ColorCollectWinter scavenger hunt: a free printable color hunt
Two printable winter color sheets — an outdoor walk for snow or no snow, and an indoor version for days too cold to go out — with no holiday theme, so it works from December to March.
Winter has a reputation for having no color, which is exactly what makes it a good scavenger hunt. Once players are looking, they find the icy blue in a puddle, the red berries the birds have not eaten yet, and the bright hats and coats that only come out when it is cold.
This hunt is deliberately holiday-neutral, so it fits a classroom in January as well as a family walk over the break. There is an outdoor sheet that works with or without snow and an indoor sheet for the days nobody wants to go out.
How to run it
- Print the outdoor or indoor sheet. The walk sheet is for outside, snow or not; the cozy sheet runs inside a house or classroom. Both print without the website around them.
- Keep the walk short. Fifteen to twenty minutes outside is plenty in the cold. Gloves make ticking boxes hard, so let one player carry the pencil.
- Tick the color, note the find. "Red: a robin on the fence." Photos are easier than writing with cold hands — take one per color if you have a phone.
- Warm up and compare. Back inside, go through the finds color by color over something warm. Most unexpected find wins.
The printable sheets
Each sheet prints on its own page. Tick the box when you spot the color, and write down what you found.
Winter walk color hunt
Eight cold-weather colors to find outside. Works in snow, in rain, and on bare gray days. Ages four and up.
- Whitesnow, frost, or your breath
- Icy blueice on a puddle or a window
- Graya bare branch or a cloud
- Greenan evergreen tree
- Reda berry, a bird, or a mitten
- Browntree bark or a muddy boot
- Blacka crow or a shadow on the snow
- Yellowa street light or a raincoat
Free printable from colorcollectapp.com — a color scavenger hunt game for phones, too.
Cozy indoor winter hunt
For days too cold or wet to go out. Every color is somewhere inside a warm house or classroom.
- Navya coat on a hook
- Reda scarf or a knit hat
- Creama mug of something hot
- Browna blanket or hot chocolate
- Silvera radiator or a spoon
- Orangean orange or a clementine
- Purplea pair of socks
- Whitea cloud of steam
Free printable from colorcollectapp.com — a color scavenger hunt game for phones, too.
20 winter things to find, by color
Want more than eight rows? Every one of these counts for the color in front of it — use them to make the sheets harder, or as a list to read out on the go.
- White: fresh snow nobody has walked on
- White: frost on a car windshield
- White: a snowman, or a snowball
- Icy blue: an icicle hanging from a gutter
- Icy blue: a frozen puddle
- Gray: a bare tree against the sky
- Gray: a pigeon fluffed up against the cold
- Green: a pine, spruce, or fir tree
- Green: ivy on a wall
- Red: winter berries on a bush
- Red: a cardinal or a robin
- Red: a red knit hat
- Brown: tracks in the snow or the mud
- Brown: a cup of hot chocolate
- Black: a crow on a fence
- Yellow: a lit window at dusk
- Navy: a puffer coat
- Orange: a clementine peel
- Silver: a frozen spider web
- Pink: cheeks after ten minutes outside
Four ways to play it
Tracks hunt
After fresh snow, find tracks in as many colors of ground as you can — white snow, brown mud, gray slush — and guess who made them.
Classroom window hunt
Too cold for recess? Find every color on the walk sheet through the classroom windows only.
Shades of white
For older kids: find five different whites — snow, frost, a cloud, a gull, steam. It is harder than it sounds.
Same walk, every month
Do the same route in December, January and February and see how the colors change as the winter does.
Keep the photos, not just the ticks
ColorCollect is the same color hunt on a phone, with the finds kept: pick a color, everyone photographs their matches, and the shots snap into one shared photo montage the whole family keeps. Friends and relatives in other towns can join the same hunt with a 6-letter room code — no accounts.
Free to play, no ads, optional in-app purchases. Prefer paper? The sheets work perfectly well on their own.
More seasonal hunts
For any time of year, there are four more free printable color scavenger hunt sheets, and the color scavenger hunt guide has the rules and ideas for every age.
Frequently asked questions
What can you find on a winter scavenger hunt?
Cold-weather colors: white snow and frost, icy blue puddles and icicles, green evergreens, red berries and birds, brown tracks and bark, and the bright hats and coats people wear. A color list works with or without snow, so it suits mild winters too.
Is this winter scavenger hunt printable free?
Yes. Both sheets print straight from this page with no email signup and no watermark — print a class set if you need one.
Is it OK for a classroom that avoids holiday themes?
Yes, that is what it is for. Nothing on either sheet is tied to a holiday, so it works the whole of January and February as well as December.
What if there is no snow?
The walk sheet was written for that. Only one row mentions snow, and frost, your own breath, or a white cloud all count for white.