Snowman
We live so far south that we very rarely get to experience actual snow. When we do get snow, it’s often not enough to make a snow man. Even so, there are lots of holiday songs and stories about snowmen, so I thought I’d show my son how snowmen are made with a little play doh.
I used black and white play doh for this activity.
I went ahead and rolled all of the pieces in advance. My son has a lot of sensory issues, so he’s not a big fan of play doh. I still run him through the motion of rolling the big pieces, but if he had to do it all himself, we’d have a meltdown before we finished. 
So, we took each white ball, rolled it once or twice in his palm, and then stacked them. He was extremely resistant to the play doh with his left hand, so we switched it up and used his right–much better!
We then took the smaller black balls and helped him use his pointer finger to press them into the snowman creating eyes, a nose, and some buttons. We’ve worked on using pointer finger before, so this is a good way to reinforce that skill. Overall, using one finger was much better than using his whole hand. 
When you’re finished, you have a snowman guaranteed not to melt.
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Katy is a mom of one who loves art, mystery novels, and anything involving peanut butter–she blogs about raising her little miracle at Bird on the Street.
The snow was everywhere this time last week and we were excited to make a snowman. Unfortunately the snow wasn’t sticky enough so we had to come in warm up and make one with paper plates and glitter. This snowman craft needs adult involvement for preschoolers for sure but working together is one of my favorite things about crafting with my kids. This snowman was inspired by our very popular Snow Globe Snowman we made a few years ago.
- Gather your materials. You will need 1 large and 1 small paper plate, a cupcake liner, glue, scissors, glitter ( ’tis the season), goggly eyes, a hole punch, some ribbon, a stapler or heavy tape, black and orange paper.
- Start by cutting the middle out of your large plate. Make sure that the hole is a little smaller than your cupcake liner.
- Add glue to the plate.
- Add glitter and set aside to dry.
- Fold your cupcake liner in half, then half again.
- Make cuts along the side. Have extras on hand for preschoolers who insist on doing it themselves with no instruction and get frustrated when it’s not “perfect” for us that was 4 liners. Make sure that they don’t cut the outside edge or the snowflake won’t glue to the snowman’s tummy properly. This was tricky with the foil , he did the first cut and I did the second and carefully took the pieces out. Paper would be much easier , though not as shiny!
- Open and glue over the hole in the large plate . Let dry.
- Make a quick hat out of the black paper and a carrot nose out of the orange. Great use of scrap paper if you have it!
- Using the hole punch have your child punch some holes in the black paper for coal for the mouth.
- Add glue to the small plate for the face.
- Add the googly eyes.
- Add the punched out black paper for the mouth – this is a great fine motor exercise, but may be frustrating for really little guys so be prepared to help . Add the hat and nose as well.
- Let dry. My light ( for pictures) was fading fast so I continued but you should wait until things are dry so they don’t shift on the plates.
- Attach the small plate to the bottom one. Glue is not a great option for this, staples are ok but tend to bend the plates. I have found the best option is to use packing tape.
- Add the ribbon as a scarf.
My Favorite Snowman Book Ever !
Snowman in Paradise
In May after splashing with buckets of paint, He threw down his brush, saying, “Gauguin I ain’t.”
Even if some references are more for the adults reading it than the children listening , both parties will close the book smiling and wanting to start all over again. Grab it and see why I love it so much!
11 Comments »
Magnetic Snowman
We have done a few of these projects before ( robot and haunted house) and they are always a huge hit with my son as well as readers. Although it hasn’t snowed here in ages, I know that many of you are snowed in and thought I’d do one more snow themed craft. Our guy has no arms because we forgot them and by the time I remembered my son just wanted to play with him so they were clearly superfluous.
