Snowflakes

Here are several snowflake activities we have tried and enjoyed in our home for our winter theme.

Snowflake making:

I found this activity here and printed out the cards and instructions.  I gave my boys a sheet of blue felt for the sky and cut out the snowflake shapes from white felt.  I used an ice cube tray to sort the shapes (which my husband thought was very clever- ice cubes, snowflakes...).  If you have not been to www.makinglearningfun.com, they have some wonderful printable activities.

My boys enjoyed picking a card and copying the pattern to make the snowflake.  The most interesting thing about this activity was that Mr. Two (who is two) liked this more than Mr. One (who is four).  Although he found the patterns very difficult and needed lots of help from me, he loved naming the shapes we used as we made the snowflake.  I made it into kind of a game for him.  After putting the snowflake together, I had him name the shapes, then I would say, "Hand me a (hexagon or circle, etc.)" and he would give me the correct shape. 

Snowflake stamping:

I found some great snowflake stamps at Oriental Trading, so I let Mr. One stamp patterns in the pattern box strips I copied.

I had Mr. Two practice stamping in the boxes, but we didn't worry about a pattern.  This was good hand-eye coordination and fine motor practice for him.

Snowflake count:

We used some calendar numbers I had in my teaching supplies, then counted out the same number of foam snowflakes to match the number.  Because the calendar pieces are double sided (snowflake on one side, snowman on the other) we could also pattern with our numbers or just put them in order.

Snowflake Matching:

Mr. One and Mr. Two enjoyed this activity.  I pulled out another ice cube tray and put a different snowflake in each well on the top row of the tray.  I then had them find a matching snowflake and place it in the empty well below my snowflake.  It was so fun to see them really study the flakes to find an exact match.

* If anyone reading out there has ideas on some good snowflake books, I'd love to hear about them. I only have one story about a snowflake and it's quite cheesy.  If you'd like to see some of our favorite winter stories, go here.