Winter Salt Painting Art Activity

Making winter art projects is one of our favorite activities when it’s too cold to go outside (or if the kids are tired of being cold and wet). This winter salt painting activity features snowflakes and will give children a lesson in evaporation and ionic bonds in addition to being a pretty art activity to try during the winter. Transform regular salt water into beautiful salt crystal paintings using the instructions outlined below. Kids will have a blast making their very own crystal snowflakes.

This winter, try this fun salt painting activity that looks just like sparkling snowflakes! It’s half part art, half part science!

This quick winter art activity mixes elements of art and science.

Before starting, make a batch of salt water. I heated about a cup of water on the stove until boiling. I then added salt until it would no longer dissolve into the water. I removed it from heat and allowed it to cool before pouring it into small containers for the kids to paint with.

Dip the paint brush into the salt water and paint over the black paper. It will look dark and watery first, but when it dries, it will form pretty salt crystals on the paper. My kids chose to make snowflake designs, but you don’t have to stick to just winter themes.  It was just fun to make snowflakes out of salt crystals, since real snowflakes are made from ice crystals.

Our papers dried in about two hours, but if you have wetter paper it might take longer.

Look closely and you can see the individual salt crystals! Use a magnifying glass to get even closer to the snowflakes and see if they still follow the square shape that salt always has.