayons or pencils.

Winter Hole Punching Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Winter Hole Punching Activity” is a fantastic way to help children develop their hand strength and coordination.

Materials: Colorful paper cutouts with winter designs, such as a mitten and a coat, along with a hole puncher.

How to Do:

1. Hand out the winter themed cutouts to the child.
2. Show them how to use the hole puncher.
3. Have them punch holes along the marked areas or edges of the cutouts.
4. They can create patterns with the holes or simply punch along the outline for fun.

Winter Puzzle Activity (2-5 Years)

The “Winter Puzzle Activity” is a wonderful way for children to engage in problem solving and improve their cognitive skills.

Materials: Picture with a winter theme that has been divided into puzzle pieces, and scissors for cutting the pieces.

How to Do:

1. Print out the winter themed picture that’s segmented into puzzle pieces.
2. Use the scissors to carefully cut along the lines to separate the pieces.
3. Shuffle the pieces and then work to put the puzzle back together, matching the parts of the image on each piece to reconstruct the original picture

Paper Plate Polar Bear Activity

The “Paper Plate Polar Bear Activity” is a lovely craft that lets children create a friendly polar bear face using simple materials.

Materials: Paper plate for the bear’s face, white yarn for fur and ears, and black paper for the nose and eyes.

How to Do:

1. Glue white yarn around the paper plate to create the bear’s fur.
2. Cut out ear shapes from white yarn and add black paper in the middle for detail. Attach these to the top of the plate.
3. Use black paper to cut out a nose and eyes, then glue them onto the plate to give the bear a face.

Winter Crossword Puzzle Activity (5-8 Years)

The “Winter Crossword Puzzle Activity” is a fun and educational way to engage with winter themed vocabulary.

Materials: Crossword puzzle with winter-related words and a pencil for filling in answers.

How to Do:

1. Review the clues provided, which are usually related to winter, such as ‘pair of gloves’ for the answer ‘gloves’.
2. Find the corresponding number on the puzzle grid.
3. Write the answer in the boxes that match the length of the word.
4. Continue filling in the puzzle until all the words are complete.

Winter Sensory Bin Activity (2-5 Years)

The “Winter Sensory Bin Activity” is a great way for kids to discover various textures and winter related objects through fun, hands on exploration.

Materials: A base of white material, possibly rice, cotton balls, or salt, to simulate snow, along with various small items like miniature snowmen, penguins, and candy canes for participants to find and feel.

How to Do:

1. Fill a shallow bin or tray with the white base material.
2. Hide the small winter themed items within the base material.
3. Invite children to dig through and discover the items with their hands.
4. Encourage them to describe how each item feels and discuss its connection to winter.

Winter Counting Activity (3-6 Years)

The “Winter Counting Activity” showcased is a delightful educational exercise designed to help children practice their counting skills.

Materials: Worksheet with a grid containing rows of winter themed items, such as characters wearing winter clothes, sleds, snowflakes, mittens, and snowmen. You’ll also need a pencil and an eraser.

How to Do:

1. Look at each row on the worksheet and count the number of winter items in that row.
2. Write the correct number in the box at the end of each row.
3. Double check the counts to ensure accuracy.
4. For an extra challenge, ask the child to count all the items of one type on the whole sheet.

Winter Maze Activity (3-6Years)

The “Winter Maze Activity” is a whimsical and brain teasing puzzle that challenges children to navigate a path through a maze.

Materials: Sheet with a maze printed on it, shaped like a snowman for a festive touch, and pencils or markers to trace through the maze.

How to Do:

1. Provide your child with the maze sheet and a writing utensil.
2. Point out the entry and exit points of the maze.
3. Encourage them to trace a path from the start to the finish without lifting their pencil or crossing any lines.
4. If they hit a dead end, they can backtrack and try a different path.

Snow Ball Tree Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Snow Ball Tree Activity” is best and hands on craft that simulates a winter tree with snow.

Materials: White paper, a tree drawing, possibly made of colored paper or painted on, and small white pom poms or cotton balls to represent the snow.

