Craft and snack– two activities that not only our little crooks love. We adults also like to sweeten our day with these two activities. How about combining both? One of the most popular sweets are without a doubt marshmallows and you can use them to make really great marshmallow figures that you can not only use as winter decorations, but also as gifts. You can also use the treats for games. Curious? Then take a look at our super easy ideas for marshmallows, open a pack straight away and get started. But don't overdo the snacking when doing winter crafts with the kids!
Snowflakes as marshmallow figures
Both the white color of the marshmallows, as wellSnowflakes as a motifperfect for winter. So the flakes are the perfect marshmallow figures for icy January. We'll show you some interesting snowflake shapes that you can make with the sweets and shish kebab skewers or toothpicks. Following the instructions you will also find a template to print out for the very little hobbyists. This craft idea is a wonderful way for small children to train their fine motor skills, while it is a great way to keep children aged 7 and even older busy.
What you need:
- Marshmallows, small or large or both as desired
- Toothpicks/shish kebab skewers/pretzel sticks/spaghetti
- optional food coloring to color the sticks
Basically, you can use the skewers to put the marshmallows together any way you want. You can create any shapes you want. You can also use our examples as an incentive. Would you like colorful marshmallow figures? Then you can also color skewers with food coloring (if you are just making the snowflakes for decoration and not for consumption, you can also use other colors). You could also color the marshmallows.
Snowflakes with colorful sticks
Marshmallow-Stern
Marshmallow Schneemann
You can make a cute one out of a marshmallow skewerMake a snowman. To make these marshmallow figures, simply skewer three marshmallows and then decorate them to create a snowman. For example, you can dab buttons, eyes and mouth on the marshmallow with chocolate and create arms with pretzel sticks. You can quickly make a scarf out of fruit gum snakes, while candy canes make the perfect sleigh. The hat can be made of a confection. Why not use it for one?delicious snowman soup!
Snowman with a sleigh made of candy canes
Marshmallow figures – architecture, science and astronomy
What do these terms have to do with marshmallow figures? It's simple: you can put together any buildings or other 3D figures (e.g. car, cubes, pyramids) using marshmallow skewers. Or how about a marshmallow spaghetti tower? Instead of shish kebab skewers, simply use spaghetti for the marshmallow tower by threading it through the candy. Even star constellations are very suitable for spending an educational afternoon with the children (e.g. the Big Dipper, the W of the West or Orion).
You can even make a strand of DNA this way for themed marshmallow figures. In addition to the marshmallows, you will also need licorice sticks or other rubber snakes. Place them parallel to each other in front of you, stick two marshmallows on toothpicks and then put them between the sticks. Finally, twist the whole thing a little to get the twist typical of the DNA strand.
Simple marshmallow figures – paint faces
There are special food pens with which you can paint food without worry - just like food coloring, except that they allow precise drawings. You can then give the marshmallows a face and either use the finished marshmallow figures to create skewers or add them individually to hot cocoa to make it more interesting. There they will then melt and refine the cocoa.
Design animals as marshmallow figures – cute polar bears
Polar bears are fastand easy to make and go wonderfully with the winter theme, but feel free to come up with other animals too. You can use marshmallow animals to keep children busy in winter and to tide over rainy days.For the polar bearsDo you need:
- large marshmallows
- Mini-Marshmallows
- toothpick
- Paint brush
- Water
- Food coloring or pens
Take a large marshmallow. This will be the body for your marshmallow figures. Choose the places for the legs and brush them with water. This will make the marshmallow sticky so you can then stick the little marshmallows in place. Add two ears in the same way. Attach the bear's snout to one of the round sides of the body. Now you can draw a face with food coloring. To do this, dip a toothpick into the paint and dab it into the desired areas or use food sticks.
Make polar bears, elephants, giraffes and other animals
Funny cow
Make an igloo
You can make one from a deep cardboard or plastic plate and a toilet paper rollMake an igloowith children in winter (and if you want, decorate with the above polar bears or other marshmallow figures). Cut an opening in the edge of the plate, cut a wider ring from the roll and cut it in half. Glue the resulting bow to the opening of the plate and then stick the marshmallows on everything. You can use Basel glue for this if the marshmallows are not intended for consumption. Alternatively, edible glue (e.g. icing) is also suitable. This idea is particularly suitable if you have children aged 5 and over.
Play figures instead of marshmallows
Instead of making marshmallow figures, you canorganize small gamesthat are not only fun but also encouraging. For example, the treats are a great way to practice counting, but also just small children's fine motor skills. And as a reward, the child can snack on one or two marshmallows. By the way, you can also carry out the following game and learning ideas with other materials, such as pompoms.
Practice counting with marshmallows and dice
Would you like to keep smaller children busy in winter without doing crafts? Place mini marshmallows on a tray, provide a bowl, a cube and a pair of tongs. Depending on the child's age, you can choose a regular die or one that only shows the numbers 1 to 3. Then have the child roll the dice and count the points on the dice. Then use the tongs to remove the same number of marshmallows from the bowl. Precise handling of the pliers is an interesting challenge for smaller children that trains their fine motor skills. If this task is still too difficult for the toddler, they can of course also use their fingers. This also trains fine motor skills.
Older children can also use two dice and add the numbers rolled to learn arithmetic.
You can also turn the whole thing into a little competition. Several children take turns rolling the dice. The first person to fill their bowl (or collect a certain number of marshmallows) wins.
Lay motifs with marshmallows
Print out designs and have the children arrange the marshmallows along the outlines. This is similar to the marshmallow figures, except that you don't have to skewer anything - ideal for very small children. It's best to choose large motifs without many details, which are easier to reshape. Older children can also go one step further: instead of arranging the marshmallows directly on the design, you can copy it separately using the design as a template.
You can also stick the marshmallows on to create interesting pictures. You don't necessarily have to use white varieties either. Create a colorful picture with colored mini marshmallows! Perfect for making your own gifts while keeping the children busy and entertained.
Sailboat
Octopus
Clown
Cat
Marshmallow Weitwurf
Set out cups, set a distance, and let the tossing begin: All players must get marshmallows into the cups. Of course you can also use other containers. Buckets might be a better choice for children, for example. The rules of the game can vary.
- You could stop the time and, for example, count after a minute which player has put the most marshmallows in their container.
- Or take a larger bucket, distribute marshmallows in different colors (a different color for each player), and have players aim at the bucket in a certain amount of time. At the end, the colors are counted to see who has thrown the most marshmallows into the bucket.
- How about a target instead of a container? A larger ring, for example, through whose hole the marshmallows are thrown, is ideal.
- Or have players take turns throwing. Whenever a player hits the container, he can throw again. If he aims past it, it's the next person's turn. Keep playing like this until someone has gotten rid of all the marshmallows. The first is also the winner.
It is advisable to spread out a clean sheet or something similar in advance so that the marshmallows that end up on the floor can still be eaten afterwards. You can also use them to make one of the marshmallow figure craft ideas shown above with the children in winter.
Learn letters
In addition to arithmetic and counting, you can also practice the letters and the alphabet with the help of marshmallow figures. Simply have the children put random letters together. Even whole words can be put together this way. This activity is suitable for children of different ages