- Gather your materials. I am using sticky back foam, it’s easy to use and mostly eliminates the need for glue. Also scissors, self adhesive magnets ( please be careful and supervise even older kids with magnets, any child that is still putting things in their mouth should not be using the button magnets. Instead use the magnetic strips that do not pose as great a swallowing risk. ), a marker and some glue if like me you are reusing magnets and their sticky back is gone! You will also need a cookie sheet or a magnetic surface to play.
- Start by tracing the snowman shapes. 3 circles from the white foam. Cut out.
- Trace and cut out a hat , coal pieces and boots from the black foam
- Cut out a nose and arms from the gold foam ( or any color really, we had gold on hand)
- Finally cut out buttons from the blue foam.
- Start by assembling the snowman’s face. Stick the nose on.
- Add the eyes and mouth from the coal pieces.
- Add the buttons on the other white circles – as you can see my son opted for all on one , which is perfectly awesome.
- While they are adding the features, glue or stick the magnets on. You will want one on the boots, hat, each section of the snowman and arms if you made them. If you can avoid it don’t glue it took hours for ours to dry. I ended up taking these final pics before it was dry and my son didn’t get to play with it until almost bedtime.
- Let dry and play!
Books
written by Shirley Neitzel, illustrated by Nancy Winslow Parker
published by Greenwillow Books
rebus picture book (baby to preschool)
Similar to the story structure and rhyme of ‘The House that Jack Built’, this story builds with each layer of clothes. As a new article is added, it’s given extra emphasis on it’s own page, then beside it lists the other clothing elements already included. The repetitive text and the rebus images make for a consistent and predictable story, great for beginning readers. Children will be able to read parts of the story and enjoy predicting the clothing that comes on next. This is a great way to introduce winter clothing vocabulary too. Be warned, you kids may take to repeating all or parts of the rhyme when getting dressed to go out
( reviewed by Carrie Anne)
Snowman in Paradise
In May after splashing with buckets of paint, He threw down his brush, saying, “Gauguin I ain’t.”
Even if some references are more for the adults reading it than the children listening , both parties will close the book smiling and wanting to start all over again. Grab it and see why I love it so much!
8 Comments »
Marshmallow Snowman
This activity is in disguise, it looks like a snowman craft but really it’s all fine motor practice and counting. My son has been skipping 5 while counting so I decided to focus on it more and this is a great activity for that. Our rule was he could eat one marshmallow after he counted out 5, 10, 15 etc… it worked wonderfully. His fine motor skills and hand eye coordination got an awesome workout too as he placed each marshmallow carefully on the glue. Fun and learning!
- Gather your materials. You will need some mini marshmallows, glue, some markers ( include black), some orange scrap paper and a little helper.
- Start by drawing a basic snowman on the paper with marker. Depending on the age of your child make it larger or smaller, challenge your child but have realistic expectations .
- Draw the face and buttons with marker.
- Cut out a carrot nose with the orange paper and glue on.
- Add the glue along the outline. If your child is able have them do this, it’s tricky to stay on the line but great practice in patience and hand eye coordination. No my son did not do this step, he was busy sneaking marshmallows while I was concentrating.
- Start adding the “snow” . Like I said in the preamble, I had him add 10 to the bottom then eat one, then 5 to the middle, then 13 to the bottom again. It was very interactive and fantastic counting practice . He had a ball and really didn’t eat too many .
- Look at the fine motor skills! For children who are still at the early stages of fine motor development, you can adapt this by using large marshmallows.
- Let dry.
Books
The Lonesome Polar Bear
by Jane Cabrera is a cute little book about a little polar who’s only friends are a snow cloud and snow animals that keep melting away. The book has a cute message about not giving up hope and to keep trying to make friends , a lesson that is worth wile for everyone. The illustrations are very cute and my son loved it!
Birthday Snow
Snow Party
Even more cold weather books
26 Comments »
Snowmen!
I saw these a while back on Just For Fun and emailed Sandy right away to see if she would like to share these with me! Are they not adorable? I love them ! The holidays are over and we have a long winter ahead of us, so cheer yourself up with this awesome little craft!For the full how to check out
