Snowman Theme Day

Snowy Snowmen

If you live in a cold and wintery place that’s full of snow these mostly indoor activities inspired by the happy snowman are sure to warm your family’s heart! However, even if you live somewhere that doesn't get any snow, you can still bring a little frosty fun to your home with this Theme Day.

Print out the Family Theme Day Planner and decide which activities you’d like to do and in what order.

To view the newly updated SNOWMAN THEME DAY on www.familythemedays.com click here!

SONGS:

Sing out loud together “Frosty the Snowman” and check out http://www.christmas-songs.net/christmas-songs/frosty-the-snowman.aspx for the words (and a little history of the song). Sort through your Christmas music or download one of the many recordings of “Frosty” (we like Harry Connick, Jr.) and dance around the living room.

NOTE: For an additional idea, encourage your kids to draw a picture that illustrates what happens in the song. Paste the picture and the lyrics in your Family Theme Day Scrapbook.

SCRAPBOOK ACTIVITIES:

COLOURING PAGES:

You can find many free coloring pages online by using your favourite search engine and typing in “Snowman Color Page” or print out my “Hello Mr. Snowman Coloring Page” or my old “Snowman Coloring Page.”

JOURNALING QUESTION PROMPT:

Write out one or more of the following questions in your Family Theme Day Scrapbook or on a piece of paper to glue in your scrapbook: If you could build a snowman what materials would you need? What would you name the perfect snowman? What else can you build out of snow besides a snowman? Can you write a poem about a snowman?

Choose the level of your child:

¨ Toddler – discuss the answer(s) out loud first and have your child draw a picture of the answer

¨ Preschooler/Kindergartener – discuss the answer(s) out loud first and write the answer down for him/her leaving one word for him/her to write out himself/herself with your help. You could also encourage him/her to draw a picture as well.

¨ Early Grade School – have your child either write out the answer himself/herself (encourage phonetic spelling) without your help, or offer to help with spelling each word out loud one word at a time.

¨ Grade School – have your child write a sentence or two on his/her own and then read over and discuss the response. (You decide whether to correct the spelling or not)

¨ Older Child – have your child write a longer response (paragraph).

¨ As A Challenge – instead of a question ask your older child to write a story or a poem a snowman.

PUZZLES:

Print out a Snowman Word Search: Easy Snowman Word Search or Moderate Snowman Word Search.

Check here for the answer keys: Easy Snowman Word Search Key or Moderate Snowman Word Search Key.

BOOKS:

Raid your child’s bookshelves to find any books with snowmen in them.

Go to the library with your child to find some books about snowmen.

Go to the library on your own to find books about snowmen to have already on hand for your theme day. Many libraries allow you to go online and search for titles based on subject (Search for “Snowman” under “Children’s Books”). Reserve them if you can to save time.

Here are some picture books:

· All You Need for a Snowman, by Alice Schertle and illustrated by Barbara Lavallee, Silver Whistle Harcourt, Inc., 2002—I love the watercolour illustrations in this book that shows children building a snowman.

· The First Day of Winter, by Denise Fleming, Henry Holt and Company, 2005 – Using the same pattern as the “First Day of Christmas” song, this one adds items to a snowman bit by bit!

· The Greatest Snowman in the World, written and illustrated by Peter Hannan, Harper, 2010—Charles Chinchilla wants to make the greatest snowman in the world and his creative ideas just might make that happen.

· Martin MacGregor’s Snowman, by Lisa Broadie Cook and illustrated by Adam McCauley, Walker and Company, 2003—Martin really really wants to build a snowman but it never seems to read so he has to use his imagination and makes many different types of snowmen instead.

· A Perfect Snowman, written and illustrated by Preston McDaniels, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2007—This is such a touching tale about learning humility and compassion, as a haughty “Perfect Snowman” slowly lets love warm his heart.

· A Really Good Snowman, by Daniel J. Mahoney, Clarion Books, 2005—This is a sweet story about big bother Jack and how he learns to appreciate his little sister, Nancy.

