My preschoolers and I have been exploring snowflakes recently. Now that colder weather has finally hit our area, the kiddos are wondering when it’s going to snow. So it’s a high interest topic! With that knowledge, I set up an incredibly simple snowflake craft for the preschoolers. It turned out to be a major success, and what a fun way to incorporate math!
Are you following my Winter Activities for Kids Pinterest board?
To ease back into our preschool routine, I wanted to keep things very simple in the classroom. Based on their interest and questions during our “build a snowflake” activity, I decided to go in the direction of snowflakes. Some of the kiddos were fascinated by the symmetry of snowflakes, while others just loved the idea of snow!
colorful snowflake craft that explores science and math
I have a huge stash of white card stock cut into strips (about 11 x 1.5 inches), thanks to a donation from the church where our preschool is housed. I tend to use them as mini sentence strips, but I thought they’d work out well for a snowflake craft too! I glued three of the white strips into a semblance of a snowflake shape, making a set for the kids. I also set out a stack of the strips so the kids could make their own.
Along with the card stock, I set out dot markers and a variety of foam stickers. This group of children absolutely adores the dot markers, so they make an appearance in many art and craft activities each week!
We’d talked about how snowflakes are symmetrical, and that each of a snowflake’s six strands following the same pattern. Yes, this is an oversimplified explanation, but it’s one the children understand. They helped come up with this description when we observed photos of snowflakes. Based on this discussion, many of the kiddos tried to inject some symmetry and patterns into their snowflakes. It was incredibly interesting to observe how they did this, as well as which kids chose not to.
Based on the amount of snowflakes we have in the classroom, this snowflake craft was a hit! They’re decorating our classroom doors, and we have them hung up by the art and home centers. I had planned on keeping this simple invitation out for a few days, but children have pulled it out every day for over a week now! Would your children enjoy making snowflakes like this?
Preschool Snow Lesson Plans
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 learning activities related to the theme.
This set includes active hands-on learning ideas, book suggestions, and the following printables:
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- Snowflake Roll and Color Graphing
- 2 Sets of Snowflake Number Cards for 0-35
- Snowflake Beginning Sounds Activity for Sounds /s/, /t/, and /m/
- Snowflake Upper- and Lowercase Letter Matching Puzzles
- Snowflake Patterning and Sorting Cards
- Count the Snowflakes Emergent Math Reader for Numbers 1 to 5
- Count the Snowflakes Emergent Math Reader for Numbers 1 to 10
Get your snowflake lesson plans at Preschool Teacher 101 or Teachers Pay Teachers
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