Snowmen Continued

I thought we were done with the Snowman Unit, but I still had a few tricks up my sleeve that I didn't want to pass up...so we did some more.

Marshmallow snowmen. A shish-kabob stick, 3 large marshmallows, 1/2  an Oreo, 1 Rolo, 1 Laffy Taffy and some cake icing. My kids loved these. (Hint: if you decide to stick your Laffy Taffy in the microwave to soften it  up and make it more pliable, 15 seconds is WAY too long...I'd go with 5. And yes, I'm speaking from experience.)

My sister-in-law let us borrow this movie called The Snowman, which is based off of the book by Ryamond Briggs. The movie (like the book) has no words, only classical music playing in the background to set the mood. My kids were mesmerized by this movie. I don't think they even moved for the whole 27 minutes that it was playing. Even Adelia. We will definitely watch this a few (hundred) more times before we return it to her. :) It's a fun picture book too, but I think I like the movie better because the music brings in so much emotion with it that you don't get as much just from the silent pictures in the book. It of reminds me of Peter and the Wolf in that way, with the music telling the majority story. Anyways, we like it. A lot.

I also, in my last post about the Snowman Unit, totally forgot to mention the book we've been reading and basing this unit off of. So I will do that now. The book is called Snowmen At Night by Caralyn Buehner. It's a fun rhyming story about what the snowmen to at night. My kids think it's a pretty silly book. And like to laugh at the snowmen mother's bringing ice cold chocolate for the snowmen kids to drink, and the other funny things the snowmen do to entertain themselves.

We still haven't gotten around to making a snowman out in the yard, but maybe one of these days.

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.