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!

Winter Holidays, Day Twelve

Today you will make a cute reindeer to hang in the hall. I like to make a little "reindeer team" and put yarn on them to look like reins, then hang a picture of Santa in his sleigh to look like he is driving.

The reindeer head is what you will do for art today. This is one of those rare art activities where it is very adult-directed. You will need brown paint for the head and light brown (I usually mix brown and white) for the antlers. Paint the bottom of each child's foot with brown paint and press it onto white paper. Paint their hands with the light brown paint and press it onto either side of the head to make antlers. I recommend painting their hands and feet, not dipping them into the paint. This will make the hand and footprints drier and it will be MUCH less messy, plus you can go ahead and add the nose and the eyes. Have the children dip their fingertip into red paint and make a nose, then into black paint to make the eyes.

For fine motor, cut out a reindeer body pattern (I will post one later) for each child. Have the children paint the reindeer body with the same brown paint that was used for the head. Once the body has dried, cut out the head and tape it to the body.

Winter Holidays, Day Eleven

I guess today is "candy cane day." For art, give your students a piece of cardstock with a candy cane pattern printed on it (I will try to remember to post a PDF for a pattern later in the week). Have the students cut the pattern out (or precut if you need to for students with physical disabilities), then have them cut or tear red paper (or you could let them use whatever color they would like) and glue it to their candy cane.

For fine motor, you will make candy cane suncatchers. You will need to prep the materials for this activity ahead of time. Cut candy cane shapes out of construction paper, leaving the outline completely intact. You could either cut it so that you have the whole sheet of paper with just the candy cane missing, or you could cut around it so you just have the candy cane outline. Whatever you choose, glue it to a piece of waxed paper, then have your students cut or tear red tissue and glue it inside of the candy cane outline. For students with more fine motor limitations, you could also use Con-tact paper, although this can get rather expensive and sticky! I usually just help them squeeze their glue on. Once the suncatchers have dried, run them through the laminator and cut them out. These really do look great in the window!

Winter Holidays, Week Three Lesson Plan

I am having some issues with embedding the document this week for some reason, so instead I am going to give you the link you to the PDF. If you click on File then Download you will be able to save and print.

https://acrobat.com/#d=5N286iBGxzE-PFDoMcXCjQ

Winter Holidays, Day Ten

Today, it’s back to Christmas. We’ll be making paper plate wreaths today. First, either cut the center out of a paper plate for each child or have your students cut their own paper plate. Next, have them request green and red construction paper and glue verbally or using their Boardmaker symbols, a communication device, or a switch. Depending on their ability and/or their (or your) preference, students can cut or tear their paper into small bits. Have them squeeze glue all over the paper plate and cover it as completely as possible with the red and green paper (I give each student ¼ of a sheet of green construction paper and 1/8 of a sheet of red construction paper).

For fine motor, use your Christmas card lacing cards! For math, leave out a supply of construction paper strips. You can use Christmas colors or just leave out all sorts of colors so that students can choose their own colors. Encourage students to make paper chains while patterning or matching colors. They can use glue (glue sticks work best here) or tape to hold the strips of paper together.

Winter Holidays, Day Nine

Today is your Kwanzaa cooking activity! Kwanzaa kabobs are the order today. Give your students a variety of fruits-bananas, strawberries, orange sections, apple chunks, pineapple chunks, etc. (be aware of choking hazards, of course). You could put the fruits out in a bowl and let the students pick from the bowls themselves, or give each student a few of each type of fruit on a plate. At any rate, give your students red and green straws or toothpicks to thread their fruit onto.

For fine motor, make a “kufi” or hat. Make a headband for each student to fit their head. I would use black construction paper, posterboards, or sentence strips to do this. Give each student a couple of short strips of red, green, and black paper and have them glue them together in the center into a criss-cross or star shape, then glue it to the sentence strip.

Winter Holidays, Day eight

It’s been a few days, huh? Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I am going to be playing catch-up for a few days, I guess.

Today we will be making a Kwanzaa candelabra, also known as a kinara. You will need seven toilet paper tubes for each child (or your could cut paper towel tubes in half). Have your students tape (with adult assistance) their tubes to a piece of flat cardboard. Paint the middle tube black, then paint the tubes on one side red and the tubes on the other side green. Finally, have your students stuff yellow and orange tissue paper into the tubes with a little bit of glue to look like flames.

For fine motor today you will have your students make a Kwanzaa mat, or mkeka. Give each student a sheet of black construction paper. Have them tear or cut red and green squares of paper and glue them to the construction paper. If your students have the fine motor skills to do so, you could give them black paper with small slits cut into it and have them weave red and green strips of paper into the black paper. Whatever you have your students do, laminate their handiwork once it is finished (and dry, if you use glue) and send it home for them to use as a placemat.

Winter Holidays, Day Seven

Hooray! Today is latke day! I always loved making latkes with my class….probably because I puffy heart love latkes!

