If your kids love animals, this is the perfect time of year to learn about animals that live in the cold! Since we’re inside more during the winter, it’s also a good time to do some crafts together. Let’s combine the two for some creative learning.

Our tuxedoed friends from Antarctica are awfully cute birds that kids of all ages love. They’ll love learning about them plus work on identifying shapes and their fine motor skills when they complete this penguin shape craft.

Kids will follow instructions to pick out the ovals, circles, and triangles it takes to create their own penguin. This simple paper craft will be a hit with the kids, and you’ll love how easy it is to prepare with our free template and a few supplies.

Waddle, slide, or swim on over to check out some more penguin activities the kids will love. There you’ll find crafts, art projects, and printables featuring penguins that are perfect for preschoolers through early elementary-aged kids.

Penguin Craft Idea

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Supplies

• Colored cardstock or construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Penguin template (enter your email in the form at the end of this post to have the link sent to you)

Directions

Download the penguin template, print, and cut out the pieces you need.

Begin by gluing the belly almost to the bottom of the penguin’s body.

Take the eyes and glue them to the top, black part of the penguin’s body.

Next, glue the triangle beak in between the eyes and slightly overlapping the belly.

Place the oval arms on the sides of the penguin and glue them onto the belly, angled inward.

Finish up by gluing the feet to the back and bottom of the penguin’s body.

We know your kids will love creating this fun winter animal craft and learning to recognize shapes!

Winter Ideas For Kids

Keep the fun going with some more winter-themed crafts and activities. They’ll have the kids engaged and learning all winter long at home or at school.

We’ll get you started, so you can spend less time planning and more time creating! See some of our favorite winter ideas below.

Winter Books For Kids

Reading books to kids is great for their early development! It helps them build a strong vocabulary, foster a love for literacy, and provides them with opportunities to explore different worlds

Reading together contributes to better communication skills, improved critical thinking skills, and the ability to focus and concentrate. Reading also promotes creativity, and imagination, and encourages kids to ask questions.

Overall, there are many benefits of reading books to children!

Here are some of the best winter animal books.

Polar Bear Island is a fun book for winter! Polar Bear Island is just that – only for polar bears! That is until Kirby the penguin comes to visit. She turns the place around and adds tons of interesting excitement, but will the polar bears let her stay? You have to check it out and see for yourself!

Tacky The Penguin– This is a great book for children to learn about acceptance and valuing others for exactly who they are.

Owl Babies– A sweet book that teaches kids that Mom always comes back! It’s especially great for children who may have separation anxiety.

Winter Crafts For Kids

We love crafting especially since it’s fun and a great way for kids to develop necessary skills. It gives them the chance to create something with their own hands which is great for hand-eye coordination, concentration, and being creative!

Crafting is also a great stress reliever and can help kids gain confidence and pride in their work. Read on below for some winter crafts your kids will love to make.

Penguin Stick Puppet – Your kids will have a blast creating their own penguin and then pretending to play like one with this puppet! They’ll use their creativity to make their puppet and their imaginations to pretend they’re swimming, sliding, and waddling around.

Polar Bear Headband Craft – Get kids excited about learning about this big white bear from the arctic when they make their own headband! They’ll love making their own polar bear and work on their scissor skills, fine motor skills, and creativity while they do.

Puffy Paint Snowman – The perfect project for crafty kids is to make this snowman from scratch. We show you how to make your own puffy paint and then how to put the snowman together so it has a cool 3d look to it. Grab the template to get crafting with the kids!

Paper Bag Walrus Craft – Have your kids transform an ordinary paper bag into a cute walrus puppet. They’ll love creating this arctic animal out of affordable and easy-to-find supplies, plus have fun playing pretend with it once they’re finished.

Winter Activities For Kids

Use these snowman coloring pages for a no-prep activity to teach kids about the winter season, or anytime you need to keep them occupied indoors. It’s a fun activity to pass the time, plus it helps kids work on their pencil grasp and fine motor skills when they color the pictures.

Your little cubs will love learning about polar bears and the letter P with these fun polar bear worksheets. These free printables will have a cute polar bear to label and then guide kids through the P maze to work on letter recognition and practice their handwriting. 

The kids can pretend they’re on an arctic expedition to learn about the amazing polar bears when they gather up their supplies (the dot markers) and these polar bear do a dot printables. These pages will help children with number and letter recognition, counting, and fine motor skills.

Give the kids a hands-on activity to keep them off their screens for a bit with these winter pattern block mats. Not only are these mats fun to use with pattern blocks, but they’re also great for helping kids identify shapes and work on their fine motor skills. They’ll love all the different winter scenes in this set, so be sure to laminate them for continued use throughout the season.

Winter Fun

• Kids will look super cute in this sweet snowman shirt!
• These adorable penguin soaps are great for encouraging kids to wash their hands.
• This penguin playdough kit is great for sensory play!

Share With Us

Did you make this activity with your kids or students? We’d love to feature them on our social media!

For a chance to have your child’s project featured, simply snap a picture of the completed project and post it to our Facebook page, email it to us directly by clicking here, or use #simpleeverydaymom on your social media!

Penguin Shape Craft Template