With the onset of the frosty season, preschools are brimming with activities inspired by winter. And what could be a more fitting than indulging in winter process art activities? These easy winter paintings are always included in our winter themed preschool lesson plans.
While these paintings may be fully process based, they consistently produce stunningly sparkly keepsakes for parents and grandparents. All you need are some tempura paints, liquid glue, and Epsom salt to make they sparkle like frost. Add this to your list of favorite preschool process art activities.
One of the prominent highlights of this time is the inclusion of winter process art activities. These simple yet creative winter paintings are an integral part of our seasonal preschool curriculum, designed to engage young learners in the fun and spirit of winter.
These winter paintings are for kids of all ages, but especially appropriate for preschoolers and toddlers. While being entirely process-oriented, they never fail to yield beautifully shimmering keepsakes that parents and grandparents treasure.
Other favorite kids-made Christmas gifts include our Sparkly Christmas Process Art and Winter Art Project for Preschoolers.
The key materials needed to create these frosty masterpieces are tempera paints, liquid glue, and Epsom salt. When combined, these elements produce a sparkling frost-like effect, turning each painting into a dazzling spectacle of winter magic.
Why Winter Art for Preschooler and Toddlers
Epsom salt painting activities are an absolute blast for toddlers and preschoolers, and guess what? They’re packed with a ton of benefits too!
These fun-filled projects light up the creative spark in little ones as they discover the magic of salt crystals transforming their artwork. Plus, it’s a great workout for those tiny hands, helping to develop fine motor skills as they play with brushes and mix paint and salt.
But that’s not all – it’s also a sneaky science lesson, introducing cool concepts crystallization and light reflection. Painting also provides sensory input for children, too.
But the best part?
The stunning frost-like pictures they create! They look just like a cold, frosty morning in the winter.
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Winter Preschool Centers$10.00
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Epsom Salt Winter Process Art Paintings
Who knew winter process art could create beautiful, frost-like pictures that perfectly capture the essence of a cold, frosty winter morning!?
Materials
- washable tempera paint, paint brushes, and paint palettes
- thick art paper
- Epsom salt
- white liquid school glue
The Set Up
Begin by dolling out a few dollops of paint to each child. Because we had been studying all things winter in preschool, my students chose blue and white paint. I invited the students to begin painting, allowing them to mix the white and blue paint as they wanted on their paper.
Sparkly Winter Paintings for Preschoolers
This student made “swirls of snowflakes” inspired by some books about snowflakes we had read during our winter preschool theme.
My preschoolers swirled and spun and twisted their paintbrushes making a blue-gray background, just like the way the sky looks on a snowy day.
Before the paint has a chance to dry completely, squirt on some white liquid school glue. Squeezing on the glue while the paint is still wet will cause it to react a bit with the paint as it dries, changing the blue paint under the glue to a purple hue.
The students love this step! Because how often do children have the opportunity to just squeeze out ooey, gooey glue?
Usually, we say rhymes like, “Just a dot, not a lot”, like in this back-to-school worksheet that teaches glue control, but that’s not needed here. We want trails of glue all over the paper!
You want your preschoolers to squeeze hard and use a lot of glue.
And it makes them better writers, too, since squeezing the glue bottles strengthens their hand muscles.
Finally, sprinkle some Epsom salt over the glue.
Why Epsom salts?
Epsom salts have a larger crystal than regular table salt or even kosher salt.
The larger crystals make the salt look just like course glitter, but without the clingy mess. (And it’s better for the environment, too!) You know how glitter clings to everything it touches. Well, Epsom salt won’t do that, so any mess that works its way outside the tray can easily be swept up.
That being said, Epsom salt is NOT edible (not the same as table salt), so like glitter, make sure no one gets a taste.
The best part of winter process art projects like this one is that, with the right supervision, it is suitable for all ages.
Even my barely toddler, with me by his side supervising him, completed his very own sparkly winter art piece. On the flip side, this is just the kind of art my 8-year-old would be into as well.
Winter Theme Picture Books
High-quality thematic picture books can significantly enhance any preschool activity by providing a rich, engaging context that sparks children’s curiosity and imagination.
These books can help to deepen kids’ understanding of the activity at hand, stir their creativity, and provide a meaningful connection between the real world and the concepts they are learning.
