Winter Crafts for Occupational Therapy

One thing about the winter season is that cold wintery days inspire winter craft time with kids! These crafts for kids actually build skills, too. They are great for occupational therapy sessions during the winter months.

Winter Crafts

Engaging in winter crafts for kids and winter crafts for preschoolers can be a delightful way to combine fun and learning during the chilly months. These winter occupational therapy activities provide an excellent opportunity for children to develop crucial skills while crafting winter-themed masterpieces.

Here are some winter craft ideas that double as winter art and craft activities, with a focus on enhancing skills targeted in occupational therapy sessions, making them perfect for occupational therapy sessions. Some of the skills addressed by winter OT crafts include:

fine motor skills
improving scissor skills
visual motor skills
providing sensory input
executive functioning skills

Some of these are great December crafts for Christmas time, and others are nice ways to build skills after the holidays with January crafts.

Select a few of these ideas for building skills.

Snowflake Cutting: Encourage children to practice their scissor skills by cutting out intricate snowflake shapes from white paper. This activity helps develop fine motor skills and visual motor coordination as they create unique snowflake patterns. Use other paper types like construction paper to slow the scissor speed to target graded precision. Or add heavy work through the hands by cutting cupcake liners into snowflakes.

Penguin Finger Puppets: Crafting penguin finger puppets is a creative way to engage kids. As they decorate and assemble the puppets, they enhance their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Sensory Snow Globes: Craft sensory snow globes using clear plastic containers, water, and glitter. Children can manipulate the glittery snow, providing tactile sensory input. Decorating the globes with miniature winter scenes enhances fine motor skills.

Winter-Themed Collages: Collect various textured materials like cotton balls, tissue paper, and fabric scraps. Kids can create winter-themed collages, improving fine motor skills as they glue, tear, and arrange these materials.

Snowman Building: Crafting paper plate snowmen involves cutting, gluing, and decorating, all of which contribute to fine motor skill development. Adding sensory elements like cotton balls for snow enhances the tactile experience.

Hot Cocoa Mugs: Decorate paper or cardboard mugs with marshmallow shapes made from cotton balls. This craft encourages fine motor skills during gluing and enhances visual motor skills as children design their mugs.

Ice Painting: Freeze colored water in ice cube trays and let children paint with the colorful ice cubes. The sensory experience of cold and slippery ice enhances sensory input while refining fine motor control.

Winter Wonderland Dioramas: Craft winter scenes inside shoeboxes with miniature figurines and cotton ball snow. Assembling these dioramas refines fine motor skills and encourages creativity.

Snowman Paper Chains: Cutting and decorating paper strips to make snowman paper chains is an enjoyable way to improve scissor skills and fine motor coordination. Our New Years paper chain is a great craft for scissor skills, and can be adapted to count down the days until Christmas, Hanukkah, or Valentine’s Day.

Arctic Animal Art: Explore winter-themed art projects featuring arctic animals. Coloring, painting, and crafting animal figures offer opportunities for fine motor skill development and sensory engagement.

Winter crafts for kids and preschoolers not only spark creativity but also provide valuable opportunities for developing essential skills.

Try more of these craft ideas: