Snowman Unit

I've been promising a post on this snowman unit. We've had a lot of fun with this one. I decided to use the snowmen to try and teach about comparing. So we did a lot of big, bigger, biggest, little, less, least, etc.

First we did paper plate snowmen. The kids got one paper plate for every letter in their name. I had Lincoln write his own name, and I cut out the letters of Ivan's name for him to trace. I did a snowman for Adelia, even though she was napping, because I needed three to compare with.


Once we finished making them, we could compare. Lincoln had to cut out snowmen with the first initials on them, and glue them in the right blank.

The next activity that we did was probably my favorite one. Thumb print snowmen.

We dipped our thumbs in white paint and did three thumb prints together on black construction paper to make snowmen. I let the kids do as many snowmen as they wanted. Then we decorated them with faces and scarves and arms, using the opposite end of a paint brush. Then, using the opposite end of the paint brush again, I had them dip it in white, and make as many snowflakes as they wanted. Then we used a piece of chalk to make the ground for the snowmen to stand on. Once our paintings were dry we filled in the blanks on the poem by counting the number of snowflakes and the number of snowmen. The poem goes like this: "______ little snowflakes fall into sight. While ______ little snowmen played all night." Then you fill in the blanks for the numbers of snowflakes and snowmen, and decide which had more and which had less, then you glue the appropriate word in the next spaces in front of snowflakes and snowmen.

On Wednesday last week, it was my turn to host Little Boys Club, and I decided to keep the activity in line with our snowman theme. So I taught them all how to make snowman-kabobs, using bananas, apples, grapes, pretzels, strips of fruit leather, orange sprinkles for the nose, and cake icing for eyes and mouths. I thought they turned out really cute. Here are Ivan's and Lincoln's and mine.

Then Lincoln and I made a marshmallow snowman, and talked about which circles had more marshmallows and which had less. We also talked about big, bigger, and biggest circles.

And our last big project was a yarn stitched snowman. This one was great for fine motor and concentration skills. You just take a big paper plate and a little paper plate, and punch out holes, then you use yard to "sew" around the edges. Lincoln was most excited about gluing the buttons on. And once those were on we compared the buttons, "Are there more red buttons or yellow buttons?", "Are their less orange buttons than red buttons?", "Which color of buttons are their the most/least of."

And of course, Once There Was a Snowman, is a great song to use for this unit.

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman
Once there was a snowman, 
Tall, tall, tall
In the sun he melted, melted, melted
In the sun he melted
Small, small, small.

Maybe tomorrow we can finish up the unit by going outside and building a snowman with all the fresh snow we're getting at the moment.