Snow Art

Sorry it's been a while! Getting back into the work routine after 2 weeks off is not always easy...

Snowman Suncatcher
Cut out the shape of a snowman head, cutting out the middle to leave just an outline of a circle (this should be the size of the whole sheet of paper). Glue onto a piece of waxed paper and let it dry before giving it to the students. Have the students cut out a snowman hat, carrot nose, eyes, and circles to make a mouth. Once the students have cut the shapes, have them glue the shapes onto the inside of the circle to make a snowman face. Once the glue has dried, run the snowmen through the laminator or cover with Con-tact paper or another sheet of waxed paper.

Modifications: Provide precut shapes; adapted scissors (loop, hand-over-hand, switch-powered); PECS pictures; use Con-tact paper instead of waxed paper/glue.

Fist-print Snowman
Students make hand into a fist and dip into white paint, then press their fist onto dark paper to make snowmen. Provide precut body parts, hats, etc. for the students to glue on or stick into the wet paint.

Modifications: Hand-over-hand assistance; visual cues; PECS pictures

Cut-and-Paste Snowman
Have students cut out 3 circles (small, medium, large) and glue onto a large sheet of construction paper. Have the students cut out snowman body parts and glue them onto their snowman picture.

Modifications: Provide precut pieces; adapted scissors; PECS

Torn Paper Snowman
Provide precut snowman shapes (cut from dark paper). Have students tear (or cut) paper and glue the paper onto the snowman shape to cover. Students glue body parts and clothing onto the snowman.

Modifications: Precut or pretorn paper; precut body parts; hand-over-hand assistance; PECS pictures

3-D Snowman
Students make a snowman out of white playdough. Stick collage items into the playdough to make body parts, clothing, etc.

Modifications: Provide hand-over-hand assistance; use PECS for choice-making

“Melted” Snowman
Have students use puffy paint (equal parts glue and shaving cream) to paint globs of paint onto their paper. Add carrot nose, eyes, mouth, etc. to the “melted” snowman.”

Modifications: Hand-over-hand assistance

Snowman Soup
Students make hot chocolate and add marshmallows (snowman body) and a Hershey’s Kiss (hat).

Modifications: Hand-over-hand assistance; thicken liquid for students with feeding difficulties; provide visual directions

Doily Snowflake Resist Painting
Tape a doily onto a sheet of white paper and have the students paint over the doily with light or dark blue paint (their choice). If desired (and allowed) sprinkle white or silver glitter onto the paint. Remove the doily to reveal a “snowflake”.

Modification: Hand-over-hand assistance; modified paintbrush; PECS to make choices

Tongue Depressor/Lifesaver Snowflake
Glue 3 tongue depressors together in the center to form a snowflake shape (you may want to do this ahead of time). Have students glue Lifesavers onto the tongue depressors. You can add glitter if you wish and if it is allowed.

Modifications: Provide hand-over-hand assistance; have students use PECS to make requests

3-D Snowflake
Have students knead silver or white glitter into white playdough (if allowed). Roll out the playdough and cut out snowflake shapes with cookie cutters or allow your students to “make” their own snowflake out of the playdough.

Modifications: Hand-over-hand assistance

Epsom Salt Painting
Dissolve Epsom salt into warm water. Have students use the salt water to paint construction paper. Once the paper has dried, the salt will crystallize and look like “snowflakes.”

Modifications: Hand-over-hand assistance

Fingerprint Snow Scene
Dip fingertips into white paint and use to create a snow scene (snowmen, etc.) on dark colored paper.

Modifications: Hand-over-hand assistance

Snowy Weather Collage
Provide small bits of aluminum foil, white paper in various textures, and any other white and silver collage materials that you can find. Have students glue them to construction paper to make a snow scene.

Modifications: Hand-over-hand assistance

Snow Globe
Note: Students will need a lot of adult assistance with this one!
Provide each student with a baby food jar. If you have little trinkets-tiny snowflakes, snowmen, etc. (perhaps left over from Christmas)-let the students put them in the jars. Assist the students in pouring in corn syrup. They can add food color if they would like, and stir with a popsicle stick. Assist the students in sprinkling glitter into the jar. Hot-glue the jars shut. The corn syrup will roll slowly….it’s very soothing to watch!

Modifications: No modifications-this is an adult-directed activity.

Tortilla Snowflakes
Assist students to cut flour tortillas into snowflake shapes. Fry in oil and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Be sure to use very clean scissors for this-I like to keep a set dedicated to cooking only!