I’m going to be really honest with you. I don’t have an authentic latke recipe. I just make them in the way that, um, makes sense to me. If you have a problem with this, or if you have an authentic recipe, then by all means use an authentic recipe. If not…..here’s MY recipe:

Peel and shred some potatoes….maybe 4 or 5 medium potatoes. I use my food processor fitted with the shredder blade to do this. Your students will love to drop the potatoes in the processor, and you can use the Powerlink to let a student control it with a switch. Put the shredded potatoes in a towel and squeeze out the excess water. Work quickly, because if the potatoes sit out too long they will turn grey or pink….yuck!

Now, put the potatoes in a bowl. Crack in a couple of eggs and add a couple of large spoonfuls of flour. Stir it up, then drop spoonfuls of the potato mixture into hot oil (an electric skillet is the best way to do this). This is the only step that your students can’t help you with! Make sure that your latkes are nice and flat so that the potatoes cook all the way through. Once they are “golden-brown and delicious”, drain them on paper towels. Let them cool for a few minutes then serve with sour cream and applesauce.

For fine motor today, give your students a batch of blue baking dough or some blue playdough and help your students roll and shape Star of David sculptures. If you use playdough, put the creations on a piece of waxed paper with their names and let them dry in the window. If you use baking dough, of course, you will want to put them on waxed paper and bake them! The fact that the Star of David is open will make it easy to hang on the tree or make a door hanger.

Winter Holidays, Day Six

This week we will focus on non-Christmas holidays. I would recommend, again, that you base the length of time that you spend focusing on these holidays on the preferences of your children and families. I have never had students that celebrated any holiday other than Christmas during this time of year, so I viewed this time as an opportunity to expose them to something that they are not familiar with, but still spent more time talking about what they were familiar with, Christmas. If you have families that do celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, then spend more time researching and finding activities for your students to do-or better yet, ask for help from your families!

For the first couple of days, we will talk about Hanukkah. For storytime, continue reading If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, but try to find an age-appropriate book about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa that you could either read at morning meeting or in addition to your main storytime book. You could sing “Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel;” the Kwanzaa song that I used to sing with my class went like this (tune: Bingo): There is a holiday I know, and Kwanzaa is its name-oh! Candlelight and food so good, all around my neighborhood. Love and thanks for all that’s good-and Kwanzaa is its name-oh!

Today’s art activity will be a Hanukkah suncatcher. You will need to prep this ahead of time. Cut out a large (the size of a sheet of paper) Star of David and glue it to a piece of waxed paper for each child. Have your students either cut or tear blue and white paper and glue it to their waxed paper. Once the glue has dried, you can either run it through the laminator (my personal favorite) or cover it with another sheet of waxed paper or with Con-tact paper. These really do look great hanging in the window!

For fine motor, have your students cut out a large Star of David themselves and glue bits of blue and white construction paper or other blue and white collage items to it.

Winter Holidays, Week Two-Lesson Plan Form

Winter Holidays, Day Five

Today you will make some strings for your tree! This is, of course, a time during which you will need to know your childcare licensing rules. If licensing allows, make pasta garlands with red and green colored rigatoni or wagon wheel (color it with food coloring and a little rubbing alcohol-just throw it in a zipper bag, shake it up, and spread it on newspaper to dry overnight). Let your students string it on yarn. If you can’t use pasta, try to find some chubby red and green beads, or make beads out of toilet paper or paper towel tubes cut to short lengths (you could let your students paint these). These will look great on your tree!

Your fine motor today is a great way to use old Christmas greeting cards. Cut off the fronts of the cards, laminate them, and punch holes all the way around the edge. If you don’t have any Christmas card fronts, you can buy Christmas-themed note pads from Carson-Dellosa….and remember to save your Christmas cards this year! This is one of the most inexpensive and easy ways to make Christmas-themed lacing cards!

Winter Holidays, Day Four

Today is stocking day. I have tried making felt stockings with my students and having them glue two sides together, but without much success. The glue just soaks into the felt and they fall apart….so I just cut them out of paper now. So….you will need a stocking pattern for each student. I would recommend having each student choose his/her stocking color before you make the patterns so that you are sure that you have enough of each color. If you are feeling adventurous, you can provide two patterns per child and have them glue them together (or if you have very dexterous students…..you can punch small holes and have them “sew” the stocking sides together using embroidery thread….but I have never been that brave!). Anyway…..

Have your students cut their stockings out and decorate. I love the idea of each student having a stocking with his/her name on it, so let each child put their name on the stocking however they can, whether they can actually write their name, if they can trace it with a writing utensil or glittery or colored glue, or whether they need to use paper or foam letters to make their name….what matters is that everyone gets his or her name on a stocking! Other than that, the sky’s the limit! Provide lots of paper in different colors and textures, yarn, buttons, jewels, colored or glitter glue, cloth scraps-WHATEVER. Let everyone decorate their stocking however they want! Once they have dried, you could hang them around your door or make a cute mock fireplace to hang them around.

