Some fun ideas for snow days.....

There are many ways to make this stuff. My youngest daughter made a bunch to give out at trunk or treats in 2024. We have tried all the kits and recipes. But the easiest way to make it, and the most cost effective is to purchase white glue and a ready-made activator. The amazon brand works best for both. And that is for the foundation. 

You can cut the glue smell with scented hand soap and change the color with food coloring. 

If you have a kiddo that loves textures and fidgets, you can put mix-in

My kids always seem to want to bake something when we are at home on snow days. I always find I am missing an ingredient when we are snowed in. This is where cake mix cookies are good in a pinch! This is great for younger kiddos because there are just a few ingredients and minimal measuring. Which means less mess and it suits their attention span.

1 Box of Cake Mix

2 Eggs

1/3 Cup of Oil (or butter)

1/2 tsp salt

anything you want to add in like chocolate chips, nuts, candy, marshmallows....

Mix togethe

This takes a little prep, but put a big clean bowl outside when it starts to snow to get a clean catch! 

This is for a large batch, if we are ever so lucky. But the proportions give you a good idea of how to break it down for smaller amounts. 

8-12 cups of clean snow

10 oz sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

"fold it in."

They have a squeeze container for sweetened condensed milk which is handy for the winter. 

You can take spray bottles fill them with water and add a few drops of food coloring and have a fun time outside painting the snow! 

This is a great time to talk about primary colors and show how different colors combine to make new colors.

Red + Blue = Purple

Yellow + Blue = Green

Yellow` + Red = Orange

This is also a fun new way to decorate a snowman! 

Adaptable for any time of year, but on a snow day it is an easy activity. 

Use the almond bark meltable candy or anything like it...candy melts work....

If you have leftover items from other projects, save them and just use them for these unexpected days. 

Melt the candy.

Use a skewer or a fork to dip a marshmallow into the candy.

Kids can either make royal icing to decorate them---like a cookie, once the candy hardens. OR before the candy hardens they can use other things like sprinkles.

These are some links to some of my favorite slow cooker or easy to make meals or appetizers. Sometimes on snowdays appetizers are fun since there is no schedule.

Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese from Trisha Yearwood

Cranberry Meatballs from 365 Days of Baking and More

Crockpot Chili from Your Barefoot Neighbor

Taco Soup (nearly all pantry items) from Come Sit at My Table

Something many do not know is that our facilities department does a lot for the county when it comes to salting the roads and snow removal. We have plows and salt trucks! 

Our teams are up very early to get a good assessment of our roads. Many do not realize how big our county is and it is not unusual for some parts to have significantly different weather than other parts. If our buses cannot travel routes safely school is cancelled. 

We do our best to create a calendar that builds in 3 traditional snow days for our kids. This means, 3 days with no NTI (Non Traditional Instruction). These are days that the kids should not have to make up. 

After that, students should be expected to have NTI days to avoid any significant loss of academic time and a prolonging of the school year. 

All kids have one assigned to them; however, every school does not send them home every day. If winter weather is expected, these should be going home with students. 

They are only permitted to use these devices for schoolwork, and they are monitored by teachers and access to a lot of places is restricted by the device set up.