Snowmans

Yesterday afternoon we started the winter crafts. Ezra's been begging to do "projects", so I pulled out some ideas from my old classroom. These cotton ball snowmen are fun to make and take minimal materials. The first step is not pictured. On black construction paper trace three graduated circles one on top of each other with white crayon. Next, fill in the circles with glue. It's fun to spread the glue all around with your fingers, like so:

(yes, she ate some)

Next, break up cotton balls and fluff with your fingers. Press the cotton fluff onto the glue in all three circles. My kids hate the feel of cotton as much as I do as evidenced below. We all had a good case of the goosebumps after this step.

The fourth step uses paint in this version of the project. We used tempura paint to add eyes, nose, mouth and arms to the snowman. In an alternate version, you can skip putting cotton on the top circle of the snowman and simply use crayon, marker or pencils to add his face and arms. You can also cut out facial features and body parts from construction paper like we did in my classroom. We love pain in our house and use any excuse to get it out.

Those are eyes all over the snowman in the above picture. Daddy thought the snowman was bleeding.

The final step is to take white crayon and color in snow on the ground and falling from the sky. You can use either white or yellow to add stars and/or clouds to the sky. Both colors show up well on the black paper.

The finished products drying and waiting to be hung on the refrigerator--where all projects should go!

P.S. I know, I know, Ezra rarely has pants on in this blog. He DOES own pants and he does wear them. However, he wears them at times when I don't have the camera out--like in the morning right after he gets dressed and when we go out in public : )