Snow Kitchen Pretend Play

Did you ever make a snow kitchen when playing outside in the snow? We did just that one winter day! Making a snow kitchen is a great way to pretend while playing outside and kids develop many fine motor skills through scooping and pouring the snow into pretend food! This is a great winter fine motor activity for kids!

Snow Kitchen

When you think of a snow kitchen, you might think of a wintery ice restaurant in a cold climate where tourists eat inside a restaurant made of ice. However, in our situation, we simply headed outside one winter day to play in the new snow!

We had an old play kitchen set ready to go to a donation bin. However, before we sent the play kitchen set off, we used it to make a pretend snow kitchen!

You can make this pretend play even more fun with painted snow. Here’s how to paint snow to use in pretend snow food.

How to make a snow kitchen

If you want to make a snow kitchen, you don’t need to use a pretend kitchen set outside. You can actually bring snow inside in a big bin or even just play outside with freshly fallen snow by taking your kitchen toys outside. 

Gather a few items:

• Scoops, spoons, ladles, bowls
• Recycled containers 
• Bin of snow (if playing inside) 
• Or snow outside

Then get started cooking up some snow recipes!

Snow Food

Scoop snow into bowls and containers to make mounds of snow. Work on scooping and pouring as an eye-hand coordination task. 

Mound snow into recycled containers and bowls. 

You can even sprinkle toppings onto snow ice cream using sticks, rocks, and pieces of twigs. 

If you work with freshly fallen snow, it would be fun to explore different sensory food textures by trying real snow food:

1. Maple Taffy- Squirt a drizzle of maple syrup on the snow. Let it harden in the cold temperature and then try the chewy maple taffy.
2. Sno Cones- Scoop some snow into a clean cup. Mix together a lemonade mixture (or other flavored liquid) and pour it over the snow to make real snow sno cones!
3. Snow Ice Cream- Place clean snow in a plastic baggie. Add sugar and vanilla flavoring. Add ice and salt to a larger baggie. Place the small snow baggie inside the ice bag. Make sure both bags are sealed tightly. Shake the bags to mix the ice cubes and salt. Keep shaking until the snow ice cream begins to solidify. Remove the small bag from the larger bag. Scoop the snow ice cream into a bowl and enjoy.
4. Sweet Snow- Scoop some clean snow into a bowl. Sprinkle sugar onto the snow. You could also use sprinkles, a cinnamon and sugar mixture, or ice cream toppings. Sugar on snow is a huge hit at a snow restaurant!

What if you had themed, NO-PREP activities designed to collect data and can help kids build essential fine motor skills?

Take back your time and start the year off with a bang with these done-for-you fine motor plans to help kids form stronger hands with our Winter Fine Motor Kit. This print-and-go winter fine motor kit includes no-prep fine motor activities to help kids develop functional grasp, dexterity, strength, and endurance. Use fun, winter-themed, fine motor activities so you can help children develop strong fine motor skills in a digital world. 

The Winter Fine Motor Kit includes reproducible activity pages include: pencil control strips, scissor skills strips, simple and complex cutting shapes, lacing cards, toothpick precision art, crumble hand strengthening crafts, memory cards, coloring activities, and so much more.

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.