Aw heck, don’t let a little paint scare you, Sue. Think of the mud and muck they tromp through when the snow starts to melt!

It makes me nervous with the little ones especially after the snow starts meting. I am scared they would walk through it and get the paint everywhere.

Hi Courtney. I am very conscious about the carbon footprint I’m leaving on this planet. I compost, clean my house with baking soda and vinegar, wash windows with newsprint and vinegar, make my own eco-friendly laundry detergent and use earth-friendly shampoo/conditioner. An activity such as this would likely be done once a year. Your comment, with all due respect, makes me wonder if you wash your car in the driveway, or if you’ve ever used dish soap to scrub something dirty in the yard, rinsing it off with the garden hose, or if you’ve ever given thought to the chemicals going down the drain when you shower and do your laundry daily. While I don’t take environmental pollution lightly what-so-ever, I do feel that any contamination from this activity, done once, (with non-toxic Tempera paint) would pale in comparison to the chemicals that you and I deposit into the environment daily without a thought. Thank you for raising such a thought-provoking topic.

I’m about an hour east of Toronto. We had a little blizzard yesterday afternoon, but it turned to rain overnight, and anything that accumulated is pretty much gone now.

Yay for spring! It’s been such a long winter, hasn’t it, Sally? The snow is starting to melt here, but we have a LOT to get rid of! Hope you have fun painting yours! I’m so glad we’ve helped you entertain your hooligans with our ideas, Sally!

Thank you for sharing these amazing ideas they have helped me on so many frustrating and boring days!

Sounds like your snow was too light and fluffy. A crusty snow works best, or at least a packing snow that has quite a bit of moisture in it. It does require a light touch, but I think the biggest problem was your snow was too fluffy.

This didn’t work that well for me. I did this activity yesterday and the snow also stuck to the brush. It was frustrating. What are your suggestions for it to work better?

Terrific, Joy! That’s a broad age-range to appeal to, so I’m glad this was a hit with everyone!

Thank you for linking up to Tuesday Tots last week and just letting you know that I will be featuring this over on Rainy Day Mum this week.

Tempera paints are actually non-toxic and one of the more environmentally friendly paints out there, which is one of the reasons that they’re popular paints for young children.

That’s a great idea, Jo!

Our paints were very “wet”, as you might be able to see in the photo of the paint dripping onto the blue snowball. We used tempera powders which can be mixed to the consistency that you like. Were your paints quite thick? I’m thinking that if they were, that might be what the problem was when you tried it. If they were water-based paints could you try diluting them a bit if you were going to try this again?

I tried out this idea. I think the consistency of the paint is important or perhaps the state of the snow. Our snow was not melting as it appears in the pictures but was somewhat packed down. The snow stuck to the paintbrushes which made it impossible for even
myself to paint a line. Also I anticipated
messy hands or clothes so I brought wet
wipes. What a lifesaver!

Hope you get some snow soon, Jessica! Ours has all melted now, and I can’t wait to get more. This was a really fun activity!

No problem! And I hear you. I don’t worry too much about paint and staining on their every day clothes, because my parents know we get messy, and don’t send their children in anything that can’t take a stain or two, but when it came to their jackets and snow pants, I didn’t want to risk the possibility of staining so we went with the Tempera.

Wow. Thanks for your quick response. Id hate to send my little ones back home with stained and expensive winter clothes.

If you use a paint that is washable, it shouldn’t. That’s why we used Tempera paint. It washes right out. If you were to use any other type of paint, you would want to know before hand if it can be washed out of fabric once it sets in.

Perfect! This really is so much easier than the spray bottles anyway. I found it far more colourful and fun. 🙂

Our snow is gone already, Lynne, and we now have lovely, colourful patches of grass where the painted snow was. 🙂 It was washable, non-toxic kids’ paint so it will likely was away with the first rain.

Fun!!!!!!!! What happens when the snow melts??? Where does the paint go?