How to Do:

1. Start with a plain white sheet as your background.
2. Draw an orange tree sketch on the sheet.
3. Apply glue to the branches of the tree where you’d like to place the snow.
4. Stick the white pom poms or cotton balls onto the glue to mimic snow that has landed on the tree’s branches.

Winter Cotton Burd Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Winter Cotton Bud Activity” is like a fun and creative craft project where children can make snowflake designs using cotton buds.

Materials: Cotton buds (also known as cotton swabs), glue, and blue paper to serve as the background for the snowflakes.

How to Do:

1. Start with a blue piece of paper to create a contrast that resembles the sky.
2. Plan out a snowflake design by arranging the cotton buds on the paper before gluing.
3. Once you’re happy with the design, glue the cotton buds onto the paper in the shape of snowflakes.
4. Allow the glue to dry completely.

Paper Plate Umbrella Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Paper Plate Umbrella Activity” is a charming and creative craft that looks perfect for a rainy day.

Materials: Paper plates, paint or markers in various colors, craft sticks or popsicle sticks for the handles, and glue.

How to Do:

1. Cut the paper plate in half to represent the top of the umbrella as shown in the picture.
2. Paint or color each semi-circle with bright, cheerful colors to mimic the sections of an umbrella. You can get creative with patterns or color blocking.
3. Once the paint is dry, glue a craft stick to the straight edge of the cut plate to serve as the umbrella handle.
4. Allow all glue to dry completely.

Winter Panda Craft Activity (3-6 Years)

The “Winter Panda Craft Activity” is a sweet project that uses simple materials to create a panda’s face.

Materials: White paper as the base of the panda’s face, black and white yarn for the features, and googly eyes to bring the panda to life.

How to Do:

1. Cut out the white paper in a circle shape.
2. Now stick the white yarn on the paper.
3. Use glue to attach black yarn to the panda’s face in the right spots.
4. Stick on the googly eyes.
5. Allow all glue to dry thoroughly.

Winter Bingo Play Cards Activity (4-8 Years)

The “Winter Bingo Play Cards Activity” is a vibrant and enjoyable game that combines the fun of bingo with winter themed items.

Materials: Bingo cards worksheet each with different winter related images such as snowflakes, skis, ear muffs, mittens, and more. You’ll also need scissors to cut.

How to Do:

1. Cut out the calling cards with the winter images on them from the worksheet.
2. Distribute the bingo cards among the players.
3. Draw calling cards one at a time and announce the item or show the image to all players.
4. Players will place a marker on their card if they have a match.
5. The first player to get five in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally calls out “Bingo!” and wins the game.

Funny Cloud Activity

The “Funny Cloud Activity” you’ve got there is an adorable craft project, perfect for a lesson on weather or just for a creative art session.

Materials: Cloud shapes from white paper, and additional materials like googly eyes, red color for tongues, and markers for drawing faces.

How to Do:

1. Take the cloud cut outs and decide on the expression for each cloud.
2. Glue on googly eyes or draw eyes with the markers.
3. Use the markers to add smiles, eyebrows, or other facial features like tongue.

Winter Big And Small Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Winter Big and Small Activity” is like an engaging way for kids to learn about sizes and comparisons.

Materials: Printed worksheet you see here, with pairs of winter items depicted in different sizes, and a pencil or crayons.

How to Do:

1. Give your child a worksheet and a pencil or crayons.
2. Instruct them to look at each pair of items and identify which is bigger and which is smaller.
3. Circle the bigger item and square the smaller one.
4. Go through each pair on the worksheet until all have been correctly marked.

Stone Painting Activity (5-8 Years)

The “Stone Painting Activity” involves using colorful paints to decorate stones with winter themed designs. It’s a fun way for kids to express their creativity and make unique decorations for the season!

Materials: Smooth stones or pebbles, paint brushes, and acrylic paints in various colors to create the designs such as snowflakes, snowmen, and animals.

How to Do:

1. Start by washing the stones to remove any dirt and then let them dry completely.
2. Decide on the designs you want to paint on the stones.
3. Use a pencil to sketch the designs on the stones lightly.
4. Paint the designs using the acrylic paints. You might need multiple coats for vibrant colors.
5. Once the paint is dry, you can apply a sealant to protect the paint from chipping and to give the stones a nice finish.