Modifications: Hand-over-hand assistance; adapted scissors

Snow, Snowflakes, and Snowmen: Books

This is far from an exhaustive list, but here are some great ones:

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow by Lucille Colandro
The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Nietzel and Nancy Winslow Parker
Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle and Barbara Lavallee
Curious George in the Snow by H.A. & Margaret Rey
Snow is Falling (Let’s Read and Find….Science Stage 1) by Franklin M. Branley and Holly Keller
Snow Crystals (Dover Photography Collections) by W.A. Bentley and W.J. Humphreys (collection of snowflake photos)
Snow by Cynthia Rylant and Lauren Stringer
White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt and Roger Duvoisin
Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
The Story of Snow: the Science of Winter’s Wonder by Mark Cassino
The Snow Show by Carolyn Fisher
The Snowman Storybook by Raymond Briggs
The Biggest Snowman Ever by Steven Kroll and Jeni Bassett
That’s Not My Snowman by Fiona Watt and Rachel Wells
Snowmen at Night by Caralyn and Mark Buehner
Little Snowman Finger Puppet Book by ImageBooks Staff
Little Critter: Just a Snowman by Mercer Mayer
How to Build a Snowman by Scholastic Inc.
Snowflakes by Kenneth Libbrecht
The Secret Life of a Snowflake: An Up-Close Look at the Art and Science of Snowflakes by Kenneth Libbrecht
The Tiny Snowflake by Art Ginolfi
Millions of Snowflakes by Mary McKenna Siddals and Elizabeth Sayles
The Snowflake: a Water Cycle Story by Neil Waldman

An Amazon search for Frosty the Snowman brought more results than you can even imagine! Look here to and pick your favorite!

Winter Holidays, Day Fifteen

Today, of course, is Friday, which means it’s cooking day! The cooking activity is pretty straightforward….just make a batch of sugar cookies with your students. You can make them from scratch, use a mix, or just make them from a roll…your kids won’t care! I would be willing to bet that they won’t care if you use cookie cutters to cut them into holiday shapes or if you just make simple, round cookies. They will just be happy to be able to handle the ingredients and the dough (with clean hands, of course!), smell it, and taste it once it has baked! After baking the cookies, let your students ice them with colorful icing and sprinkle them with green, red, and white sprinkles. Yum!

Since the art activity is 2-steps….you could actually carry the decorating into your fine motor activity. Once your students have finished decorating and eating their cookies, you can hand out the lacing cards and have your students lace them.

Winter Holidays, Day Fourteen

Today’s art activity is a torn paper Christmas tree. Give your students a simple pattern of a Christmas tree on green construction paper (I would probably just make it a large triangle…) and have them cut it out. After they have cut the tree, give them a single hole punch and have them punch holes all in the tree. They may need to fold it to get to the center. Once they have punched the holes in their tree, have them tear or cut tissue paper in a variety of colors (I like to use a choice board to let them choose their colors), then have them glue the tissue paper flat to the back of the tree. Once the Christmas trees have dried, you can hang them in the window (you could laminate them for durability) and the light will shine through the tissue. These look great with the light shining through them.

You will need to do a little prep ahead of time for your fine motor activity. You will need a large pinecone for each child. Prepare a batch of plaster of Paris and put a smallish mound on a piece of waxed paper; press a pinecone into the plaster of Paris. Do this for each pinecone. Once the plaster has dried, you can write the students’ names on the bottoms. Have your students “paint” their pinecones with glue that has been thinned with a little bit of water. Have them sprinkle green glitter on their pinecone and shake off the excess, then sprinkle a little glitter in other colors. Once they have dried, they will look like adorable Christmas trees!

Winter Holidays, Day Thirteen

Today’s art is a silver bell. For this activity, each child will need a medium to large paper or Styrofoam cup, a pipe cleaner, a small jingle bell, and a large piece of aluminum foil. The children will need to wrap the aluminum foil around their cup, starting with the bottom of the cup, and completely cover the outside of the cup, wrapping the edges of the paper around to the inside of the cup. Once they have finished, they will poke both ends of their pipe cleaner through the bottom of the cup, making a loop to use as a handle. For this next part, the students will need adult assistance. Push the loop all the way up against the cup so that the ends of the pipe cleaner come out the top of the cup. Slide a jingle bell up a couple of inches on one of the ends, then wrap the ends together to secure and pull the loop back up. You can use masking tape to put each child’s name on his or her cup.

I like to send the Christmas crafts that we have made home in a shoebox wrapped up as a gift, so I have the children make wrapping paper. For fine motor, give each child a large sheet of butcher paper. Put out plates of red and green paint and Christmas-y cookie cutters, and let the students use the cookie cutters to “stamp” their paper. Once they have dried, these cookie cutter paintings make great wrapping paper!

Helpful Links

This is a great website that supplies premade Boardmaker materials and lots of ideas:

http://www.speakingofspeech.com/Home_Page.html

Here's a great, very thorough website of preschool ideas:

http://www.preschoolexpress.com/

Changes to come

Just letting you know....I am going to be making some changes to the way that I present the information in this blog.

Rather than going day by day, I will post a suggested lesson plan format weekly. Each day I will post all of the activities for a specific component (e.g. on Monday, I will post books and songs for circle time, on Tuesday all art activities, on Wednesday all cooking activities, etc.). This will allow me to include more activities that may not necessarily be included in the suggested lesson plan. I also think that I will be able to suggest more modifications this way.