· Sadie and the Snowman, by Allen Morgan and illustrated by Brenda Clark, Kids Can Press, 1985—Sadie continually builds a snowman but animals keep eating the pieces of its face and the sun keeps melting it, but she doesn’t give up and has a plan to save her snowman.

· Sam the Snowman, by Susan Winget, Harper Collins Publishers, 2008—In this sweet book, Sam must learn about giving in order to make snow.

· Sneezy the Snowman, by Maureen Wright and illustrated by Stephen Gilpin, Marshall Cavendish Children, 2010—Cute illustrations and story about a snowman who hates being chilly.

· The Snowman , by Raymond Briggs, Puffin,1992—This book has pictures from the animated film The Snowman. I love the magical feel of the illustrations and the story of a boy and his snowman one Christmas night.

· Snowman Magic, by Katherine Tegen and illustrated by Brandon Dorman, Harper, 2012—Geroge builds a snowman one snowy boring day and discovers a new playmate.

· Snowzilla, by Janet Lawler and illustrated by Amanda Haley, Amazon Children’s Publishing, 2012—A little girl builds a gigantic snowman named Snowzilla, can she figure out a way to save it from the town who thinks it is too big?

CRAFTS:

SNOWMAN STICKER COLLAGE OR SCENE:

Materials: Coloured paper, assorted snowman stickers, (optional) crayons or markers.

Step 1: Give your child a coloured sheet of paper and some snowman stickers. Have your child either create a collage of the stickers or a scene using the stickers.

Step 2: Encourage your child to add embellishments to the collage or scene by using crayons or markers.

SNOWMAN PAPER COLLAGE:

Materials: Coloured paper, black paper, white paper, pencil, various sized cups or lids to trace circles, child safe scissors, glue stick, damp cloth for sticky fingers, markers.

Step 1: Have your child pick a colour for the background (you could also fold the paper to create a card and make this craft as the cover of a beautiful homemade Christmas Card or a Thank you for the Gift card!!).

Step 2: Have your child trace around various lids or cups or bowls to create the ‘snowballs’ for the craft.

Step 3: Have your child glue the balls together to form a snowman! Three ‘snowballs’ make a traditional looking snowman but 2 work as well and your child may want to use more to create a giant snowman. Let imaginations soar!

Step 4: Next work with your child to draw and cut out various accessories for the snowman. My boys wanted top hats, carrot noses, stick arms and mittens or gloves. My youngest cut out buttons and my eldest added a pipe and a shovel.

Step 5: Glue the accessories onto the snowman.

Step 6: Your child may now want to add details using markers like eyes, a mouth or buttons.

Step 7: Display or give away as a snowy gift or card.

SNOWMAN STICK PUPPETS:

Materials: White craft foam (or stiff white construction paper), black craft foam (or stiff black construction paper), washable white craft glue, popsicle sticks or drinking straws, orange pipe cleaner, other pipe cleaners, markers, damp facecloth for sticky fingers

Step 1: Trace various bottle/container caps onto the white foam or paper and cut out circles in three different sizes.

Step 2: Cut out the black foam/paper in the shape of a top hat.

Step 3: Have your child draw eyes on the smallest circle and buttons on the two larger circles.

Step 4: Have your child glue the circles together on top of the popsicle stick to make a snowman shape (or tape them to a drinking straw).

Step 5: Have your child glue the hat on the snowman’s head.

Step 6: Snip a small amount of orange pipe cleaner as a carrot nose and have your child glue it on his/her snowman’s face.

Step 7: Have your child pick another coloured pipe cleaner to be twisted around the snowman as a scarf once it is dry.

OPTIONAL: When the puppets are dry have your child/children make up a story for a simple puppet show.

COTTON BALL SNOWMAN CRAFT:

Materials: Coloured paper (we used black), cotton balls, googly craft eyes, ribbon, beads, orange pipe cleaner, white glue, a paper bowl or waxed paper to put the glue on, damp cloth for sticky fingers (This is a messy craft).

Step 1: Have your child create a snowman on the paper by dipping the cotton balls in the white glue and arranging on the paper.