Winter Shadow Activity (3-6 Years)

The “Winter Shadow Activity” involves creating captivating shadow patterns using winter themed shapes and objects.

Materials: Printed sheets with colored winter-themed items and their corresponding shadow shapes, safety scissors for kids, and optionally, glue for securing the cutouts if needed.

How to Do:

1. Give your kids a sheet with the winter-themed pictures and their shadows.
2. Children should carefully cut around the colored pictures using the safety scissors.
3. Next, they match each cutout to the correct shadow shape on the sheet and place it on top.
4. If desired, they can glue the cutouts to the matching shadows to complete the activity.

Winter Tracing Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Winter Tracing Activity” is help your kids to practice their fine motor skills. The worksheet features an outline of a pair of mittens with dotted lines to guide the tracing, decorated with snowflakes.

Materials: Tracing worksheet with mittens, pencils or crayons, erasers, and optionally, colored pencils or markers for decorating after tracing.

How to Do:

1. Provide the child with the worksheet and a pencil.
2. Encourage the child to carefully trace over the dotted lines that form the shape of the mittens and the snowflakes.
3. Once the tracing is complete, the child can use crayons or colored pencils to color in the mittens and add any additional decorations they like.

Searching in Snow Activity (2-4 Years)

The “Searching in Snow Activity” seems to be a playful sensory exercise that encourages exploration and helps develop fine motor skills.

Materials: A shallow tray or container, flour, salt, or artificial snow to simulate snow, small toy animals or objects that can be hidden in the “snow,” and tools for exploration such as brushes, tweezers, or small shovels.

How to Do:

1. Fill the tray or container with your choice of flour, salt, or artificial snow.
2. Hide the toy animals or objects in the snow.
3. Provide your child with tools for exploration.
4. Ask your child to find and identify the hidden items. They can use the brush to gently sweep away the snow or the tweezers to pick up smaller objects.
5. As they search and find the objects, encourage them to name the animals or describe the objects they uncover.

Winter Lacing Activity (4-8 Years)

The “Winter Lacing Activity” helps your child to develop fine motor skills. This hands on experience offers a lovely way for children to explore creativity.

Materials: Sturdy paper or cardboard cutouts in winter shapes such as hats, mittens, and boots, a hole punch, and laces, yarn, or colored string. Optionally, crayons or markers can be used for decorating.

How to Do:

1. Prepare the cutouts and punch holes around the edges where lacing will happen.
2. If you’re up for an additional step, let your kids color or decorate their cutouts for some added fun!
3. Show the children how to thread the lace through the holes, going in and out.
4. They can follow a pattern (e.g., every other hole) or lace in a crisis cross manner.

Winter Craft Frame Activity (4-8 Years)

The “Winter Craft Frame Activity” is a lovely project that combines creativity with seasonal fun.

Materials: You’ll need popsicle sticks, paint (white or blue), construction paper or cardstock for snowman and penguin decorations, glue (or a hot glue gun), and small pom poms for snow and cotton balls.

How to Do:

1. Paint your popsicle sticks in winter colors, if they’re not already colored. Let them dry.
2. Arrange your sticks in a frame shape on the cardboard or heavy paper and glue them into place.
3. Cut out a snowman and penguins from the construction paper. You can draw these by hand or print shapes to use as a template.
4. Color and decorate your cut-outs, then glue them to the frame.
5. Glue the pom-poms or other decorative elements to the frame to mimic a snowy look.
6. Once everything is dry, attach a photo or drawing to the back of the frame.

Snowball Making Activity (5-8 Years)

The “Snowball Making Activity” is a fun, hands on experience, often part of winter themed crafts or as a playful indoor activity when it’s too cold to go outside.

Materials: White yarn, cardboard and scissors.

How to Do:

1. Wrap yarn around your hand about 75 times to form a bundle.
2. Securely tie another piece of yarn around the middle of the bundle.
3. Carefully cut through the loops to create a pom pom.

