Snow & Ice

A Snow and Ice theme is a great idea for the cold winter months. Even if you don't live where the weather is cold, kids may be interested to find out what happens in colder climates.

Language & Literacy

Books

Songs, Poems, & Fingerplays:

Five Little Snowflakes

by Kelly Johnson

Five Little Snowflakes falling outside my door,

One landed on the window now there are four.

Four little snowflakes the prettiest I've ever seen,

I caught one on my tongue and now there are three.

Three little snowflakes just a lovely few,

One blew away and now there are two.

Two little snowflakes melting in the sun,

One evaporates, which leaves only one.

One lonely snowflake a sparkly little hero,

Joins a snow drift and now there are zero.

Literacy : Print this fingerplay on chart paper, invite a child to point to the lines as you say them with your group.

Activities

Circle Time: Bring in some snow related items to show the kids during circle time. For example, snow globes, photographs of snowflakes from the internet or nature magazines or books, real snow from outdoors, or paper snowflakes. Ask the children to help you describe snow using all of their senses. 

Literacy : Copy the descriptive words the children use to describe snow on to chart paper and display in the room during the entire unit for use with other activities and journal writing.

Read: 

Literacy : Read a couple of snow poems poems to the children. Ask them to act them out with you. Ask the children: "What would it feel like to be a snowflake." Tell them: Move your body like you are a snowflake falling to the ground.

 

Read:

 

Literacy : After reading the story The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, ask the children to draw a picture of what they might do on a snowy day and have them dictate a story to you about their picture.

Snowflake Count: Hang paper snowflakes around the room and challenge the children to see how many they can find and count. If you are working to count to ten hang ten around the room, etc. 

Literacy : Read the book Millions of Snowflakes as an introduction to this counting activity.

Snowflake Match: Create a snowflake matching game using snowflake stickers, clip art , or use our copy. Program or print the cards for however high you want the game to go. We have provided a game that goes to 10. Cut and laminate the number cards and snowflake cards separately. Have the children use the cards for a memory game or just let them take turns picking a number card and finding the correct snowflake card. *Make the cards even more attractive by backing them with colorful snowflake scrapbook paper.

Snowman Match: I made a snowman number matching game using some cute snowman cards I found in the dollar section at Target! The kids count the correct number of cards and place them in each box which is labeled with a snowball with a number inside it.

Glitter Snowflakes: 

Supplies: Dark colored construction paper, glue in glue bottles, silver or white glitter.

Directions: Ask the children to create a snowflake on the construction paper using the glue. Have pictures of snowflakes for them to look at. Remind them that snowflakes have six points and challenge them to create a six pointed snowflake. After they finish let them sprinkle glitter all over their snowflake and dump the excess off into another container to be used again.

Snow Globes:

In my picture you can see I added stars confetti to this one (I was out of snowflakes), the glitter is hard to see in a photograph.

Supplies: Clear plastic container (Peanut butter jars, water bottles, etc, work great. Plastic peanut butter jars are great because you can hot glue a toy to the lid!) Glitter, snowflake confetti (if you can find it- try a party supple store or Oriental Trader) water, hot glue (adults only). 

Directions: Have the children choose what they wont in their snow globe. Let them dump in the glitter and confetti. * Small funnels can be helpful! Fill them with water and have an adult hot glue the cap on for the child. *If using a larger jar like a plastic peanut butter jar*,  you can also glue small toys to the lid before gluing the cover on.

(*Think about food allergies! Don't use with children who are allergic to peanut butter)

White Splatter Painting:

Supplies: Large cardboard box to paint in, white paint, old tooth brushes.

Directions: Have the children draw or even cut a picture from a magazine of something them like to do in the snow. Have them glue the pictures to a piece of dark construction paper- blue or black work well.  Then have them lay the picture in the bottom of a card board box and splatter paint it with white paint so it looks like it is in a snow storm. *Hint- mix a little water into the paint if it does not splatter well and is too think. 

To splatter paint the children must run their thumb or a finger along the bristles of the tooth brush aiming it at the picture in the box. ***Be careful this is messy! Have the children wear paint-shirts!!!!

Snowflake Sponge Prints:

Supplies: A variety of sponge snowflakes, a variety of light color paints like white, light blue, blue, and maybe silver. A very fine glitter. Blue or black construction paper.

Directions: Set out the paints and sponges for the children to create their own snowfall picture. Encourage them to over lap their snowflakes and to sprinkle glitter on them if they want to add some shimmer!

Colorful Snowflake Coffee Filters:

Supplies: White coffee filters, pipettes, and water that has been colored with food coloring, a plastic or metal tray to catch excess water, scissors.

Directions: Have the children use the pipettes to squirt different colors of water onto the coffee filters. Once they are dry show them how they can fold it and cut it into a snowflake shape for colorful snowflakes!

Paper Snowflakes: Have the kids cut paper snowflakes to decorate the room with. (a great sensory table activity too.)

Dress For Snow: Provide the children with coats, boots, snow pants, and mittens to practice dressing for winter weather. Put a sled in the Library area for children to sit in when they look at books.

Music & Movement

Snowflake Dancing: Have the children move like snowflakes to some classical music, like the Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. Give them long blue or white streamers to swirl around with them as they dance.

Snow Observations: Provide snowflake books with photographs of real snowflakes in the science center so the children can get a close up look at real snowflakes. If possible go outside and catch real snowflakes on a piece of black paper or felt and examine them with magnifying glasses.

Cut a Snowflake: Fill the sensory table with coffee filters and scissors. Let the kids cut as many snowflakes as they want.

Discover Snow: Fill the discovery table with real snow and provide mittens for the kids to use when they play in the snow. Talk about the attributes of the snow. Cold, white, fluffy, wet, etc. 

If you don't have real snow where you live you can get "Instant Snow in a Jar" check it out, it is pretty cool!

Build an Igloo: Cover your bigger cardboard blocks with white freezer paper. Invite the children to build a snow fort or igloo with them in the block area. Add interest by including "Polar" animals to the block and building area.

*You can actually build a class igloo using empty milk jugs! We did this one year and it turned out great! The trick is you must keep the lids on the milk jugs for support.

Pretzel Snowflakes: Give kids a handful of stick pretzels and let them arrange them on a paper plate to create their won one of a kind snowflake.

Snow Covered Grahams: Give each child a graham cracker square and let him/her cover it will a spread of your choice like PNB* or cream cheese. Then have them sprinkle a little shaved cocoa nut* on the top.

*Be allergy alert 

Other Resources

 Snow Preschool Kindergarten -Mailbox Theme Book