More snowy activities in preschool

By Laura Eldredge

Unusual for this time of year in Connecticut ... we haven't seen much snow so far. Oh yes, we had a HUGE snowstorm in October (when no one was prepared for it) ... but so far January has been very light on the white stuff.

But, that hasn't stopped us from planning lots of "snowman" related activities to do inside that encourage learning and exploration! Here are a couple of my favorites, and some books that you can use to accompany them.

Edible snowmen

By far, my FAVORITE activity of the year! So simple to execute ... and fun for the children to see! Here are the steps to make these adorable edible melting snowmen:

1. Take a marshmallow and make a snowman face using food coloring markers (these are very easy for adults AND children to work with - and it's edible).
2. Then, place it on top of one striped cookie (you can substitute other types of cookies, like graham crackers or nilla wafers or any type of cookie that you wish).
3. Place them in the microwave for 10 seconds.
4. Take them out ... and show the children how their snowman MELTED!
   
   

Before doing this activity, you can have a discussion about what happens to real snowmen when the weather gets warm (they melt) and talk about why that happens. After having children make their own marshmallow snowman, ask them what they think will happen to it when you put it in the microwave or oven. If their marshmallow snowmen get hot, what will happen to them? And there you can touch upon the scientific concept of melting (properties of matter) and have them make predictions.

They will really get a kick out of seeing their snowman MELT! Top it off with another cookie, and it tastes like a s'more!

Since the main topic is the melting of the snowman, there are some lovely children's books that go with this theme and can lead to further discussion. A few books I like to use with this activity are: The Smiley Snowman, Where do Snowmen go? or Snowmen at Night.

These stories all provide an imaginative "alternate" theory on why snowmen look droopy after a few days, which is a lot of fun for children to envision and explore. You can encourage the children to try and come up with their own alternate theories as a literacy activity.

We had a few other fun snowy activities these past few weeks, such as ...

Making Snow Dough

Snowpeople (and other creations) were made with our Snow Dough!

Learning about colors with snowmen

We used the idea that Deborah Chitwood talked about in her Montessori-Inspired Snowman Color Activities post and had fun sorting snowmen hats and pony beads beads by color!

Snowman pancakes

This we did one Saturday morning when we did have a little snow fall on the ground. Here was our crack at making some snowman pancakes!

PreK + K sharing SNOWY roundup!

Need more "snowy day" inpiration? We've had several snow posts on the preK + K sharing blog already! Here's a round up!

• Snow Books and Snow PreK + K Games
• Faux Snow Day
• SNOWmen - - SNOW Angels - - SNOW Forts
• Celebrating SNOW!!!
• Footprints in the Snow: A Movement Exploration
• Let It Snow (Our Own Way)
• Let's fly SNOWFLAKES!

Laura Eldredge is a teacher and curriculum coordinator at a NAEYC accredited early childhood program in Connecticut. She also co-founded the website The SEEDS Network, as a way to provide early childhood professionals with ideas and resources that support them in their quest to provide quality care and education to our youngest learners. She blogs at www.theseedsblog.com.