Winter Play Dough Activity

The “Winter Play Dough Activity” is an engaging way to let children express their creativity while honing their fine motor skills.

Materials: White play dough, small stick for arms, colored buttons, small fabric pieces for a scarf, google eye for eyes, and a carrot-shaped piece for the nose. Additionally, a small colored play dough hat.

How to Do:

1. Start by rolling the play dough into balls to form the snowman’s body. You’ll need one large ball for the base, and a medium ball.
2. Place the largest ball at the bottom, then carefully stack the medium ball.
3. Use a stick to create the snowman’s arms by inserting them into the sides of the middle ball.
4. Decorate the snowman with buttons down the front for a coat or buttons.
5. Add googly eyes and make a nose with a small piece of orange play dough.
6. Wrap a small strip of fabric or a green play dough scarf around the snowman’s neck.
7. Top off with a small play dough hat or a crafted paper hat.

Paper Cup Hot Chocolate Craft Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Paper Cup Hot Chocolate Craft Activity” is a creative art project for kids, offering a hands on visual exploration of crafting and imaginative play.

Materials: Paper cups, colorful playdough, paint and paintbrushes, glue, and brown yarn or string.

How to Do:

1. Paint the paper cups in vibrant colors and let them dry.
2. Make handles from colorful playdough.
3. Decorate the cups with painted or glued on designs like flowers or snowflakes.
4. Glue pieces of brown yarn on top to represent the hot chocolate.

Winter Cap Decorate Activity (4-6 Years)

The “Winter Cap Decorate Activity” invites children to design and personalize their own paper winter caps, improving creativity and motor skills during the colder months.

Materials: Red construction paper, yellow pompoms, yarn, glue, scissors, and other decorative materials like stickers.

How to Do:

1. Start with a red paper cap or construct one by forming a semi-circle into a cone shape and securing it with glue.
2. Glue yellow pompoms in a pattern or random design.
3. Cut yarn to create a pompom for the top of the cap and braids hanging from the ear flaps.

Feed the Penguin Activity (2-4 Years)

“Feed the Penguin Activity” is an adorable and interactive activity where your kids can have fun feeding a penguin with cut out fish. It’s a playful way to develop motor skills and learn about animals.

Materials: A printed or drawn picture of a penguin’s face with the open mouth, a small fish.

How to Do:

1. Place the picture of the penguin in front of your child, and explain that they will be “feeding” the penguin with the fish.
2. Put the fish on a plate or in a bowl beside the picture.
3. Show your child how to pick up a snack and pretend to feed the penguin by placing it near the penguin’s mouth in the picture.
4. Encourage them to talk about the types of food they are feeding the penguin, promoting language development and food identification.

Make a Candy Cane Activity (3-6 Years)

“Make a Candy Cane Activity” is a sweet and creative activity where kids can make their own colorful candy cane decorations. It’s perfect for developing fine motor skills and exploring patterns and colors.

Materials: Colorful playdough, glue, and decorations like yarn or stickers.

How to Do:

1. Take a piece of red playdough.
2. Use strips of playdough alternately to create a striped pattern.
3. Bend the top to form the hook of the candy cane.
4. Decorate with yarn or stickers for extra sparkle.

Winter Cut Paste Activity (3-5 Years)

The “Winter Cut Paste Activity” is a creative way for kids to practice their cutting and pasting skills. They can dress up a character for winter by attaching various paper clothing items.

Materials: Printed activity sheet with a character and separate winter clothing items, child-safe scissors, and glue.

How to Do:

1. Carefully cut out the winter clothing items on the printed sheet.
2. Match each piece of clothing to the correct part of the character’s body.
3. Use glue to attach the clothes to the character.

Summing up

People often get lazy 🥱in the winter ❄️, especially in winter. But do not let this season keep you away from teaching your kids some valuable motor skills and helping them in their development. 

Thus, I have done my best to bring to you my best winter motor fine activities. Hopefully, you would like them and teach your kids motor skills with a hint of your taste 😉

Feel free to write in comments about the activity most liked by your kids ♥️