- Shaw, Gina (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 32 Pages – 01/05/2016 (Publication Date) – Grosset & Dunlap (Publisher)
- Cassino, Mark (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 36 Pages – 09/05/2017 (Publication Date) – Chronicle Books (Publisher)
- Hardcover Book
- Milton, Alexandra (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Easy Piano Picture Book
- Pages: 32
- Instrumentation: Piano/Keyboard
- Aicher, Hope (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 24 Pages – 11/13/2023 (Publication Date) – Independently published (Publisher)
- Baker, Keith (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 36 Pages – 11/04/2014 (Publication Date) – Little Simon (Publisher)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Jones, Jerzy (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Hardcover Book
- Hurst, Elise (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
I love it when everyone gets to participate, and look how beautiful they turned out!
More Winter Art Projects for Preschoolers
Here are some other well-loved, tried and true winter themes art activities your preschoolers are sure to love!
- Winter Snowball Fine Motor Paintings
- Winter Cookie Cutter Process Art
- Topographic Melting Snowman Craft
- Paper Plate Snowman Craft
- Fine Motor Winter Process Art for Toddlers
- Snow Paintings
- Melting Snow Process Art
- Winter Watercolor Paintings for Kids
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Winter Preschool Centers$10.00
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
How long should you let the paint dry before putting on glue?
How long should the glue dry before putting on the epsom salt?
Winter process art snowflake project
How long you wait for everything to dry is up to you. I find that is the paint is a little wet the glue reacts a bit and makes the paint bleed into a purple, which is fine with me. But, the downside is that the epsom salt can sometimes stick to the paint. I wouldn’t let the glue dry at all before sprinkling the lines with the epsom salts. But reallym since this is process art, you can do this however you please!
Was wondering if I could use something other than epsom salt?
Sure thing. Any kind of salt will work. And of course, glitter would be pretty, too!
How long does it take for the colors to react to the glue? Our paintings are drying and no color change (purple) so far. We used washable tempera paint and washable Emler’s School glue
You know, I think it might be related to the brand, as I have had a few people mention the lack of color change. I use Colorations brand, available on Amazon and Discount School Supply. I’m thinking that the colors reacting with the glue has to do what the make-up of that specific tempera paint.
From looking at the blue paints you used one is a darker blue that may in fact have a little red in it…almost a very dark purple. Only a paint that had some red and blue in it would make the light purple when mixed with white glue. A true only blue paint would only make light blue! Hope that helps!
Do you shake off the excess Epsom salt? If so …when?
After the glue and paint dries, you can shake off the excess salt.
DO you spread the glue for this project or just let the kiddos pour it on and then sprinkle salt.
I let the kiddies squeeze it on themselves. Squeezing is so good for children because it strengthens their hand muscles. BUT, do be prepared for the children to use a lot of glue!
But do the children SPREAD the glue with a brush after they squeeze it from the bottle?
They can, but my students didn’t. If the paint is still a little wet, the salt will stick anyway.
I tried this today with my preschoolers. Not sure what went wrong but the Epsom salt melted all over the glue and created water all over the pages.
Very disappointing result. Not sure where we went wrong tough…!!!
Wow! I’m so sorry that happened. I have used various salts with glue before and never had the happen! Maybe we used different glues?
Same results here. I’m thinking maybe letting the paint dry a little before applying glue and doing the same with the glue before applying the salt.
These are just so beautiful! I can’t wait to give them a try!
Always looking for simple but creative craft ideas for my charges. As a nanny it is hard to find things that a 2 year old and 5 year old can do together. The epson salt paintings were great. Thanks for the idea.
That’s just one of the reasons I love those paintings!
Can acrylic paint be used? Instead of the tempura paint.
You can use acrylic paint. In fact, it might even turn out a little better because acrylic is thicker and doesn’t blend as easily. BUT, acrylic paint is not washable. So if you use it with your preschoolers, make sure they are wearing smocks.
I’m curious if this would work on canvas?
I’m certain it would, however you would want to use a high quality tempera paint or acryllic paint.
Thank you for this wonderful project. We used feathers to paint instead of paintbrushes. My pre-kinders had so much fun.
I’m so glad they enjoyed it, and how creative to use feathers!