Step 2: Cut out a small piece of orange pipe cleaner to use as a carrot nose and have your child glue the nose and googly eyes to the snowman’s head.

Step 3: Next have your child decorate the snowman using ribbon for a scarf (I tied the small pieces of ribbon in a little note to give it more of a scarf feel) and beads for buttons. Let your child’s creativity take over. He/she could add more cotton balls for snow on the ground, or use twigs or pipe cleaners for arms.

DRIED GLUE SNOWMAN:

Materials: Waxed paper, permanent marker (like a Sharpie), white glue (a new bottle works well since they are easier to squeeze), various beads, orange pipe cleaner, string.

Step 1: Have your child draw the basic shape of a snowman onto the waxed paper. You may have to help little ones.

Step 2: Now have your child squeeze white glue from a bottle onto the waxed paper keeping the glue inside the drawn lines of the snowman shape.

Step 3: Now your child can add details like bead eyes, bead buttons, a bead mouth, and a small cut piece of orange pipe cleaner as a carrot nose.

Step 4: Carefully lay a piece of string arranged in a loop in the glue so that when the glue dries the string is attached to the glue and that it forms a hook to hand the ornament on your Christmas Tree or to attach to presents.

Step 5: The hardest part of this craft is waiting for the glue to dry...depending on how much glue your child used it could take a few days!

PUFFY PAINT SNOWMEN:

Materials: White glue, shaving cream, paint brushes, colored paper, child safe scissors, ribbon (Optional), damp cloth for sticky fingers.

Step 1: Combine equal parts white glue & shaving cream on a paper plate.

Step 2: Give your kids paintbrushes and have them use the shaving cream paint to create a picture of a puffy snowman!

Step 3: Work with your child to cut out accessories. We cut out hats, buttons, eyes and dots for the mouth with black paper. We used brown paper for the arms. We used ribbon for the scarves.

Step 4: Have your child place the accessories into the puffy paint to decorate the snowman.

Step 5: Let it dry and then display!

SNOWMAN MAGNETS:

Materials: Jar lid , white pom poms in various sizes) , craft googly eyes, white glue, beads, orange pipecleaner, glitter (Optional but highly recommended), wax paper, damp cloth for sticky fingers, sticky back magnets (we just recycled one of those advertisement magnets you sometimes get in the mail...we cut it into pieces and used white glue to stick it on to the jar lid).

Step 1: Turn the jar lid over so the inside is facing up and fill it with white glue.

Step 2: If you are using glitter then have your child choose the colour and sprinkle it onto the white glue.

Step 3: If you used glitter you will need to add a bit more white glue in the location where the pom poms will sit. Have your child glue the pom poms to create a snowman.

Step 4: Put some white glue on a piece of wax paper and let your child dip the beads, googly eyes and small pipe cleaner nose into the glue to place on the snowman.

Step 5: You can either let the snowman dry first and then add a sticky backed piece of magnet or do as we did and glue a piece of recycled magnet to the back. Let the craft lay on waxed paper to dry.

Step 6: The drying takes the longest but afterwards you have a cute fridge magnet!

OTHER:

There really are a lot of fun snowman crafts that I wanted to include but I limited them to the easiest ones for the website. For another craft, a more complicated one, we made POM juice bottle snowmen lanterns. They are so pretty that I will include the link to where we found the instructions here: http://spoonful.com/crafts/bottle-able-snowmen and I’ll post a photo on our More Crafts and Activities Facebook Page.

FOOD:

BREAKFAST:

Snowman pancakes:

I originally found this idea on Pinterest but the link doesn’t work so I cannot give proper credit where it is due. Sorry. To make our snowman pancakes I used an old family recipe to make small pancake circles and lay them on my kids plates plate like a snowman. I used a piece of cooked bacon for a scarf but your oculd always use something healthier like some fruit. I used chocolate chips for buttons, blueberries ro eyes, raisins for the mouth and a piece of dried papaya for the nose. It is hard to find fresh berries around here in the winter. For a picture of our snowmen go to our Facebook page and check out our More Goodies Album.

