Snow Day Activities

Skip the basic snowman. Build a snow dragon, castle, or replica of your school. Vote as a family for the best one.

Materials: Snow, sticks, food coloring (optional)

Hang a hula hoop from a tree branch or draw a target on a fence. Award points by ring. Keeps kids moving and competing.

Materials: Hula hoop or chalk, snow

Stomp out a maze pattern in fresh snow. Add dead ends, loops, and tunnels under drifts. Time each other to solve it.

Materials: Fresh snow, boots

Blow soap bubbles outside when the temperature is below 15°F. They freeze mid-air and shatter like glass. Film it in slow motion.

Materials: Bubble solution, bubble wand, phone camera

Measure snow depth at 5 different locations (driveway, lawn, porch, under tree, open field). Record and compare. Why is it different?

Materials: Ruler, notebook

Create a list: animal tracks, icicle longer than your hand, 3 types of snow surface, something frozen in ice. First to find them all wins.

Materials: Printed list

Make snow angels, then try: snow angel jumping jacks, snow angel with props (hat, scarf, stick arms), or a connected chain of angels.

Pack and smooth a small hill of snow, then pour water over it to create an ice slide. Wait 30 minutes for it to freeze solid.

Materials: Water, hill, patience

Shake heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla in a ziplock bag surrounded by ice and salt. It freezes in 10 minutes. Real science, real dessert.

Materials: Cream, sugar, vanilla, ice, salt, ziplock bags

Build a fort with structural integrity. Use chairs as columns, books as anchors, and clothespins as fasteners. Engineer a skylight.

Materials: Blankets, chairs, clothespins, pillows

Write a letter to your future self about today. Include the weather forecast, what you wore, what you ate, and your snow day probability score. Seal it open-next-snow-day.

Materials: Paper, envelope, pen

Pick 8 games (card games, board games, charades, trivia). Create a bracket. Best of 3 for each round. Champion gets to pick dinner.

Materials: Paper bracket, games

Pull up the [SnowSense weather dashboard](/weather) and learn what isobars, fronts, and radar colors mean. Quiz each other on what the next hour of weather will be.

Materials: Internet access

Mark a ruler at inch intervals. Place it in an open area away from buildings. Check every hour and graph the accumulation rate over time.

Materials: Ruler, graph paper

Each family member writes one paragraph of a story, then passes it on. No reading ahead. The result is always unhinged and hilarious.

Materials: Paper, pen

Use the [wind chill chart](/wind-chill-chart) to calculate the apparent temperature outside your window. Check the actual temp and wind speed, then compare your calculation to what the chart says.

Materials: Thermometer, wind chill chart

Sprinkle salt on an ice cube and watch it melt from the inside. Learn about freezing point depression — the same reason cities salt roads before storms.

Materials: Ice cubes, salt, plate

Catch snowflakes on black construction paper (kept in the freezer first). Examine with a magnifying glass. No two are identical because of how water crystallizes at different temperatures and humidity.

Materials: Black paper (frozen), magnifying glass

Use the [SnowSense weather outlook](/weather) to track where the storm is now, where it's heading, and when it will clear. Compare your prediction to the NWS forecast.

Materials: Internet access, map

Research your city's snow removal fleet. How many plows does your city have? How many lane-miles do they cover? Calculate how long it takes to clear every road once. (Hint: it's longer than you think.)

Materials: Internet access, calculator

Stretch a balloon over a glass jar and tape a straw to it. As air pressure drops before a storm, the balloon sinks and the straw rises. You just built a weather predictor.

Materials: Jar, balloon, straw, tape

Check the [SnowSense calculator](/) and reverse-engineer the probability. If snowfall is 30%, ice risk is 25%, timing is 25%, and temperature is 20%, what's the raw score? How does your city's tolerance modifier change it?

Materials: Calculator, [prediction guide](/blog/how-are-snow-days-predicted)