[For 1-year-olds] Fun to make! A collection of winter craft activity ideas for use in childcare
Winter is full of exciting events for children, like Christmas, New Year’s, Setsubun, and Valentine’s Day.
Many teachers are probably looking to enjoy winter-themed crafts together with their children.
In this article, we’ll introduce winter craft ideas for one-year-olds.
Along with ideas tied to seasonal events and holidays, we also feature motifs unique to winter—like snowmen and mittens—that are rich in seasonal atmosphere.
We’ve gathered craft ideas that use unique techniques to keep one-year-olds fully engaged, so we hope you enjoy creating together this winter.
Since the children’s creations are treated as works, we refer to them as “seisaku” (productions/crafts) in the main text.
- Recommended for 1-year-olds! Craft play ideas and fun crafting techniques
- Have fun with one-year-olds! A collection of craft ideas featuring recommended January motifs
- Childcare: Fun February craft ideas to make with 1-year-olds
- Make it with everyday materials! A collection of DIY toy ideas recommended for 1-year-olds
- Fun for 1-year-olds! A collection of cute Christmas craft ideas
- [Childcare] Winter Projects You’ll Want to Try! Recommended Craft Ideas
- December craft ideas! A collection of childcare activities to enjoy with Christmas and winter themes
- Recommended Craft Ideas for 1-Year-Olds to Enjoy in Daycare in December
- Origami Fun in Winter for One-Year-Olds! Simple ideas for tearing and sticking, too
- [For 3-year-olds] Winter craft activities and bulletin board decoration ideas for use in childcare
- [Childcare] Recommended for 1-year-olds! Christmas cake craft ideas
- Christmas crafts for 2-year-olds! A collection of fun ideas using stamps and handprints
- Fun November craft ideas for 1-year-olds!
[For 1-year-olds] Fun to make! A collection of winter craft activity ideas for childcare (21–30)
Let’s enjoy New Year’s games!
Let’s set up various stations in the playground so the children can experience New Year’s traditions.
We’ll introduce five activities: rice-cake pounding (mochitsuki), spinning tops (koma), karuta card games, kite flying (takoage), and visiting a shrine to offer prayers.
For mochitsuki, we’ll actually use a mortar and pestle to pound the mochi, while the tops, karuta, kites, and shrine are all handmade.
By making good use of cardboard and milk cartons, you can create remarkably authentic items.
Children can play with the toys you’ve made, or they can take on the challenge of making them themselves.
Enjoy New Year’s experiences suited to the children’s ages.
Let’s roll and make a snowman!
Crumpling tissue paper and sticking on stickers is so much fun! How about making a snowman craft that’s perfect for winter? First, have the children crumple white tissue paper into balls in whatever size they like.
You’ll also use tissue paper torn into strips; if that step is tricky, an adult can prepare it in advance.
Put the crumpled tissue paper and the torn strips together into a clear plastic bag, then shape it into an oval.
Tie the middle with a chenille stem (pipe cleaner) to form a snowman shape.
Use round stickers for the face, make a bucket hat from construction paper, and attach it with double-sided tape.
If you want to hang it, punch a hole in the bucket, and thread a string through.
[For 1-year-olds] Fun to make! A collection of winter craft play ideas useful for childcare (31–40)
Fun for childcare! Indoor winter activities
Let me introduce some winter indoor activities that include crafts.
You can roll up cotton to look like fake snow, or put it into a plastic kiddie pool and play dynamically as if it were a bubble bath.
Use stamps on black construction paper to represent snowflakes, then glue origami penguins on top to create a winter-themed wall display.
A glowing tunnel made by sticking phosphorescent stickers onto cardboard is a space where kids will want to stay forever.
Why not fully enjoy winter indoors while incorporating children’s free ideas along the way?
Also great for walls! Paper plate spinning top
Let’s make a festive spinning top that you’ll want to display on the wall.
First, cut a paper plate in half.
Then, attach a strip of construction paper along the straight edge of the plate and decorate it with round stickers on top.
Use crayons to draw patterns for the top on the remaining white part of the plate.
Finally, attach the axle piece made from construction paper to the back of the plate, and you’re done.
Spinning tops are a New Year’s classic, and even little ones might look at this wall display—or watch older kids playing with tops—and feel inspired to try it themselves.
Newspaper Rip-Rip! Eurhythmics with a Snow Song
Here’s a eurhythmics activity that starts with a newspaper play element.
Give each child a sheet of newspaper and, at the cue of “1, 2, 3,” have them tear it into pieces.
Once it’s torn into small bits, pretend they’re snow and have fun letting it fall from above to the tune of the children’s song “Yuki” (Snow).
After the eurhythmics session, pack the used newspaper pieces into a clear bag to make a snowman.
It’s a winter-themed idea from start to finish, so please enjoy it with the children.
How to make a fun Fukuwarai
Here’s a craft idea for “Fukuwarai,” a traditional New Year’s game.
This version uses a daruma motif, letting you enjoy the game while you make it.
First, glue a daruma body—cut from construction paper—onto a backing sheet.
Then cut out the parts for the eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, and cheeks.
Put on a blindfold and enjoy playing Fukuwarai by placing the parts on the face.
Glue the parts where they land, and decorate the empty areas of the backing sheet with flowers.
Finally, use crayons to draw the flower centers and the daruma’s patterns to complete your craft.
Let’s make a Fukuwarai and play!
How about enjoying a classic New Year’s game, fukuwarai? Have the children draw and make the base sheet and facial parts however they like using construction paper and crayons.
By creating them themselves, the kids can grasp what the finished face should look like, and after playing fukuwarai they won’t be able to stop laughing! It might be even funnier if you make it as a self-portrait.
It’s perfectly fine if the fukuwarai face doesn’t turn out “well,” so why not encourage the kids by saying, “Make a funny face on purpose!”