SNACK:

Hot Cocoa and a Marshmallow Snowman:

There are so many different Cocoa recipes online or on Pinterest so make your favourite for this Theme Day. We then created Marshmallow Snowmen using both mini and regular snowmen, toothpicks and some gel food colouring (in the little jars). We dipped toothpicks in the food colouring to draw on the marshmallows. I know there are edible markers out there, too, so you could always use those.

Yogurt Snowman Face:

NOTE: This snack was originally on my Winter Theme Day but when I updated that I removed it and decided to give the friendly Snowman his own Theme Day!

Ingredients: Vanilla yogurt, blueberries or raspberries or slices of bananas small peeled carrots, raisins, or any other combination of fruit or vegetables you know your child will eat (or chocolate chips for a less healthy option).

Step 1: Help your child scoop vanilla yogurt onto a plate or bowl and form into a flat circle shape.

Step 2: Give your child two blueberries (or raspberries or bananas etc.) to use as eyes on the yogurt face.

Step 3: Give your child a small carrot to use as a nose.

Step 4: Give your child raisins to form a smile for the yogurt snowman face.

LUNCH:

Snowman Face Sandwich:

You can make these both savory or sweet like we did. First I used a large circle cookie cutter to cut bread circles. Then I used a tiny circle cutter to make a hole in the top slice of bread to stick the carrot nose in. For the sweet snowman I spread peanut butter and then decorated with the carrot nose, dried cherry eyes, and raisin mouth. For the savory snowman I spread cream cheese inside then used sliced olives for the mouth, a carrot nose, small cucumber slices for the eyes and used the same small cutter to make cheddar cheese pupils for the eyes. You can serve your sandwiches with a steaming bowl of soup to keep your family warm!

DESSERT:

Snowman Cones:

Ice cream on a wintery day? Why not! Scoop the ice cream into your cone. I couldn’t find flat bottom cones so I had to use pointed cones and I kept them propped up in a glass. Use chocolate chips for eyes and a trimmed piece of gummy bear or gum drop or dried papaya for the nose! Easy peasy!

Melted Snowman Cookies:

These were just too darn cute not to try to make...http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.ca/2010/12/christmas-traditions-melted-snowman.html

If you want to see a picture of our attempt at these cookies look on our Facebook Album More Goodies!

LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

SOLID TO LIQUID:

If you live in a snowy location go outside with your child and build a small snowman (to fit on a dinner plate) and then bring it inside. Place the snowman on the dinner plate and the plate in a baking tray (to catch the melting water). Have each family member make a prediction as to how long it will take for the snowman to melt and write the predictions on this printable worksheet: Solid to Liquid Experiment. Use this experiment to talk about how snow is actually made up of water crystals and when they freeze they turn into snowflakes.

NOTE: If you do not live in a snowy climate you can do this experiment using ice cubes.

MAKING FROST:

In honour of Frosty the Snowman you can make some frost as a science experiment. Frost can be made with an empty can, crushed ice, and salt. First, fill an empty can (we used a small soup can) about 2/3 full with the crushed ice (we used ice cubes and that still worked). Spread about a teaspoon full of water on a piece of wax paper. Place the can on top of the water. Next, fill the remainder of the can with salt and mix with the ice. Now wait a bit...about 3 or 4 minutes and you will start to see some results! Frost will start to appear on the outside of the can. Why does this work? Cold surfaces make water vapour freeze. Why the salt? Salt lowers the melting point of ice and that makes the outside of the can below freezing.

FOR FUN:

JOKES:

Q: Where do snowmen keep their money?

A: In the snow bank.

Q: Why did the snowman name his dog Frost?

A: Because Frost bites!

EXTENDED ACTIVITIES:

AUDIO VISUAL:

Search through your child’s DVD/ video collection (or visit your local library before hand) to find your child’s favourite shows with a friendly snowman in them.

· The old classic cartoon of Frosty the Snowman would be perfect for this Theme Day!

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES:

Do you live in a snowy place? Then go outside and build a snowman of course! What fun accessories can you use...crazy hats, different veggies, rocks….

FIELD TRIP:

Some cities host special ice carving or snow carving/building events in the winter. See what is available in your community.