Nothing says winter like a lovely snowfall complete with sledding, ice skating and of course building snowmen! We don’t ever get snow where we live (unless it’s fake), but we’ll be creating our own wintery fun this week by doing all the cute snowman themed things! Don’t forget to roll on over to my toddler post “Frosty Fun” for more great ideas like snowman cotton ball painting and even a melted snowman craft perfect for our fellow citizens of the south!
–Literacy:
-Snowman song/poem: We added this “I’m a Little Snowman” poem to our daily calendar time this week. As we sang the song (to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”) I pointed to each word to build sight word recognition, and text directionality.
-Snowman story: We made “melted snowmen” by painting with shaving cream mixed with glue (for full instructions, check out my toddler post “Frosty Fun“) then I had my little tell a story about why his snowman melted while I wrote it down. I asked him clarifying questions such as “What happened next?” to help him add details to his story.
-Snowman letter/sound matching: I got these awesome snowman themed letter/sound matching cards at Teachers Pay Teachers (for free of course!) I just printed them, laminated them, cut them out then had my little look at each picture card, identify the word in each picture, think about what sound it started with and what letter matched that sound, then find the letter and place it on the card. It took awhile to get through the whole alphabet, but it was great practice!
-Snowman story retelling: I made a snowman graphic organizer by drawing three circles for the beginning, middle and end on paper (his hat was for the title!) then we read “The Biggest, Best Snowman” and I had my little retell the story when we were finished. I wrote down what he said on the graphic organizer.
-Snowman name practice: I traced a circle for each of the letters in my little’s name, then wrote the letter in dots for him to trace. He cut out each circle, wrote the letters in them, then put them together in the correct order to build a name snowman. Of course we added a hat and arms too! I got my inspiration from A Dab of Glue Will Do.
-Snowman book list:
–Math:
-Snowman number match puzzles: I got these adorable snowman number matching puzzles for free from Teachers Pay Teachers. I just printed them, laminated them, cut them out, then had my little put them together using counting and number recognition (I read the words to him).
-Snowman adding page: I printed this snowman adding page from Teachers Pay Teachers, then had my little identify each number, show it using some mini snowflake erasers I got at the Target dollar spot, then add the erasers together. (The adding page also comes with a snowflake card page you can print if you don’t want to buy erasers!) He also practiced writing his numbers for each word problem, which was a great addition to the activity!
-Snowman number sorting: The adding page I mentioned above also came with snowman themed numbers, so I printed and laminated them and had my little identify each number and put them in the correct order.
-Snowman number tracing: I got these snowman number tracing cards for free on Teachers Pay Teachers- I didn’t want to print them on full pages, so I printed 4 per page (which made them a little bit too small in my opinion, but my little did great with them!), then I tucked them in page protectors and had my little practice tracing each number. I think printing 2 per page would be better, if your computer will cooperate with you! LoL (Mine wouldn’t let me for some reason!)
–Science:
-Snowman states of matter: This activity involves using the stove and therefore heat. Please be careful! I thought snowman week would be a perfect opportunity to review the states of matter and do a demonstration that shows each one. I used to do this in my classroom too (but with plain ice cubes) and it was a huge hit! First, I blended several ice cubes (probably 2 cups) with about a cup and a half of water until I had super wet “snow”. We dumped the snow on a cookie sheet and it to build a snowman, then I asked my little if the snowman was a solid, liquid or gas and how he knew. Then I asked him what he thought would happen if we put the snowman in a hot pan. We tried it, and I asked what he saw happening to the snowman and why as the water in the snowman melted and then began to evaporate. I threw in the science vocabulary melting, evaporating, solid, liquid, gas and heat as we discussed what was happening to our snowman. We even talked about condensation when my little put his hand above the pan (it was a good 1 1/2 feet above it so he wouldn’t get burned) and he noticed his hand was getting wet.
-Exploding snowman: My littles LOVED this activity and asked for me to do it over and over! You just decorate a water bottle with a snowman face using sharpies, throw in about 1/8 cup of baking soda, place it on a cookie sheet to catch the overflow, then pour in some vinegar. If your snowman stops fizzing when you add the vinegar, give it a quick swirl and it should reactivate!
-STEM snowman towers: I painted 6 toilet paper tubes white, added snowman faces to a few of them, then challenged my little to make the tallest snowman tower he could. I got this idea from Teach Preschool.
-STEM build a marshmallow snowman: I gave my little large marshmallows, small marshmallows and toothpicks then told him his challenge was to build a snowman that was taller than his playdough cup (about 4 inches tall). Then I let him build and play until he figured it out. I got this idea from Carly and Adam.
–Art:
-Number 8 snowman: I had my little draw the number 8 on a piece of paper (since I’m always saying it looks like a snowman when he forgets what an 8 is! LoL) and then decorate it to make it into a snowman!
–Supply/shopping list:
- shaving cream
- pompoms or cotton balls
- toilet paper tubes 6-9
- big and mini marshmallows
- toothpicks
- water bottle
- vinegar
- baking soda
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