Keep your kids learning all winter long with these fun experiments designed to offer sensory experiences and answer some of their most curious questions.

1. Melt Some Snowmen

Whether there’s snow outside for the real thing or not, kids can enjoy chemistry experiments with snow with these baking soda snowmen.

Prepare these materials:

• A large bowl and a tray or dish
• Water
• Baking soda
• White vinegar
• Something for the snowmen’s eyes — beads or googly eyes are great
• Foam paper for a carrot nose
• Spoons, eyedroppers or basters

Follow these steps to conduct the experiment:

1. Combine a significant amount of baking soda with water until you have a dough you can pack like a snowball. It should be a little crumbly!
2. Make the snowballs. If they’re losing their shape, you can use plastic wrap to keep them together.
3. Give the snowmen faces. There’s plenty of space for your kid’s creativity here — they’ll need eyes and a nose, but you can add buttons, a small scarf made of ribbon or other decorations.
4. Place the snowmen in the freezer. The longer you leave them to freeze, the longer it’ll take them to melt.
5. Put the frozen snowmen on a dish or tray that can hold some liquid and place them near a bowl of white vinegar. For a frosty flair, you can add glitter or food coloring to the bowl.
6. Let your child drip vinegar over the snowmen and watch as they melt.

This experiment teaches kids that mixing a base and an acid causes a chemical reaction — in this case, creating carbon dioxide gas as the snowmen fizz and “melt.”

2. Make Your Own Outdoor Thermometer

When the weather outside is frightful, you can enjoy some delightful snow day science activities for kids. Making a DIY thermometer is a great lesson about weather and how thermometers work.

Materials:

• Mason jar, straw lid and straw
• Water
• Cooking oil
• Rubbing alcohol
• Red food coloring
• Modeling clay or playdough

Assemble the thermometer:

1. Combine ¼ cup alcohol and ¼ cup water with 1 tbsp oil and red food coloring.
2. Put the lid and straw on the jar.
3. Use the clay around the straw on the lid to keep the straw a ½ inch off the bottom.
4. Set the thermometer outside and watch it to see the red liquid rise and fall in the straw as the temperature changes.

You can track fluctuations as the alcohol responds to different temperatures.

3. Paint Salt Snowflakes

Winter STEM activities make the most of your kid’s time out of school, so combine some of these experiments with art for a well-rounded activity.

You’ll need:

• A snowflake design
• White school glue
• Thick paper (watercolor, mixed media, cardstock, etc.)
• Salt
• Watercolors or food coloring
• Paintbrushes

Create the snowflakes:

1. Draw snowflakes with glue and cover it with salt, discarding any excess.
2. Let the glue dry while preparing watercolors or diluting food coloring.
3. Have your child paint over the snowflake slowly — they’ll see the best results if they add just a few drops of liquid at a time.

The results are a great way to demonstrate the hygroscopic properties that make salt attract and absorb the water molecules in the food coloring or watercolors.

Encourage Year-Round Learning With Destination Science

If you’re keeping your child learning with winter science experiments for kids, consider making their summer even more packed with fun, hands-on experiences. Destination Science is the summer camp where curious kids gain a lifelong love for science. Register for a camp near you!