For fine motor, make baking dough. Use your favorite recipe, or if you don’t have one, you could use this one. Let each child knead and roll out a ball of dough and cut it into a Christmas-y shape with a cookie cutter. Then, of course, you will want to put each child’s creation on a square of waxed paper with his/her name or initials on it and bake it! You will paint them tomorrow.

Since this time of year is one that we so often associate with different types of scents, this is a great time to use things with a nice scent in your sensory table. You could simply put bags of cinnamon potpourri, or you could buy cinnamon-scented pinecones and bury them in red and green shredded paper.

Winter Holidays, Day Three

Okay, we’re out of order this week! We will do our cooking activity today instead of Friday. Can you guess what we’re making? That’s right-gingerbread men!

I make my gingerbread men from a mix, for two reasons: (1) I am not brave enough to make them from scratch with preschoolers; and (2) my classroom budget does not allow for the 500,000 different ingredients necessary to make gingerbread cookies from scratch! If you are brave and rich, go for it! If not, buy the bag and be done with it! Have your students help you mix and roll the cookies, then let each child cut out a cookie (put it on a small square of waxed paper with their name on it). You can have everyone cut out the same shape or let them choose between a gingerbread man or woman….or, doggone-it, let them cut out whatever shape they please! It’s up to you.

Once your cookies have baked, you can let your students decorate them for fine motor. Mix up several colors of icing and put it into piping bags or Ziploc bags, cut the corners, and let them go to town. If you use canned icing, you may want to mix some powdered sugar into it to thicken it a bit, as canned icing can get pretty then when you try to pipe it. Please don’t get bent out of shape if their cookies don’t look perfect-piping is fun and all your kids probably want to do is get as much icing on their cookie as possible! Of course, once they have decorated, it’s time to eat! Have fun!

Winter Holidays, Day Two

Day two=more gingerbread people! Today you will make sandpaper gingerbread people. You will need a large sheet of sandpaper (whatever grit-it doesn’t matter. I usually buy it in multi-packs that contain several different grits) for each child. You will need to trace a pattern of a gingerbread man onto each sheet of sandpaper. I like to trace on the back of the paper to save my markers!

Give each child their gingerbread man and have them cut it out. As always, this is a great opportunity for children who have limited motor skills to operate the scissors using a switch while someone else holds the switch-powered scissors. This is an awesome cutting activity because the sandpaper gives a little more resistance than regular paper, which helps to build hand strength. Try to think about the different ways that you can provide a little resistance in cutting!

Once all the gingerbread people have been cut out, you can do one of three things: (1) have the students decorate their gingerbread person using paint/brushes; (2) have them decorate using buttons, rick rack, pieces of cloth, etc.; (3) fill Ziploc bags with different colors of puff paint (equal parts glue and shaving cream with paint to add color) and have them “pipe” the decorations on their people-just like they would pipe icing on a cookie!

Today, have your students glue their popsicle sticks from yesterday’s fine motor activity into a Christmas tree shape-the three green form a triangle “tree” while the brown is the trunk. Add a laminated yellow paper or craft foam star. Once the glue has dried, tie a piece of red yarn to make a hanger. I always write the year on the star as well. Take a nice holiday picture of your students (I have mine pose in front of the Christmas tree) and cut it to fit your ornaments, and then glue into place.

Winter Holidays, Day One

Winter holidays are sure to be a big hit in your classroom! Be careful that you are sensitive to all belief systems in your classroom. Because the schools at which I have taught are publicly funded, we do not discuss religious beliefs but rather traditions that people observe during the holiday season. The majority of my students celebrate Christmas, but I want to at least expose them to other holidays, such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. I will allow three weeks for this theme.

Your book for this theme is If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff-another of her fantastic circular books. The book does not talk so much about holiday traditions as it uses visuals to show holiday traditions. Of course, there are SO many Christmas songs, so you can choose whatever songs you like and your students know. We always sing “Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel,” and the students love it.

For the first few days, we will be focusing on gingerbread men (women, etc.). Day one, you will be making puffy gingerbread people. Give your students a gingerbread person to cut out (use construction paper, because the puff paint will make copy paper soggy). Have the students cut their gingerbread person out then paint with puff paint, which is one part glue, one part shaving cream, and enough paint to turn it the color you want. DO NOT mix this ahead of time, as the shaving cream will deflate and your paint will not be puffy! Encourage your students to dab rather than spread the paint; it will really dry puffy! Once they have painted their gingerbread people, they can stick on pieces of paper or foam, rick-rack or buttons to make faces, clothing, etc.

For fine motor, give each student 3 craft/popsicle sticks. Have them paint three of the sticks green and one brown. Set these aside to dry-you will use them tomorrow to make a Christmas tree picture frame ornament.

An easy, inexpensive, and fun sensory table activity is to shred several sheets of red and green construction paper (wrapping paper works well, too) and put it in the sensory table along with pine cones, small gift boxes, mini stockings-whatever you like.

Winter Holidays Curriculum, Week One